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Research

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology.

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Pothoulakis:2018:10.1038/s42003-017-0008-0,
author = {Pothoulakis, G and Ellis, T},
doi = {10.1038/s42003-017-0008-0},
journal = {Communications Biology},
title = {Synthetic gene regulation for independent external induction of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae pseudohyphal growth phenotype},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-017-0008-0},
volume = {1},
year = {2018}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Pseudohyphal growth is a multicellular phenotype naturally performed by wild budding yeast cells in response to stress. Unicellular yeast cells undergo gross changes in their gene regulation and elongate to form branched filament structures consisting of connected cells. Here, we construct synthetic gene regulation systems to enable external induction of pseudohyphal growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By controlling the expression of the natural PHD1 and FLO8 genes we are able to trigger pseudohyphal growth in both diploid and haploid yeast, even in different types of rich media. Using this system, we also investigate how members of the BUD gene family control filamentation in haploid cells. Finally, we employ a synthetic genetic timer network to control pseudohyphal growth and further explore the reversibility of differentiation. Our work demonstrates that synthetic regulation can exert control over a complex multigene phenotype and offers opportunities for rationally modifying the resulting multicellular structure.
AU  - Pothoulakis,G
AU  - Ellis,T
DO  - 10.1038/s42003-017-0008-0
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 2399-3642
TI  - Synthetic gene regulation for independent external induction of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae pseudohyphal growth phenotype
T2  - Communications Biology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-017-0008-0
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/54484
VL  - 1
ER  -

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