6th International Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School – SSBSS 2019, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy – July 22-26, 2019
A kind reminder for delegates who do not stay at the Certosa di Pontignano
How to get to Certosa di Pontignano (from Siena city center)
Renting a Bike in Siena
Useful Info: Program, Poster & Oral Sessions, Transfer, Travel, Lifestyle & WiFi
Beware of phishing emails!
Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice awards for World’s Best Experiences: Cooking Class at a Tuscan farmhouse
SSBSS 2018 Program
Accommodation near the School Venue
May 15: News from Philipp Holliger, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK and SSBSS 2018 Lecturer
Scientists crack how primordial life on Earth might have replicated itself
A new synthetic molecule may solve a paradox about life’s origin
Life probably began with a molecule, or set of molecules, that could make copies of themselves. Now we have taken a big step towards creating such molecules ourselves.
Over the last four decades, biologists have made lots of progress towards creating self-replicating molecules in the lab. However, their efforts have been thwarted by an apparent paradox.
Now Philipp Holliger and his colleagues at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK say they have found the answer.
Dr Holliger added: “This is completely new synthetic biology and there are many aspects of the system that we have not yet explored. We hope in future, it will also have some biotechnology applications, such as adding chemical modifications at specific positions to RNA polymers to study RNA epigenetics or augment the function of RNA.”
March 27: Pamela Silver Lectures
Lecture 1: Designing Biology for Health
Here, I will present background on health-related problems that can be addressed by synthetic and systems biology. I will present a personal case study on development of a cancer therapeutic from basic research to clinical and commercial success. I will then discuss the status of protein engineering for biologics. I will then cover how to design cells as diagnostics and therapeutics. Issues around stability and safety will be addressed.
Lecture 2: Designing Biology for Sustainability
One major thrust for synthetic biologists is to harness the ability natural chemical processes to create a more sustainable industry for chemicals, consumables, materials and energy. I will cover new strategies used to engineer cells to produce all of these things. Second, I will cover work on engineering cells to interface with inorganics and electronics. In particular, I will discuss the success of the Bionic Leaf whereby sunlight can be harvested and used by bacteria to produce chemicals and materials on demand.
December 1st, 2017: 24 Speakers, 4 Tutors for 100 Attendants! Hurry up and Register!
September 26th, 2017: Summer School Preparation:
Recommended books:
1. Daniel G. Gibson, Clyde A. Hutchison III, Hamilton O. Smith, J. Craig Venter (Editors),
“Synthetic Biology: Tools for Engineering Biological Systems“, A Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology Collection, 2017.
2. Christina Smolke (Editor), “Synthetic Biology: Parts, Devices and Applications (Advanced Biotechnology)”, Sang Yup Lee, Jens Nielsen and Gregory Stephanopoulos (Series Editors), Wiley-Blackwell; 1st Edition, May 14, 2018.
3. Bernhard Ø. Palsson, “Systems Biology: Constraint-based Reconstruction and Analysis“, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
4. Edda Klipp, Wolfram Liebermeister, Christoph Wierling, Axel Kowald, “Systems Biology: A Textbook“, Wiley VCH; 2nd Edition edition, 2016.
Dissemination Book:
George Church and Ed Regis, “Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves“, Basic Books, 2014.