Learning outcomes
The aim of the lab is to guide the students through the entire creative cycle required for the design of synthetic biological systems with novel functions. The participants will go through all stages of the design-build-test process followed by analysis and interpretation of the outcome. The analysis stage provides new ideas for improving the performance of the designed cells, or even further, ideas for novel approaches and functions. In this way, the course can potentially evolve into continuously developing engineering projects, where the prototypes will be improved and further developed in each year.
Brief description of content
The course is divided into 4-5 subprojects. Every project will start with the in silico design of the genetic/protein circuits to be built with the aim to gain the desired biological function. This stage will be held separately, few weeks before the laboratory stage in order to order the synthetic DNA and other missing reagents. Each student will participate in at least two different projects. The list of the projects is subject to changes in each year depending on the progress and emerging new ideas.
