The new synthetic biology centre at Imperial College London will focus on ethics as well as science.ICLA synthetic-biology centre opening today at Imperial College London is hoping to pre-empt public concerns about the field by integrating social scientists into its research team.

In Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley, Calif., works in his attic to cultivate viruses extracted from sewage.....

An ASU initiative to leverage key university research strengths against complex global challenges is expanding its scope and leadership to more tightly integrate the natural sciences and technology with social sciences and the humanities…..

Science blog (Clive Cookson): Synthetic biology is one of those futuristic concepts, like nanotechnology and regenerative medicine, that everyone feels is going to be a key technology for the 21st century, but few really understand. All are a bit fuzzy in their definition - and practitioners are not clear about how much such concepts are already happening and how much they lie in the future….

Imagine a future free of the threat of flu pandemics. Or of devices permanently inside our bodies hunting out the first signs of cancer and fighting it. How about an efficient way of making biodiesel tackling the oil shortage and ending the problem of food land being taken up?...

First constructs of H1N1 strain (swine flu) were delivered on Friday, May 1, 2009 to one of the top 10 pharma companies. GENEART emergency scenario enables production in 3-5 calendar days. Gene synthesis offers fastest and safest access to vaccines without need for highly pathogenic patient isolates…..

This week saw the US Department of Energy (DoE) announce $777 million in funding for 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers while also releasing its first call for proposals from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Nature looks at the implications of the ongoing effort to expand federal energy and climate research…

Applications are invited for National "Energy Bioscience Chairs" AND "Energy Bioscience Overseas Fellowships" for Indian Scientists desirous of working at the forefront of Energy Biosciences in Indian Institutes of repute.....

Ever wanted to play with your own genome? When you read about the latest genetic engineering tools do your fingers itch with anticipation? Do you look around the library, the pub, or the community center searching for your fellow biohackers?...

Streamlining the construction of synthetic gene networks has led a team of Boston University researchers to develop a technique that couples libraries of diversified components with computer modeling to guide predictable gene network construction without the back and forth tweaking…

Two major genomics research projects representing $22 million will be housed at the laboratories of the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics of Concordia. ….

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have developed a strategy for generating “plug-and-play” components for synthetic genetic networks that may someday nudge algae to create biofuels, help microbes make new materials, or even lend greater precision to beer brewing…

Synthetic biology rests on the hope that biological "parts" like DNA and proteins can be engineered and assembled just like a machine or computer circuit, but the field still has some way to go before this is the case. As much as biologists know about the structure and function of biological molecules, their behavior when interacting with one another is still unpredictable…..