Marchantia - a primitive plant form used as the 'chassis' for designing new plants

From foundry to factory: building synthetic plants

20 June 2014

A movement is under way that will fast-forward the design of new plant traits. It takes inspiration from engineering and the software industry, and is being underpinned in Cambridge and Norwich by an initiative called OpenPlant.

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OpenPlant - major boost for synthetic biology

30 January 2014

Inspired by the way open source data has stimulated innovation in computing, a new UK centre will create a climate of openness in synthetic biology, helping young researchers and entrepreneurs develop and share new tools and libraries of plant DNA.

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The DNA nanopore (in blue) is a tube formed of folded strands of DNA. The porphyrin anchors, in red, anchor it securely between the two layers of the cell membrane (in grey), which is shown in cross-section.

Designer piercings

07 November 2013

A new method which streamlines the design and construction of synthetic membrane pores could improve a range of scientific processes, including speeding up the development of new drugs, and enabling more efficient disease diagnosis through DNA sequence detection.

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plant image

Synthetic biology takes root

01 September 2008

Creating circuits from multiple components is routine in engineering. Can living systems be constructed using similar principles?

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