GCAT 2010 conference participants posed for a photo. (Bill Giduz photo)
DavidsonNews.net
Davidson College is bustling this week with educators in the fields of biology, chemistry, computer science and mathematics who are attending GCAT 2010, a first-ever workshop on the emerging field of synthetic biology. Together the faculty are learning to combine their interdisciplinary expertise and to use biological tools to solve real world problems.
The 30 visiting faculty are from 15 college or universities nationwide and some have traveled from as far as Hawaii. The workshop is being led by Davidson professors Malcolm Campbell (biology) and Laurie Heyer (mathematics) and their friends from Missouri Western State University, Todd Eckdahl (biology) and Jeff Poet (Mathematics).
For three days ending today (Saturday), the scientists are practicing techniques of DNA engineering, learning how to assemble parts of DNA together in the sequence of their choice. The DNA can then be inserted into bacteria cells, which read the DNA sequence like a set of instructions. By reading these DNA instructions, the cells know to perform a task.
For example, imagine you want to direct the bacteria to simulate a lava lamp. In order to behave like the solution in a lamp, bacteria would have to glow and float when in the dark. Researchers would need to piece together separate “DNA parts” that would direct the bacteria to do this.
One part might fluoresce, while another gives the bacteria buoyancy and yet another shuts off the previous two functions when the cells are exposed to light. These three parts would need to be assembled correctly to make a DNA sequence that cells could read and respond to.
This sort of DNA manipulation is part of the growing field of synthetic biology, and it’s what educators have come to the GCAT workshop to learn.
Of course there are more practical applications for these skills than building bacterial lava lamps. Some researchers have gotten bacteria to generate electricity; others hope to use the cells as a cheap means of pharmaceutical production.
Participants visiting Davidson College are exploring techniques that they can take to their home institutions to encourage and support undergraduate students who wish to engage in synthetic biology research.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
More information about the workshop is at the GCAT 2010 web page, http://gcat2010.wordpress.com/
Short updates about this event also are appearing on the education blog sponsored by the journal Nature. Those can be found at http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/insideed/guest_post_gcat_2010
2010 GCAT Synthetic Biology Workshop outcomes page, http://www.bio.davidson.edu/
