- Biotech and synbiology ×
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Bringing together different communities to answer common questions
November 13, 2019
On 31 July–2 August 2019, researchers from all over the world gathered in Newcastle for Designer Biology 2019 - the biannual conference of the Synthetic Biology community. As Microbiology Society Champions at the host institution for the event, Newcastle University, we were delighted to be part of the organising committee.
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Bioeconomy: Moving Towards a Sustainable Future
July 11, 2019
In recent years, the bioeconomy has gained increasing prominence as a tool which presents solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Bioeconomy, the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into valuable products, holds particular promises for achieving several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 6 on energy, SDG 8 on economic growth, SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production, SDG 13 on climate change, SDG 14 on oceans, and SDG 15 on life on land.
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Making microbiological research affordable and open-source
October 15, 2018
Improving access to research and data is a topic many of our members are passionate about. Humane Technologies is a company set up by some microbiologists from the University of Warwick. Humane Technologies have developed an affordable photometer that allows continuous monitoring of microbial growth, called MicrobeMeter. Below, they explain what inspired them to make this equipment freely available and why you shouldn't need huge amounts of funding to make important scientific discoveries.
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Special section: Synthetic Biology
July 9, 2013
This month, the Society for General Microbiology’s journal Microbiology contains a special section dedicated to synthetic biology – a field that applies engineering principals, such as mathematical modelling or modularisation, to biological research. Although in its infancy, synthetic biology offers researchers the opportunity to understand how biological systems work by piecing them together from their constituent parts, and may allow scientists to design organisms that perform a bespoke function. Some early examples of these organisms already exist, with a team developing a strain of B. subtilis that can cheaply and safely detect arsenic in drinking water, a common contaminant of wells in South Asia.
