Wednesday, November 09, 2011

further accelerating synthetic biology...,


Video - Professor Longhair elucidates beaning...,

Nottingham UK | Scientists at The University of Nottingham are leading an ambitious research project to develop an in vivo biological cell-equivalent of a computer operating system.

The success of the project to create a ‘re-programmable cell’ could revolutionise synthetic biology and would pave the way for scientists to create completely new and useful forms of life using a relatively hassle-free approach.

Professor Natalio Krasnogor of the University’s School of Computer Science, who leads the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Systems Research Group, said: “We are looking at creating a cell’s equivalent to a computer operating system in such a way that a given group of cells could be seamlessly re-programmed to perform any function without needing to modifying its hardware.”

“We are talking about a highly ambitious goal leading to a fundamental breakthrough that will, —ultimately, allow us to rapidly prototype, implement and deploy living entities that are completely new and do not appear in nature, adapting them so they perform new useful functions.”

The game-changing technology could substantially accelerate Synthetic Biology research and development, which has been linked to myriad applications — from the creation of new sources of food and environmental solutions to a host of new medical breakthroughs such as drugs tailored to individual patients and the growth of new organs for transplant patients.

The multi-disciplinary project, funded with a leadership fellowship for Professor Krasnogor worth more than £1 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), involves computer scientists, biologists and chemists from Nottingham as well as academic colleagues at other universities in Scotland, the US, Spain and Israel.

The project — Towards a Biological Cell Operating System (AUdACiOuS) — is attempting to go beyond systems biology — the science behind understanding how living organisms work — to give scientists the power to create biological systems. The scientists will start the work by attempting to make e.coli bacteria much more easy to program.

Professor Krasnogor added: “This EPSRC Leadership Fellowship will allow me to transfer my expertise in Computer Science and informatics into the wet lab.

“Currently, each time we need a cell that will perform a certain new function we have to recreate it from scratch which is a long and laborious process. Most people think all we have to do to modify behaviour is to modify a cell’s DNA but it’s not as simple as that — we usually find we get the wrong behaviour and then we are back to square one. If we succeed with this AUdACiOuS project, in five years time, we will be programming bacterial cells in the computer and compiling and storing its program into these new cells so they can readily execute them.

“Like for a computer, we are trying to create a basic operating system for a biological cell.”

Among the most fundamental challenges facing the scientists will be developing new computer models that more accurately predict the behaviour of cells in the laboratory.

Scientists can already programme individual cells to complete certain tasks but scaling up to create a larger organism is trickier. Fist tap Dale.

7 comments:

nanakwame said...

Will these be the other side of the split DOC -g_d why I hated the culture

And while the Penn State case could be a trigger for larger concerns –
about bigtime sports culture, about the
God-coach tradition of which Joe Paterno has been a main example, about unaccountable
male-run hierarchies that seem to attract pederasts -- mainly we're
reminded of human failings again

Mon semblable, mon frère hypocrite
lecturer James Fallow

nanakwame said...

oh I forgot - this proves something you raised about psychopaths. 
http://www.livescience.com/16944-personality-invasive-species.html

CNu said...

um.., er..., ah..., help me out here Nana - I'm at a complete and utter loss to follow what you're talking about, but with regard to the skinks and psychopaths, from my perspective, the one gots absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the other.

The psychopath prospers because it suffers no baggage of empathy with these humans and can accordingly address itself to them efficiently and dispassionately as prey species - that's a HUGE advantage. What such a capacity has to do with environmental novelty-seeking among lizards is a complete and total mystery to me

nanakwame said...

The good ones have a personality, my good friend, which can adapt, till the blood letting begins. We all have some animal personality in us. Why we like killers with personalities, in movies, and those who can fool the female to her death.

CNu said...

Help me out one more time Nana.

What does any of that have to do with the optimization of synthetic biology described in the above article? Are you riffing off of John's assertion the other day that "evolution must be an asshole", or, professing concern that those involved with this particular and singularly essential line of work - may in fact be characterized by either lack empathy or profound novelty seeking?

and what does any of this have to do with that freakish maggot at Penn State? Simply take him, Paterno, and anybody else involved with those abuses out behind a convenient building, hogtie them,  and gut shoot them..., Edo West got turribly simple solutions for unacceptable conduct by these humans...,

nanakwame said...

LOL - there is a nuance between the animal world and humans world in what is called behavior.  I am not making excuses for no one. Warriors know melancholy and stuff like this breeds it, temporarily. Some of these traits will not change even as we move to the machines or simulations
 Watched your friend this morninghttp://fora.tv/2011/10/26/Growth_Has_an_Expiration_Date#fullprogram AND this is what some are working on:http://www.metro.us/newyork/local/article/1019380--new-new-york-what-the-near-future-will-bring-photos

Yes I know we are a goner.

CNu said...

Which one was my friend?

oh and thanks for the Jetson's comedic interlude...,

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