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SYNthetic BIOlogy: From pro- to Eukaryotic SYStems - SYNBIOSYS
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5723-17-09-31
Enrollment deadline: 07/08/2017
PlaceDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Date and time21.08.2017, at: 00:00 - 25.08.2017, at: 16:00
Regular seats30
ECTS credits4.00
Contact personStephan Wenkel    E-mail address: wenkel@plen.ku.dk
Enrolment Handling/Course OrganiserStephan Wenkel    E-mail address: wenkel@plen.ku.dk
Written languageEnglish
Teaching languageEnglish
Block noteScheduled dates: August 2017
Scheme group noteDuration: 5 days
Exam formAssessment of participants based on their poster presentations (own area of interest, posters prepared for the course)
Exam formEvaluation of the participant’s assignments prepared during the course
Course workload
Course workload categoryHours
Preparation / Self-Study45.00
Course hours45.00
Evaluation / reporting10.00
Sum100.00
Content
• Subject area:
Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology: the deliberate (re-) design and construction of novel biological and biologically based parts, devices and systems to perform new functions for useful purposes, drawing on principles elucidated from biology and engineering.

In this context, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms such as bacteria (e.g. B. subtilis or E.coli), yeast, microalgae or plants are currently being engineered to address a variety of pressing societal needs, among them the truly sustainable production of high-value compounds like pharmaceuticals, commodity chemicals or even fuels. While the field initially developed in the model organisms E. coli and yeast, synthetic biology in plants holds great promise for redirecting and (re-)engineering biosynthetic pathways as well as for improving the yield of crop plants, which is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. In this field, the University of Copenhagen is among the leading institutions.

We expect this PhD course to be highly relevant and timely for PhD students enrolled at the PhD school at the Faculty of Science (for example, for members of research centers such as Copenhagen Plant Science Centre, DynaMo, bioSYNergy, and Villum Center of Excellence ‘Plant Plasticity’) and for PhD students from other Danish universities and from abroad which are undertaking projects that include the engineering of biological systems (for example, members of NNF Center for Biosustainability at DTU, iNANO at AU, among others).

• Scientific content:
The course will aim at a well-rounded presentation of synthetic biology. Examples of topics are:

1. Commonly used organisms: (cyano-) bacteria (E.coli, Synechocystis), yeast, algae, higher plants (chloroplasts).
2. The parts: Promoters for regulated expression, transcript and protein stabilization and modifications, flip elements for on-off regulation of gene expression.
3. Cloning and genome modification: cloning methods, DNA synthesis, gene stacking, gene replacement, genome editing.
4. Bioreactors: types (closed, open ponds, etc.), designs of growth regimes (continuous versus batch), harvesting methods and product recovery.
5. Ethics in synthetic biology.
6. Safety and regulations.
7. Intellectual property rights (IPR).

The two international teachers are world leading within topics 1-4 and will be supplemented by KU-teachers, among those the four CPSC Young Investigators (Stephan Wenkel, Mathias Pribil, Fernando Geu-Flores and Sebastian Marquardt). All the other topics will be covered mainly by KU-teachers currently involved in “bioSYNergy”, the strategic research council project “PlantPower”, the EU FP7 ITN “Photo.comm” and Copenhagen Plant Science Center (CPSC).

Learning outcome
Participation in this course will enable PhD students:

1) to get an up-to-date understanding of current topics and methods within synthetic biology in photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms,
2) to get an overview of commonly used organisms and DNA-based inventory parts for a broad variety of organisms,
3) to discuss their own projects with experts in the field, and
4) to build a network within the field.

Remarks
Guest lecturers:

Eugionio Butelli, John Innes Centre, UK
Steven P. Long, University of Illinois, USA
Nathan Lord, Harvard University, USA
Nicola Patron, Earlham Institute, UK

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