OpenPlant
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Plant Sciences
Abstract
An essential concept in Synthetic Biology is that genetic systems can be constructed using standardised, interchangeable parts. For example, functional DNA sequences such as promoters, ribosome binding sites and coding sequences can be used to develop synthetic gene systems that can be used to reprogram living systems in a systematic way. The prospect of large-scale reprogramming of living systems, will require access to relatively large numbers of components. This is in contrast to existing GM products that contain one or a few components. There is growing requirement for libraries of well characterized routine components that can be shared for the construction of a variety of systems, where small companies would be ensured freedom to operate. This is essential to foster the kind of innovation seen at the emergence of other new technologies such as microelectronics and software development.
Accordingly, a substantial part of the Synthetic Biology field has promoted open standards and sharing of data and resources, inspired by the open source software movement. The educational community has embraced the open source principle, and DNA parts are widely and freely distributed internationally as part of educational efforts like the iGEM community, and grows year-on-year. The BioBricks Foundation is a non-profit organisation which has roots in the academic community, and which has promoted a legal framework which would allow protection of Synthetic Biology applications and key activities, but which would facilitate sharing of parts.
Plant biotechnology is a good example of a field where current IP practices have led to a restriction of exchange and innovation, and this model is threatening to predominate in plant synthetic biology. For examples, one just has to look at restrictive licensing of basic technologies like transformation, selection markers and useful genes. We believe that the field needs to explore new "two-tier" intellectual property models that will protect investment in applications, while promote sharing of DNA components and freedom-to-operate for small companies in commercial applications of Synthetic Biology. As the speed and scale of biological assembly increases, this becomes more pressing.
As part of the OpenPlant initiative, we will establish open-source DNA registries across the UK for sharing information, and to join an international web of registries with plant specific parts. The technology is inherently low cost, renewable and has obvious applications for new sustainable technologies.
Accordingly, a substantial part of the Synthetic Biology field has promoted open standards and sharing of data and resources, inspired by the open source software movement. The educational community has embraced the open source principle, and DNA parts are widely and freely distributed internationally as part of educational efforts like the iGEM community, and grows year-on-year. The BioBricks Foundation is a non-profit organisation which has roots in the academic community, and which has promoted a legal framework which would allow protection of Synthetic Biology applications and key activities, but which would facilitate sharing of parts.
Plant biotechnology is a good example of a field where current IP practices have led to a restriction of exchange and innovation, and this model is threatening to predominate in plant synthetic biology. For examples, one just has to look at restrictive licensing of basic technologies like transformation, selection markers and useful genes. We believe that the field needs to explore new "two-tier" intellectual property models that will protect investment in applications, while promote sharing of DNA components and freedom-to-operate for small companies in commercial applications of Synthetic Biology. As the speed and scale of biological assembly increases, this becomes more pressing.
As part of the OpenPlant initiative, we will establish open-source DNA registries across the UK for sharing information, and to join an international web of registries with plant specific parts. The technology is inherently low cost, renewable and has obvious applications for new sustainable technologies.
Technical Summary
Foundational technologies: As part of the OpenPlant initiative, we will (i) establish open-source DNA registries for sharing information, and join an international web of registries with the first plant specific parts. (ii) We will develop a major new plant chassis for Synthetic Biology, (iii) develop new DNA parts for the control and quantitative imaging of genetic circuits in plants, and (iv) genome-scale engineering in plants. (v) Software tools will be further improved for automated DNA assembly, modeling of synthetic gene circuits and cellular morphogenesis
Trait Engineering: The development of new foundational tools and parts will directly contribute to the engineering of new traits in plants, such as (i) altered photosynthesis and leaf structure, (ii) carbohydrate content, (iii) metabolic pathways, (iv) new forms of symbiosis and nitrogen fixation and (v) high level production of biomolecules by virus engines.
Open technologies for innovation: Current IP practices and restrictive licensing threaten to restrict innovation as the scale of DNA systems increases. We believe that the field needs to explore new "two-tier" intellectual property models that will protect investment in applications, while promote sharing of DNA components and freedom-to-operate for small companies in commercial applications of Synthetic Biology. We will create new forums and opportunities for open innovation in plant synthetic biology.
We will sponsor discussions in Cambridge on the potential impact of Synthetic Biology on sustainable practices in agriculture, bioproduction, land use and environmental conservation. This will bring together a wide range of engineers, scientists and policy developers to explore new technologies and possible models for sustainable agriculture, bioproduction and land use.
Trait Engineering: The development of new foundational tools and parts will directly contribute to the engineering of new traits in plants, such as (i) altered photosynthesis and leaf structure, (ii) carbohydrate content, (iii) metabolic pathways, (iv) new forms of symbiosis and nitrogen fixation and (v) high level production of biomolecules by virus engines.
Open technologies for innovation: Current IP practices and restrictive licensing threaten to restrict innovation as the scale of DNA systems increases. We believe that the field needs to explore new "two-tier" intellectual property models that will protect investment in applications, while promote sharing of DNA components and freedom-to-operate for small companies in commercial applications of Synthetic Biology. We will create new forums and opportunities for open innovation in plant synthetic biology.
We will sponsor discussions in Cambridge on the potential impact of Synthetic Biology on sustainable practices in agriculture, bioproduction, land use and environmental conservation. This will bring together a wide range of engineers, scientists and policy developers to explore new technologies and possible models for sustainable agriculture, bioproduction and land use.
Planned Impact
A significant barrier to the ability of Synthetic Biology to have commercial impact in the UK is social acceptance of genetic modification. OpenPlant will engage with this issue scientifically by the development of precision gene technologies that can introduce desirable traits without the introduction of transgenes and by supporting research on traits such as nitrogen use that can significantly impact bioproduction. It will also engage through discourse on sustainable agriculture and land use and engagement with a variety of groups including conservationists, social scientists and policy developers.
The restrictive licensing of powerful technologies as well as the prohibitive cost of protecting IP for smaller enterprises threatens to impede the pace of research in plant synthetic biology. The OpenPlant centre aims to promote entrepreneurial activities though a framework that allows the exploration of open technologies and fixed-cost, non-exclusive licenses that can ensure that parts, techniques, libraries and materials have are available to facilitate both scientific exchange and commercial innovation.
The restrictive licensing of powerful technologies as well as the prohibitive cost of protecting IP for smaller enterprises threatens to impede the pace of research in plant synthetic biology. The OpenPlant centre aims to promote entrepreneurial activities though a framework that allows the exploration of open technologies and fixed-cost, non-exclusive licenses that can ensure that parts, techniques, libraries and materials have are available to facilitate both scientific exchange and commercial innovation.
Organisations
- University of Cambridge (Lead Research Organisation)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Co-funder)
- University of Veracruz (Collaboration)
- State University of Campinas (Collaboration)
- Quadram Institute Bioscience (Collaboration)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- Leaf Expression Systems (Collaboration)
- KEELE UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- Cambridge Glycoscience Ltd (Collaboration)
- National Institute of Biology (Collaboration)
- Biochemistry and Plant Molecular Physiology (Collaboration)
- Biomakespace (Collaboration)
- Alan Turing Institute (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN (Collaboration)
- Michigan State University (Collaboration)
- Technical University of Darmstadt (Collaboration)
- Interdisciplinary Research Centre (Collaboration)
- Rothamsted Research (Collaboration)
- Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) (Collaboration)
- John Innes Centre (Collaboration)
- University of California, Davis (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX (Collaboration)
Publications
Ho PY
(2020)
A Mechanistic Model of the Regulation of Division Timing by the Circadian Clock in Cyanobacteria.
in Biophysical journal
Debernardi J
(2020)
A GRF-GIF chimeric protein improves the regeneration efficiency of transgenic plants
in Nature Biotechnology
Boehm CR
(2016)
A Cyan Fluorescent Reporter Expressed from the Chloroplast Genome of Marchantia polymorpha.
in Plant & cell physiology
Salmon M
(2016)
A conserved amino acid residue critical for product and substrate specificity in plant triterpene synthases.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Dickinson PJ
(2020)
A bipartite transcription factor module controlling expression in the bundle sheath of Arabidopsis thaliana.
in Nature plants
Delmans M
(2018)
µCube: A Framework for 3D Printable Optomechanics
in Journal of Open Hardware
| Title | Anne Osbourn Ordering her life and origins as a scientist through poetry/Branco Weiss Fellowship |
| Description | 2020 Publication of Poetry Collection - "Mock Orange" - 3rd Prize winner of the Sentinel poetry competition 2018 https://spmpublications.com/shop/mock-orange-anne-osbourn.html |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Mock Orange is a collection of poems in which Anne Osbourn attempts to order her life and her origins and to try to understand how and why she became a scientist, specifically a plant biologist. From early childhood she has tried to make sense of the world through plants. In mid-eighteenth century Sweden Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, spent his life trying to understand his Maker through the classification of plants. Osbourn's poetry encompasses Linnaeus's adventures and experiences and his fascination with living things. Mock Orange is therefore about journeys from origins, both personal and global, in which negotiations between scientific and non-scientific languages and points of view form a central theme. |
| URL | https://brancoweissfellowship.org/news-2021/anne-osbourn-ordering-her-life-and-origins-as-a-scientis... |
| Title | Antibiotics Posters |
| Description | We took elements from the SAW antibiotics book and had them designed as 5 public information posters suitable for schools, surgeries and other public spaces to improve understanding of what antimicrobial resistance means and how people can help. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | We are currently in discussions with a local NHS GP surgery and the regional CCG about distribution of a SAW antibiotics book along with these 5 supplementary posters to all GP surgeries in the county in the first instance. |
| Title | Anxiety and Awe, a collection of poems by Norwich Scientists and Writers |
| Description | The 2015 NRP-UEA iGEM team worked with the Science and Writing Trust (SAW), to hold a workshop for established poets at the amazing Dragon Hall, a beautiful medieval building and home to the Norwich Writers Centre. At the workshop, we talked about our project, iGEM and bioengineering with established and published poets. We conducted writing exercises guided by the published poet, Esther Morgan in which we expressed our emotions, concerns and awe of science. This workshop resulted in a collaborative collection of poems by writers and scientists. The collection is published on our website (http://2015.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/WritersWorkshop) and was presented at the iGEM Giant Jamboree, where it gained us a nomination for best communication. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | The collection is published on our website (http://2015.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/WritersWorkshop) and was presented at the iGEM Giant Jamboree, where it gained us a nomination for best communication. |
| URL | http://2015.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/WritersWorkshop |
| Title | Glowing oat seedlings |
| Description | Young oat seedling roots glow under UV due to the accumulation of the antimicrobial triterpene avenacins. Oats naturally produce avenacins exclusively within the root tip epidermal cells, which protects them from soil pathogens. Image supplied by researchers in the Osbourn laboratory at the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park. |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | Image placed on the Norwich Research Park image library, for free sharing and dissemination. |
| URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/imagedetails.aspx?imgid=229 |
| Title | Image of Nicotiana benthamiana |
| Description | Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant, is commonly used in plant research. Here, the leaf is used as a host organism to produce components of avenacin, a fluorescent antimicrobial produced by oat roots, which protects the roots from soil pathogens. A cluster of genes - the Sad genes - have been identified in oat as the instructions used to produce avenacin. The blue spots indicate the presence of parts of the avenacin compound introduced by inserting some of the Sad genes into the host plant. The other spots are controls to test the expression system. Image supplied by Aymeric Leveau, Osbourn laboratory. |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Image placed on the Norwich Research Park Image Library, for free sharing and dissemination. |
| URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/imagedetails.aspx?imgid=103 |
| Title | Nicotiana, biofoundry. |
| Description | An artistic interpretation inspired by plant systems for bioproduction of natural products developed with artist and designer, Karen Ingram. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | Published as part of 'Convergent Visions' Faesthetic #15 produced in partnership with SXSW for the SXSW Art Program 2018. Presented at SXSW Interactive 2018. |
| URL | http://think.faesthetic.com/archives/9687 |
| Title | OpenMTA Video |
| Description | A video describing the open material transfer agreement produced by the Biobricks Foundation in collaboration and featuring interviews with OpenPlant group leaders and others. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The OpenMTA has not yet been officially launched so there are so far only 71 views on youtube. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt6b8_mY-i4 |
| Title | SAW Antibiotics - Science from the Norwich Research Park - Book published by the SAW Press (2017) - ISBN 978-0-9550180-3-9 |
| Description | A book illustrating research on the Norwich Research Park on antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, assembled following Science, Art and Writing (SAW) projects led by NRP scientists in local schools |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | The book was appreciated by the government chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, whose comments are on the front - 'I thoroughly enjoyed this stunning book. Educating children in such an interactive way is so important. I am passionate about addressing AMR, as are the researchers, and I hope this can help inspire future generations to engage in the efforts to save modern medicine.' This project is being captured by the University of East Anglia as an example of effective impact for the next REF. |
| Title | Winner of Norwich Research Park Image Library Competition: Dr Thomas Louveau |
| Description | More than 150 images of work were submitted by researchers, clinicians and scientists who work at the site, for the NRP image library competition. These were narrowed down to 12 finalists - which will form part of a calendar - from which an overall winner was selected. The winning image, entitled A New Planet, was taken by Thomas Louveau, a post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Metabolic Biology at the John Innes Centre. The image show a dried plant extract in a round flask taken from behind on a dark background. The extraction is part of the purification process of new-to-nature metabolites produced by synthetic biology approaches. The new metabolic pathway has been engineered in Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of tobacco by scientists at the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park who are studying natural products.. |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | A calendar was produced from the 12 final images, with "A New Planet" on the cover. The images are also displayed in the Centrum building on the Norwich Research Park. |
| URL | http://edp24.co.uk/news/tech/sheer_beauty_of_science_showcased_in_competition_at_norwich_research_pa... |
| Description | Key Findings 2014-2015 Refurbishment and equipping of new OpenPlant laboratories in Cambridge and Norwich. Establishment of a common genetic syntax for exchange of DNA parts for plants, extensible to all eukaryotes (Patron et al., 2015; RFC106). Drafting of an Open Materials Transfer Agreement, a simple, standardized legal tool to enable sharing of materials and associated data on a more open basis. Implementation of a "single-click" OSX-installable version of the JBEIR-ICE open source DNA registry and DNA manipulation software. Development of routine methods for transformation and gene editing in Marchantia polymorpha. Development of Marchantia paleacea as a new system for engineering actinomycorrhizal associations. Generation of draft genome and transcriptome maps for M. polymorpha and M. paleacea. Characterisation of miR1157 and miR1162 precursors for use as synthetic gene regulators in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Refactoring and use of the HyperTrans system for rapid testing of DNA circuits for terpene synthesis in Nicotiana benthamiana. 2015-2016 Commissioned advanced imaging/robotics equipment at the Cambridge OpenPlant lab. Completion of genome sequence and transcript map of the Cam-1 (male) and Cam-2 (female) isolates of Marchantia polymorpha. Data will be included in forthcoming publication of genome. High resolution map of the time course of gene expression during sporeling germination and chloroplast differentiation. Construction of MarpoDB, a genecentric database for mining and describing DNA parts from Marchantia (http://marpodb.io) Official acceptance of the common syntax for plant DNA parts as a new standard (Phytobricks) in the iGEM 2016 competition, and introduction of an award for plant work. Development of Phytobrick and UNS standards for efficient hierarchical assembly of DNA circuits. Expansion of a Chlamydomonas DNA toolkit for target gene expression and assay of miRNA-dependent gene silencing. Development of a suite of Cas9 variants and toolkit for targeted mutagenesis and gene deletion in multiple plant species. Construction of series of vectors for fine tuning of protein expression using HyperTrans system Methods for mining plant genomes for biosynthetic gene clusters Design and synthesis of an artificial protein scaffold library, built to the Phytobrick standard and verified by BiFC. Production of cell-specific epitope tags for identifying DNA motifs that drive gene expression in photosynthetic tissues in Arabidopsis. Publication of a novel reporter for chloroplast transformation, and identification of transit peptides for chloroplast localisation of nuclear encoded products in Marchantia. Identification of a large repertoire of carbohydrate active enzymes in Euglena gracilis. Transformation of gene editing constructs into potato, to create digestion-resistant starches, and preliminary screening of transformed plantlets. Gram-scale production of triterpenes for analysis and assay, using the HyperTrans system. Production of the plant-derived iridoid alkaloid strictosidine in yeast. Generation of a trichome-specific protein database for enzyme discovery. Asteraceae P450 proteins as a toolkit for targeted modification of sesquiterpenes. Development of the HyperTrans system for use in tomato. Screening tomato introgression lines for regulators of monoterpene biosynthesis. Yeast one-hybrid analysis for the identification of transcription factors that regulate triterpene metabolic gene clusters. Characterisation of gene targets for AtMYB12 and SIMYB12 in tomato, for enhancing phenylpropanoid metabolism and high levels of resveratrol and genistin production. Construction of a synthetic gene cluster for dhurrin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis roots. Construction and distribution of HyperTrans DNA vectors that are compatible with the Phytobrick standard. Testing of the HyperTrans system in Marchantia and BY2 cells. Consultation on the design of the Norwich Research Park LeafSystems high throughput production facility, due for completion in Q2 2017. 2016-2017 Consolidation of the Phytobrick standard for Type IIS based DNA parts for plants, including acceptance as first standard for eukaryotic DNA parts, and introduction of the Plant Prize in iGEM 2016. Design, domestication and synthesis of the first 500 DNA parts for Marchantia (Susana Sauret-Gueto, Haseloff lab). Establishment of the Loop assembly technique first presented at the iGEM2016 Jamboree (Bernardo Pollak & Fernan Federici, Haseloff lab). Automation of Loop assembly at 500nL scale using Labcyte acoustic focusing and Hamilton robots at Earlham Institute (Patron lab, A. Hall lab & Haseloff lab). Established an automated assembly and transient expression workflow for assessing Cas9-mediated targeted mutagenesis using plant protoplasts and Illumina MiSeq sequencing (Oleg Raitskin, Patron Lab). Validated an expanded molecular toolkit in the plant common syntax of Cpf1- and Cas9- variants showing improved specificity in plant protoplasts (Raitskin, Patron Lab). Established methods for direct delivery of a ribonuclease complex (Cas9:YFP recombinant protein & guide RNA) for induction of targeted mutagenesis in protoplasts of N. tabacum, N. benthamiana & S. tuberosum (Raitskin, Patron Lab). Developed S. elongatus constructs for examining the circadian clock and its outputs at the single cell level, and published frequency doubling model of the clock in Molecular Systems Biology (Bruno Martins, Locke lab). Circadian clock model made available in SBML format (Martins, Locke lab). Validated the use of fluorescent protein based reporter for evaluating miRNA mediated gene silencing in Chlamydomonas (Francisco Navarro, Baulcombe lab). Optimised miRNA abundance, extent of sequence complementarity and target sites for gene silencing in Chlamydomonas (Navarro, Baulcombe lab). Constructing synthetic genetic circuits with miRNA mediated incoherent feed-forward loop to confer robust levels of gene expression (Navarro, Baulcombe lab). Constructing DNA parts, in accordance with the common syntax, to contribute to a Chlamydomonas MoClo toolkit (Baulcombe and Smith labs). Synthesis of a panel of codon optimised fluorescent reporters spanning the visual spectrum, including five variants of the fluorescent reporters: iRFP670, mCardinal, mPlum, mCerulean, mNeptune, mRaspberry, mTurquoise, mWasabi, eBFP, Sirius and TagCFP, all modified for chloroplast expression (Ajioka lab). The Marchantia chloroplast genome has been re-annotated. Missing ORFs have been identified, partial annotations have been completed and likely promoter sites identified throughout the chloroplast genome using BPROM (Ajioka lab). CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene KO to produce "giant chloroplast" phenotypes in Marchantia, (Male, Pollak, Sauret-Gueto, Silvestri in Haseloff lab). Established reproducible colonisation of several liverwort species (Marchantia spp., Lunularia cruciata) with Glomeromycota fungi (Funnelliformis mossae, Rhizophagus irregularis) in custom vermiculite system and detection using staining and high resolution confocal fluorescence microscopy (Philip Carella, Schornack lab). Established constructs for secretion system pathway and tonoplast labelling and have confirmed functionality in M. polymorpha (Carella, Schornack lab). Enhancer trap screen underway in Haseloff lab (Tomaselli, Sauret-Gueto & Silvestri. In planta cytometry techniques developed in Marchantia gemma (Pollak & Delmans, Haseloff lab). Developed clearing techniques for image reconstruction of Marchantia air chambers (Marta Tomaselli, Haseloff lab) . Built ubiquitin-tagged rapid-turnover fluorescent markers for imaging dynamic genetic responses (Lukas Mueller, Webb-Haseloff labs). New synthetic version of the 5' UTR used in HyperTrans system has been shown to be twice as effective as the original HT sequence (Hadrian Peyret, Lomonossoff lab). Developed a new vector system (pEFF) which combines the high translational benefits of the CPMV-HT system with the replication ability of potato virus X, in collaboration with the Centre for Bioengineering at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Lomonossoff lab). Characterised promoter elements that drive specific expression in leaves, and a negative regulator that represses expression in mesophyll and veinal cells (Hibberd lab). Compiled a list of transcription factors preferentially expressed in bundle sheath cells of Arabidopsis, including cognate TF for above-mentioned promoter element (Hibberd lab). Heterologous xylan arabinosyltransferases have been cloned in Arabidopsis lines using common syntax rules (Henry Temple & Louis Wilson, Dupree lab). Testing the enzymatic activities of arabinosyltransferases using N. benthamiana transient expression with the HyperTrans vector system (Temple & Wilson, Dupree lab). Exploring artificial in vitro metabolic cycles driving production of glucose-based oligosaccharides from cheap and readily available sucrose by using sucrose phosphorylase and glucan phosphorylases (Field lab). Applying and testing the genome editing tools and technologies developed in the Patron lab to generate potatoes that contain digestion-resistant starches with potential nutritional benefits (Aytug Tuncel, Smith lab, JIC). Developed methods to transform and engineer protoplasts directly isolated from potato leaves (Tuncel & Raitskin, Smith and Patron labs). Mined transcriptome of Euglena gracilis for metabolic carbohydrate metabolism and natural product biochemistry and released in the CAZy database (Field lab). Collaborated with Medema lab (Wageningen) to release plantiSMASH, a customised algorithm for mining plant genomes for biosynthetic gene clusters (Kautsar et al. 2017; Osbourn lab). Improved agro-infiltration methodology for production of triterpenes using the HyperTrans transient plant expression system, leading to gram-scale production of the triterpene scaffold, ß-amyrin (Reed et al., 2017; Osbourn lab). Identified genes that modulate stereochemistry of the iridoid ring system, with potential for compounds with important agrichemical activity (Benjamin Lichman, O'Connor lab. Blocking turnover of L-DOPA production in beetroot to enable low-tech plant sourced bioproduction for Parkinson's treatment (Noam Chayut, Martin lab) Engineered enzymes from the Asteraceae family into yeast to generate oxygenated sesquiterpenes (Nguyen et al., 2016; Don Nguyen, ex O'Maille lab). Investigating three-dimensional positioning of biosynthetic gene clusters in the A. thaliana genome using Hi-C mapping and FISH analysis (Hans Nützmann, Osbourn lab) Yeast-one-hybrid assays have been used to identify a candidate transcription factor for a biosynthetic gene cluster from oat (the avenacin cluster; Osbourn lab). Nine promoters have been isolated from the oat avenacin cluster that retain root-specific expression patterns in a wide range of plants (Aymeric Leveau, Osbourn lab). Three of these oat promoters have been used to drive the expression of a 3 gene pathway for a plant defence compound (dhurrin) from sorghum in Arabidopsis roots (Osbourn lab). Produced synthetic virus-like particles (VLPs) to enable the structure of particles of potato leafroll virus to be solved to near atomic resolution (Lomonossoff lab). 2017-2018 Publication of quantitative microscale work showing intercellular adhesion promotes clonal mixing in growing bacterial populations. Development of microfluidic vessels for quantitative observation of cyanobacteria. Droplet-based microfluidic analysis and screening of single plant cells. Construction of an improved generation of Loop Assembly-compatible transformation vectors for plants. Establishment of efficient chloroplast transformation techniques in Marchantia. Use of multispectral markers with in planta cytometry, to allow segmentation of cell geometries and quantitative assignment of biological parameters on a cell-by-cell basis. Publication of the genome sequence and transcriptome datasets for Marchantia. Publication of revision 4.0 of MarpoDB Synthesis of an almost complete collection (350/398) of proximal promoters for transcription factors in Marchantia. Collection of single-cell transcriptomic data from germinating gemma. Launch of the OpenMTA license with a published commentary in Nature Biotechnology 36:923-927, 2018. Screening of cell and tissue type specific expression lines from enhancer trap transformants. Development of a novel system for "resetting" Marchantia development by surgically dissecting gemma. Miniaturisation and automation of efficient DNA Loop Assembly reactions using nanolitre scale handling. Integration of Benchling as a free web-based solution for online lab notebooks, sequence editor and inventory handler. Use of Benchling as a DNA registry and for protocol sharing across OpenPlant. Construction of optimised genetic circuits as reporters for circadian clock output. Identification of a number of putative electrically regulated promoters in cyanobacteria. Characterisation of improved biophotovoltaic vessels and chassis strains. Construction and publication of a MoClo kit, consisting in a set of Golden Gate-domesticated DNA parts, for the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. High-throughput workflow to analyse conditional behavior of riboswitches in vivo. MoClo parts for transformation of the chloroplast genome of C. reinhardtii. Establishment of protocols to allow chloroplast transformation by electroporation in Chlamydomonas. Regulation of chloroplast gene expression via TPR/PPR proteins encoded by the nucleus in Chlamydomonas. Sequencing and reannotation of the chloroplast genome from the Cambridge isolates of M. polymorpha. Construction of a new generation of Loop Assembly vectors for plastid transformation in Marchantia. Optimisation of biolistic delivery protocols for high efficiency plastid transformation in Marchantia. Generation of ftsz1 and ftsz2 mutant plant lines that produce fewer and larger plastids per cell. Development of techniques and novel vector systems for RNA-guided Cas9-mediated targeted mutagenesis and gene deletion in plant species (Nicotiana, Arabidopsis, Marchantia). Automated construct assembly and delivery to plant protoplasts to enable rapid quantitative assessments of the efficiency and specificity of gene editing. Development of software-based 3-parameter measurement techniques for quantifying gene expression in cell suspensions to minimise extrinsic noise Publication of a computational framework for automated analysis of microplate reader data. Construction of models for the coupling of the cyanobacterial clock and control of period and cell growth. Development of software-based classification schemes for description of gene expression at the cellular scale in Marchantia gemmae. Maintenance and upgrades for the CellModeller software package, to include cell-cell adhesion and cell shape. Publication of algorithms for whole colony-scale segmentation from confocal microscopy datasets of growing microbes. Identification and functional characterisation of DNA parts for natural product synthesis. Employment of genomic neighbourhood associations to identify triterpene-scaffolding genes with tailoring cytochrome P450s and acyltransferases. Improvement of agro-infiltration methodology for gram-scale production of triterpenes using the HyperTrans transient plant expression system. Publication of the improved infiltration protocol in text and video format. In silico identification of new CYP450s with different oxidizing specificities. Identification of new building blocks for biosynthesis of iridoids. Discovery of neofunctionalisation of a short chain alcohol dehydrogenase (SDR) with a non-redox role in controlling the stereochemical course of ring cyclization during iridoid synthesis. Blocked the turnover of L-DOPA in beetroot, using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing, to enable low-tech accessible production in a plant system. Development of a novel suspension culture production system that produces exceptionally high levels of anthocyanins. Over-expression of the Rosea1 and Delila transcription factors to produce multiply-acylated blue anthocyanins. Activation of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway in cultures of Arabidopsis thaliana to produce diacylated cyanidin with a blue colour at neutral pH. Identification and characterisation of transcription factors for control of natural product production. Use of protocols for chromosome conformation capture and FISH analysis to investigate the three-dimensional positioning of biosynthetic gene clusters in the nucleus of Arabidopsis thaliana. Identification of candidate transcription factors that regulate promoters of metabolic gene clusters including central pathway clusters and the avenacin pathway . Use of a truncated version of the bHLH transcription factor Delila along with Rosea1 to fine-tune anthocyanin production for increased yield. Testing of nine promoters from the oat avenacin cluster to demonstrate retention of characteristic expression patterns when introduced into diverse plant species as promoter-reporter constructs. Three promoters from the oat avenacin cluster were used to successfully drive the expression of a three-gene pathway for a plant defence compound (dhurrin) from sorghum in Arabidopsis thaliana roots. Development of robust methods for co-cultivation of Marchantia spp. with Glomeromycota fungi and visualisation of colonization. Development of a high-throughput transformation system for Marchantia paleacea, with marker systems for labelling the secretory system and tonoplast. Establishment of reproducible colonisation of several liverwort species (Marchantia spp., Lunularia cruciata) with Glomeromycota fungi (Funnelliformis mossae, Rhizophagus irregularis). Measurement of the Marchantia transcriptome in response to filamentous pathogen colonisation to identify a set of genes strongly upregulated during defense. Identification of the MYB14 transcription factor that produces a red pigment in cells, useful for sector analysis. Production of a draft genome sequence for M. paleacea using paired end libraries and illumina sequencing. The three main symbiosis TFs in (IPD3, NSP1 and NSP2) in M. paleacea were tested in complementation assays in Medicago mutants. Integration of Marchantia as a model system in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Engineering Nitrogen Symbiosis for Africa project, which was recently awarded Phase 2 funding. Analysis of transcriptome data to indicate that a Marchantia syntaxin (SYP13B) whose legume ortholog is implicated in nitrogen fixing symbiosis may also play a role in intracellular colonisation by an oomycete pathogen. Development of new Hyper-Trans vectors to enable fine-tuning of protein expression levels by making changes in the 5'- and 3'-UTRs of the CPMV-HT system Construction of modified components of the CPMV-HT system that are compatible with the OpenPlant plant common syntax. Development of a new synthetic version of the 5' UTR used in the HT system, which is twice as effective as the original. Two new vectors (pHRE and pHREAC) have been finalised and are ready for distribution. In collaboration with the Centre for Bioengineering at the Russian Academy of Sciences (CB-RAS), a new vector system (pEFF) has been developed a new which combines the high translational benefits of the CPMV-HT system with the replication ability of potato virus X (PVX). The CPMV-HT system has been translated to the BY2 cell pack system, and is also being used in tomatoes and tested in Marchantia. Successful expression of a protein from Theileria parva (causal agent of East Coast Fever, a veterinary disease in Sub-Saharan Africa) which has been difficult to express in other systems. 2018-2019 DNAs will be distributed through Addgene, and we await implementation of the OpenMTA in their distribution systems. In the meantime, we have distributed material directly, using the implementation of the OpenMTA at the University of Cambridge. We have recently published our work on DNA methylation in Marchantia (Aguillar-Cruz et al., 2019), and the Loop Assembly method (Pollak et al., 2019). A previously identified electrically regulated promoter element from cyanobacteria was also found to be functional in E. coli as a repressor. We have published our work on the development of biophotovoltaic systems (Rowden et al., 2018; Wey et al., 2019), and the genomic and transcriptomic analysis of the peridinin dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae plastid (Dorell et al., 2019). To be able to build and analyse novel riboswitches in Chlamydomonas in a high-throughput manner, we used the Chlamydomonas Golden-Gate MoClo kit to construct a series of riboswitch-regulated fluorescent reporter genes. Use of fluorescent proteins, as C-terminal tags of transgenes or as reporters of promoter activity, was only possible until recently and is now a widely used strategy in our lab for both Chlamydomonas and Pheaodactylum alga models. We have demonstrated the utility of the thiamine riboswitch in Chlamydomonas for metabolic engineering, by placing the casbene synthase enzyme under regulatory control of the riboswitch, which allowed tuneable production of casbene diterpenoid dependent on exogenous thiamine concentrations. We have published our work on miRNA-mediated regulation of gene expression in Chlamydomonas (Chung et al., 2019; Navarro et al., 2019). A suite of variants of Cas proteins from different bacterial species was systematically compared resulting in an expanded standardized toolkit for genome engineering in plants (Raitskin et al, 2019, PloSOne). Methods for protoplast delivery developed in this study were also applied to potato (Workpackage G) which resulted in publication (Tuncel et al., 2019, Plant Biotechnology Journal). We have developed imaging and image-processing methods, which allow simultaneous tracking of tissue kinetics and dynamics of gene expression. We have, in a collaborative effort with Monica Dayao, employed deep learning methods to create a reliable binary segmentation mask for labelling pixels in microscopy images as cell, or not cell. We have constructed a series of Loop assembly vectors suitable for chloroplast transformation. These enable rapid construction of new genes that are suitable for delivery to the Marchantia chloroplast genome. We have published our work on transcription factor binding during C4 photosynthesis (Borba et al., 2018; Burgess et al., 2019). We have expanded the tools for engineering dicot secondary cell walls, generating novel xylan structures in Arabidopsis. Identification of two new families of carbohydrate-active enzymes from Euglena: a new family GH149 (Kuhaudomlarp et al., 2018) and GH161 (Kuhaudomlarp et al., 2019). Genome editing tools and technologies developed in the Patron lab (Workpackage D) were applied to generate potatoes that putatively contain digestion-resistant starches with potential nutritional benefits (Tuncel et al 2019). The impact on the gut microbiome of starches produced in this study will shortly be investigated by the Warren Lab at the Quadram institute, using mice with humanised gut microbiomes. We are evaluating the potential of cereal endosperm as platform for cytosolic expression of enzymes able to synthesise glucans. The work was in part funded by BBSRC grant BB/K006517/1, and is in preparation for publication. We have exploited available genome sequence resources to carry out a large-scale investigation of triterpene biosynthesis across the Brassicaceae (Liu et al. New Phytologist 2019). Our results indicate that plant genomes are remarkably plastic, and that dynamic Genome Neighbourhoods (GNs) generate new biosynthetic pathways by shuffling the genes encoding a core palette of triterpene diversifying enzymes, presumably in response to strong environmental selection pressure. We have investigated how plant biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are maintained and diversified at the within species level, resulting in the first genetic evidence supporting co-inheritance of metabolic gene clustering in plants. We have developed a systematic approach to mining the Reaxys Natural Product Databases (RNPD), allowing the surveying of natural oxidation diversity of triterpene scaffolds. We have elucidated the function of a suite of new triterpene biosynthetic enzymes, including enzymes responsible for biosynthesis of insecticidal limonoids (Hodgson et al. PNAS), antimicrobial defense compounds (Leveau et al. New Phytol), (Louveau et al. Plant Cell), (Orme et al. PNAS 2019), and enzymes comprising a novel gene cluster in the Brassicaceae (Liu et al. New Phytologist 2019). We have published a highlight article (Stephenson et al. Natural Product Reports 2019) on novel triterpene stereochemistry that we have discovered in an earlier collaborative project. This stereochemistry represents a potentially transformative discovery in triterpene biosynthesis, breaking a dogmatic dichotomy which has existed for over 60 years. We have published our work on host responses to oomycete infection in an early-divergent land plant lineage (Carella et al., 2019; Carella et al., 2018). Using the M. paleacea genome as foundation, we have analysed the conservation of the symbiosis signaling pathway and related genes across a wide range of species. This has revealed invariant conservation of the Sym pathway in all species accommodating intracellular symbioses, including M. paleacea, but not M. polymorpha. Such conservation is independent of the symbionts and present in many diverse intracellular symbioses We have demonstrated through biochemical approaches and transcomplementation that the Sym pathway components of M. paleacea are functionally conserved with their orthologs in legumes. After challenges establishing Cas9 mutagenesis in M. palecea, we have finally been able to generate knockout mutants in this plant. The first genes mutated are NSP1 and NSP2. Promoter-GUS fusion analyses in M. paleacea have revealed reporters activated at different stages of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation. We have submitted our work on M. paleacea for publication, currently under review and have placed the paper on Biorxiv. Information regarding the construction and use of the new pHRE and pHREAC expression vectors has been published and the vectors themselves have been deposited with AddGene. This has made them accessible to the plant community and a number of requests for plasmids have already been received. The utility of synthetic viral capsids for the production of novel diagnostic reagents has been demonstrated through their use in the selection of synthetic antibody equivalents (Adhirons) and by the creation of new controls for PCR-based diagnostics. 2020-2021 Highlights in research output for the last year include: Work from the Lomonossoff group demonstrated the engineering of plant virus capsids to present foreign viral epitopes and to act as synthetic containers for heterologous virus nucleic acids. They showed that plant-made dengue virus-like particles produced by co-expression of structural and non-structural proteins induced a humoral immune response in mice (Ponndorf et al., 2020), and that chimeric hepatitis B virus-Like particles bearing an epitope of hepatitis E virus capsid could be efficiently produced by transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana (Zamanova et al., 2021). Further, they showed that synthetic bluetongue virus particles could be exploited as nanoreactors for enzyme delivery, in a way that could be useful for cancer therapy (Theuenman et al., 2021). This work has expanded the range of virus-like particles (VLPs) that can be produced in plants to include those of enveloped viruses, such as dengue virus. Further, they have utilised the ability of CPMV VLPs to encapsidate bespoke RNA molecules to develop qRT-PCR positive controls for the diagnosis of Covid-19. These have been assessed in collaboration with the Earlham Institute (EI) and St. George's Hospital, University of London (SGUL) and are currently being deployed by the Norwich Testing Initiative NTI). The Howe lab exploited a laboratory-based adaptive evolution system to select for cyanobacterial strains (Synechococcus elongatus PCC 11801) with improved tolerance for solvents (Srivasta et al., 2020). The n-butanol evolved strain could tolerate up to 32 g/L ethanol, thereby making it a promising host for photosynthetic production of biofuels via metabolic engineering. The Harwood lab published new protocols for efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of wheat ( Hayta et al., 2021) and CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing in wheat (Smedley et al., 2021). These are important technical advances for engineering in monocots. The Haseloff lab published a description of the OpenPlant toolkit, a set of interlinked biological resources and techniques to develop Marchantia as facile testbed for bioengineering in plants. These include a robust and simple system of vectors for nuclear and chloroplast transformation and genome editing. These provided the basis for building and testing a modular library of standardised DNA elements with highly desirable properties. The resources have been combined into a toolkit for plant bioengineering that is accessible for laboratories without access to traditional facilities for plant biology research (Sauret-Gueto et al., 2020). The toolkit is being made available under the terms of the OpenMTA and will facilitate the establishment of common standards and the use of this simple plant as testbed for synthetic biology. In addition, the Haseloff lab has continued to develop advanced genetic circuits. In collaboration with Microsoft Research they engineered a circuit that triggered mutual inhibition between E. coli populations, mediated by artificial morphogens (Grant et al., 2020). They showed that mutual inhibition alone is sufficient to produce stable domains of gene expression and could be a useful tool for creating synthetic biological patterns. The Patron lab continues to contribute to the development of new principles and practices in DNA part composition and assembly for plant systems. They have collaborated with the Haseloff lab on the generation of the Marchantia DNA toolkit, particularly with the development of miniaturised, high throughput robotic approaches for fast assembly (Sauret-Gueto et al., 2020). Further, Nicola has published an influential review that describes the technological advances that have lead to recent advances in model-informed rational design, and their successful application to the engineering of plant gene regulation and metabolism (Patron, 2020). The Osbourn lab explored mechanisms for generation and maintenance of biosynthetic gene clusters in plants. The explored the properties of a model biosynthetic gene cluster (the thalianol cluster) in Arabidopsis and its close relatives (Liu et al., 2020a). They identified chromosomal inversion as a molecular mechanism that may shuffle more distant genes into the cluster, to enabling cluster compaction. Antagonistic natural selection pressures were thought likely involved in shaping the occurrence and maintenance of this gene cluster. The collaborative team also performed an extensive analysis of the chromosomal topology of biosynthetic gene clusters and their positioning in nuclear space (Nützmann et al., 2020). They demonstrated that plant biosynthetic gene clusters reside in highly interactive domains that undergo marked changes in local conformation and nuclear positioning in different organs. Metabolic gene clusters rank among the most dynamic regions in the genome of Arabidopsis. They then exploited available genome sequence resources to investigate triterpene biosynthesis across the Brassicaceae. Their results indicated that these plant genomes were remarkably plastic, and that dynamic genome neighbourhoods generate new biosynthetic pathways in different lineages by shuffling the genes encoding a core palette of triterpene-diversifying enzymes (Liu et al., 2020b). The work sheds light on the basis for diversification of specialised metabolism in plants, through natural combinatorial shuffling of enzyme families, which can be mimicked using synthetic biology to engineer diverse bioactive molecules. The Oldroyd lab published an important analysis of 271 transcriptomes and 116 plant genomes spanning the entire land-plant diversity, and demonstrated that a common symbiosis signalling pathway co-evolved with intracellular endosymbioses, from the ancestral arbuscular mycorrhiza to the more recent ericoid and orchid mycorrhizae in angiosperms and ericoid-like associations of bryophytes. By contrast, species forming exclusively extracellular symbioses, such as ectomycorrhizae, and those forming associations with cyanobacteria, have lost this signalling pathway. This work unifies intracellular symbioses, revealing conservation in their evolution across 450 million yr of plant diversification (Radhakrishnan et al., 2020). The Smith lab (Cambridge) described novel riboswitches that could be used for engineering of gene expression in the green alga, Chlamydomonas (Mershahi et al., 2020). They took a mutational approach to determine functionally important nucleotide residues in a thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) riboswitch in the THI4 gene of Chlamydomonas. This allowed them to carry out an aptamer swap using THIC aptamers from Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis. These chimeric riboswitches displayed a distinct specificities and a range of responses to different ligands. The study demonstrated the ease of use of 5'UTR DNA parts for regulating gene output and controlled production of high-value compounds in Chlamydomonas. This approach to gene design will facilitate the generation of circuits for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of microalgae. The Hibberd lab discovered a bipartite transcription factor module controlling expression in the bundle sheath of Arabidopsis (Dickinson et al., 2020). They identified cis-elements and transcription factors driving expression in bundle sheath strands. Upstream of the bundle sheath preferentially expressed MYB76 gene, we identified a region necessary and sufficient for expression containing two cis-elements associated with the MYC and MYB families of transcription factors. The findings are important for understanding the spatial patterning of gene expression and mechanisms associated with the evolution of C4 photosynthesis. The work also provides a short tuneable sequence for manipulating gene expression in the bundle sheath. The Webb lab analyzed the diel and circadian leaf transcriptomes in the barley cultivar 'Bowman' and derived introgression lines harboring mutations in EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3), LUX ARRHYTHMO1 (LUX1), and EARLY MATURITY7 (EAM7) (Müller et al., 2020). The elf3 and lux1 mutants exhibited abolished circadian transcriptome oscillations under constant conditions, whereas eam7 maintained oscillations of Ëœ30% of the circadian transcriptome. However, day/night cues fully restored transcript oscillations in all three mutants and thus compensated for a disrupted oscillator in the arrhythmic barley clock mutants elf3 and lux1. Nevertheless, elf3, but not lux1, affected the phase of the diel oscillating transcriptome and thus the integration of external cues into the clock. Using dynamical modeling, we predicted a structure of the barley circadian oscillator and interactions of its individual components with day/night cues. Their findings provide a valuable resource for exploring the function and output targets of the circadian clock and for further investigations into the diel and circadian control of the barley transcriptome. An OpenPlant student project (PuntSeq, https://www.biomaker.org/projects/gardenseq-chasing-the-invisible-diversity-of-microbial-life-forms-in-vegetable-garden-beds-with-a-portable-dna-sequencer) that was first funded in 2017 has been published in eLife (Urban et al., 2020). The team developed a simple, fast, cost-effective and remotely accessible freshwater diagnostics workflow centred around the portable nanopore sequencing technology. Using defined compositions and spatiotemporal microbiota from surface water of an example river in Cambridge (UK), they drew up optimised experimental and bioinformatics guidelines, including a benchmark with twelve taxonomic classification tools for nanopore sequences. They found that nanopore metagenomics could depict the hydrological core microbiome and fine temporal gradients in line with complementary physicochemical measurements. In a public health context, these data feature relevant sewage signals and pathogen maps at species level resolution. The work has provided proof-of-principle that portable sequencing devices will open new avenues for environmental monitoring. |
| Exploitation Route | The key findings of the OpenPlant initiative have been in the areas of open technologies for plant synthetic biology, and interdisciplinary exchange and responsible innovation for improvement of sustainable agriculture and conservation. These are enabling: 1. The latest generation of cell-free expression systems provide DNA programmable outputs from GMO-free components lyophilised on paper. This allows sophisticated experiments in low resource settings - simple to run, no requirement for refrigeration, no need for autoclaving. We have assembled a team of top scientists, educators and international development specialists in order to develop modular, open curriculum materials. 2. We have implemented the Biomaker initiative internationally, and run workshops with a number of partners in Africa and Latin America to explore open curriculum development. We have extended Biomaker to introduce new DIY instrumentation and cell-free programmable systems, as well as document projects at www.hackster.io/biomaker to reach a much wider audience (>1,000,000 registered users). 3. The OpenPlant Forum continues to provide a forum for technical exchange with a theme of engineering for bioproduction in plants, and we continue to provide new tools for mis-expression and DNA editing of transcription networks in plants. This is in line with our interest in identifying a wider range of regulatory genes that can be used as effectors for reprogramming plant development and metabolism. We are taking a systematic and open approach to analysis of all transcription factors (398) in Marchantia polymorpha, and vectors and DNA parts are being made available via the OpenMTA from Addgene. 4. Chloroplasts are major sites for metabolic flux and biosynthesis in plants with a small genome (70-220 Kb). Chloroplast transformation and can result in hyperproduction of proteins, sometimes accumulating to a level of more than 50% of soluble protein in the plant. We have developed an open engineering platform for building and testing synthetic chloroplast genomes in Marchantia. 5. The pending influx of thousands of new plant genome sequences provides an opportunity for efficient identification of metabolic enzymes and regulatory elements by bioinformatics. This will provide a toolbox for engineering the bioproduction of new high value products. 6. HyperTrans in planta expression and Cas9-mediated genome surgery continue to undergo rapid development, especially as tools for testing gene circuits and introducing engineered traits into crop species. 7. Transient plant expression technology is proving to be a rapid and powerful means of prototyping candidate plant natural product biosynthetic genes and pathways predicted on the basis of genomics. Building on our success to date, we are developing this platform in order to be able to systematically access 'designer' molecules and analogs for specific applications at preparative scale. 8. The simple genome and exposed nature of Marchantia development allows the prospect of assembling complete digital models of the simple plant. Whole organism models would bring together the genetic, physical and chemical processes of growth, at different scales. While an ambitious goal, even partial models will prove useful as testbeds for engineering experiments. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Education,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org |
| Description | 2014-2015 • Funding of 16 mini-grants that incorporate broad interdisciplinarity and collaboration between Cambridge and Norwich - including hardware, wetware development and support for collaboration between OpenPlant and African scientists. • Support for a joint Cambridge-JIC iGEM2015 team in the Hardware Track. • Support for a Synbio Beta Activate event in Cambridge, to promote entrepreneurial interactions. • Organisation of the OpenPlant Forum and international exchange. • Delivery of two summer schools on Plant Synthetic Biology and CRISPR Technology in Plants, co-sponsored by ERA-SynBio and Plant Methods/GarNET, respectively. • Delivery of three Science, Art and Writing educational workshops, and two school outreach events. 2015-2016 • Funded of 30 mini-grants that incorporate broad interdisciplinarity and collaboration between Cambridge and Norwich, including projects for SynBio training and capacity building in Africa and resources for schools and universities in South America. • Cambridge-JIC iGEM2015 team won a gold medal at the international Jamboree, with a hardware project entitled "OpenScope". • Support for a joint Cambridge-JIC iGEM2016 undergraduate team with a plant-based project: chloroplast engineering in Chlamydomonas. Obtained co-sponsorship from Cambridge Consultants and Wellcome Trust/BBSRC/SEB fund. • Developing collaborative projects through the Virtual Institute of Responsible Innovation. • OpenPlant researchers contribute to a Bioengineering Horizon Scanning Exercise run by CSER. Workshop in November 2016. Outcomes will be published in a co-authored paper. • Responsible and Open Innovation workshop with Dr. Kathy Liddell, Law Faculty, Cambridge. • OpenPlant continues to work with international IP working group and collaborate with the Biobricks Foundation to implement OpenMTA and facilitate exchange of DNA parts. • OpenPlant participated in the inaugural meeting of BioNet group at Asilomar and supports an open technology platform for exchange and tracking of biomaterials (http://www.bionet.io). • OpenPlant is supporting a workshop on 'Genetic Resources in the Age of the Nagoya Protocol and gene/genome synthesis' in November 2016 (led by Dominic Berry, Edinburgh). • Organised OpenPlant All Hands meeting for scientific exchange, Newmarket. • Participated in Open Technology for Biology workshop, Chile. • OpenTechnology Week events in Cambridge, including Technology for the Bottom Billion workshop and Makethon, coordinated with the Centre for Global Equality. • Workshops on ethics and openness, outreach for OpenPlant scientists with the SAW Trust, and BBSRC Media Training (March 2016). Also ran joint training workshops and provided support for synthetic biology outreach activities at Edinburgh SBRC. • Showcased OpenPlant science in interactive exhibits and workshops at festivals and schools workshops, including Latitude Festival (Suffolk; July 2016). • Nineteen graduate students are participating in projects funded by the OpenPlant Fund. Three PhD students have been recruited directly to OpenPlant (Cambridge) this year. • Undergraduates have formed a student society for Synthetic Biology at the University of Cambridge (http://cusbs.soc.srcf.net) with OpenPlant support. • Students and postdocs at OpenPlant institutes are being recruited to share projects, resources and equipment, through ROC, a group of self organised, highly effective junior researchers 2016-2017 • Outreach and Responsible Innovation • Revision and launch of new OpenPlant branding and website (Jan 2017). • Launched new website, www.biomaker.org, to promote SynBio SRI, OpenPlant Fund and Biomaker Challenge projects (Jun 2017). • OpenPlant organised and participated in a wide range of workshops over the last year: • Training workshop on LithographX for plant image analysis, organised by Haseloff group, delivered by software developer, Dr Pierre Barbier de Reuille (Cambridge, Aug 2016) • Training workshop on the BY2 cell pack system ("cookies"; developed by Fraunhofer Institute, Aachen, Germany), run by the Lomonossoff group (Norwich, Jul 2016). • Delivered two cell-free expression workshops with Vincent Noireaux (2016) and Keith Pardee (2017). • Established a working group to develop new, open curriculum materials based on cell-free and other fast and frugal technologies (Jul 2017) • Presented at standards & responsible governance (PAGIT) workshop (London, Mar 2017) • OpenPlant & Earham DNA Foundry co-sponsored a BBSRC-GCRF funded workshop (S. Africa, Feb 2017). Produced report on capacity building for future bioeconomy in Africa. • Participation in working group on Plant Genetic Resources and Sustainable Development Goals: Needs, Rights and Opportunities (Rockerfeller Foundation, Bellagio Center, Nov 2016). Report was submitted to Plant Genetic Resources in Food and Agriculture Treaty. • Workshop on Genetic resources in the age of the Nagoya Protocol and gene/genome synthesis, with Edinburgh University Engineering Life Project (Cambridge, Nov 2016). • Public SAW workshop "the Global Garden" run as a collaboration between OpenPlant, the SAW Trust, social scientist Dr Nick Lee (WISB) and the Writers Centre Norwich. • Presentation on SynBio and Nagoya Protocol at HVCfP workshop (London, Jan 2017). • CSER Biorisk workshop (Cambridge, Mar 2017). • Talk and discussion panel at Kew Garden's "State of the World's Plants" Symposium. • Outreach and public engagement activities: • Delivered two SAW workshops to disseminate the SAW model and share best practice with SynthSys & UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology (University of Edinburgh). • Norwich Science Festival (Oct 2016): Two-day OpenPlant Exhibit; talk on 'The green vaccine machine' (Lomonossoff). • Youth STEMM Award Mid-Year Conference OpenPlant Exhibit for yrs 9 + 10 (Jan 2017). • Talks on 'Finding drugs in the garden' (Osbourn), 'Just Eat Your Greens - A New Way of Vaccinating?' (Lomonossoff) and '20,000 Leagues Under the Microscope: Viruses & Nanomachines' (Castells-Graells) at Norwich Pint of Science Festival (May 2017). • The SAW Trust delivered four workshops in primary schools inspired by the work of the Lomonossoff lab, Osbourn lab, biodiversity, plant evolution and genetics. • Secured funding to build DNA robot for Cambridge Science Festival as part of OpenPlant exhibit "Synthetic Biology for the Senses" (Matthewman & Jenni Rant, SAW, Mar 2017). • OpenPlant and SAW teamed up to deliver a science tent for exploration of plant natural products in "Marvellous Medicines" at Boomtown festival (Aug 2017). • Open tools and technologies • The OpenPlant Fund supported £5K mini-projects: 14 in July 2016, 10 in Dec 2016, and 12 new proposals to be pitched in Jul 2017. • Establishment of the Biomaker Challenge: 41 £1K micro-projects to promote interdisciplinary exchange in Cambridge and Norwich. • Supporting development of Biomakespace in old MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Building under leadership of Dr. Jenny Molloy, due to open 2017. • Established Norwich Biomakers network: https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/ • Supported and contributed to the OpenMTA initiative: website at http://www.openmta.org/ which includes simple text and video descriptions of the OpenMTA • Cambridge-JIC iGEM 2016 team was awarded a gold medal and was winner of the Best Plant Synthetic Biology prize at the iGEM Giant Jamboree, Boston. • Dr Nicola Patron awarded catalyst grant by SynBioLEAP to pursue making open-source enabling technologies for plant biotechnology available to less-developed world regions • OpenPlant Fund project "Big Algae Open Experiment" (http://bigalgae.com/) joined the OpenPlant stand at Latitude Festival (Jul 2016). • Roger Castells-Graells (PhD student, JIC), won a UEA Engagement Award in recognition of his work on OpenPlant Fund project "Accessible 3D Models of Molecules". • Supported open source hardware documentation and repository: www.DocuBricks.com 2017-2018 • Jenny Molloy awarded Shuttleworth Fellowship to explore impact of open technologies on innovation in biology at an international scale. • The OpenPlant Fund has funded 19 new projects over the last year, to bring the total to 71 interdisciplinary and cross-institute projects. • Organisation of cell-free hands-on workshops to encourage the development of cell-free technologies through the OpenPlant Fund • Initiated two projects working with African researchers, with JR Biotek Foundation Workshop in Cambridge, attended by 20 African researchers from 8 different countries and culminating in the UK-Africa Food Security Symposium, and working with the Kumasi Hive and Lab_13 project in Ghana to develop resources for teaching synthetic biology in low-resource settings. • Organised the second annual Biomaker Challenge for interdisciplinary teams to build low-cost instruments for biology. In two years, we have funded 61 projects involving close to 200 participants from Cambridge, Norwich and beyond. • Implementation of a 5-session training series aimed at teaching basic hardware and software for scientists. • Adopted the visual programming interface XOD to tackled some of the bottlenecks and difficulties that non-programmers face when building electronics. • Publication of tutorial material at www.biomaker.org. • Establishment of the Norwich Biomakers group to bring together an interdisciplinary network interested in biology, design, technology, engineering, electronics, software, art and more - to gain a membership of 180 members in the first year. • Ran ten Norwich Biomaker sessions over the first year. The network has led to several new collaborations. • The 2018 OpenPlant Forum focused on engineering plants for bioproduction, and explored a range of examples of products that can be made in plants, tools for engineering for bioproduction and both the global challenges and opportunities for harnessing biodiversity. • The Forum was coupled with the OpenPlant Fund pitches, and a Curriculum Hacks event showcasing educational activities and resources developed through OpenPlant Fund and Biomaker Challenge projects, as well as by partners such as Science and Plants for Schools (SAPS), Cambridge Biomakespace, and the University of East Anglia. • A new working group was established to investigate new models for documentation, distribution and publication by bioengineers - in particular focusing on documentation and distribution of characterisation data for DNA parts. • We have delivered seven OpenPlant-themed workshops in primary schools, designed and delivered by research scientists in collaboration with the SAW Trust. • We have engaged with the public by delivering interactive exhibits at the Norwich Science Festival and Cambridge Science Festival, and delivered science activities at Kidztown at the Boomtown Fair music festival and Latitude mixed arts Festival. • SAW developed training workshops to enable dissemination and to share best practice with other research centres, SynthSys and the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology (University of Edinburgh), and the Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre. • An International conference established by the SAW Trust in collaboration with Norfolk County Council brought together education specialists from across the world locally and internationally to share learning platforms and develop ideas, at which SAW presented its school projects with OpenPlant. • Ran the Global Garden workshop, a collaborative project with the SAW Trust and Social Scientist Dr Nick Lee (Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre). • Secured funding from the Biochemical Society to create and exhibit a machine that explains the processes of transcription and translation in a fun and interactive way - DNA Dave the robot. 2018-2019 In this year of the OpenPlant grant, we have combined the OpenPlant Fund call with the Biomaker Challenge, and offered teams an initial £750 plus a hardware package worth £250. After the first stage, teams could apply for an additional £2000 follow-on funding. We have had 27 diverse teams, of which most of them applied for and received follow-on funding. At the Biomaker Fayre, a whole array of innovative and creative Biomaker projects returned to Cambridge to showcase their final products. Interesting discussions were held and ideas for follow-on activities were made. We have supported various capacity building project in Africa, including (1) a molecular biology workshop in Benin 'Reach and Teach Science in Africa': Strengthening Agricultural Research Capacity to Tackle Food Insecurity in Africa, and (2) a speed breeding workshop in Kenya "Speed Breeding for Accelerated Crop Improvement in East Africa". OpenLabTools activities are delivered through the Biomaker Challenge. The Biomaker Challenge was awarded £80K from GCRF for implementation of the programme in Ghana, Egypt. South Africa and Ethiopia to stimulate training and local capacity building and innovation. The annual OpenPlant Forum explores potential applications of reprogrammed biological systems and the wider implications of the potentially disruptive new technologies. The 2019 Forum was themed: "Smart design for the future Bioeconomy". It was well attended and received positive feedback. The Forum was coupled with Biomaker Challenge pitches showcasing educational activities and resources developed. We delivered new OpenPlant-themed workshops in primary schools, designed and delivered by research scientists in collaboration with SAW, influencing the educational approach to these topics. We engaged with the public by delivering an inspiring interactive exhibit at the London Lates ("Year of the Engineer", Oct 2018). SAW developed a training workshop to enable dissemination and to share best practice with other research centres. In November 2018, SAW ran a workshop session for "Talking Plants", the annual conference of the Botanic Gardens Education Network, hosted at Cambridge Botanic Gardens. Garden staff from across the UK's network came together to explore ways of bringing plant science to a wider audience. We ran a Global Gardens workshop at Cambridge Botanic Gardens in October 2019 as part of the city-wide Festival of Ideas. We are prepared a 'Build your own DNA Dave' workshop for schools, helping schools to build a machine that explains the processes of transcription and translation in a fun and interactive way. The availability of vectors for Hyper-Trans plant-based expression should increase the uptake of this technology worldwide. The methods for the production of novel diagnostics based on synthetic virus-like particles produced in plants should enhance the ability to control the spread of infectious diseases. 2019-2021 OpenPlant ran the Biomaker Challenge over 2019 and 2020 (36 projects, documented at: https://www.biomaker.org/projectindex). The impact of the Covid-19 lockdown has led to developed a 'No-Code Programming for Biology' initiative, with a focus on online delivery of training materials. Developed in response to observations that some biologists face experience barriers when undertaking Biomaker projects, this initiative aims to provide training for biologists in electronics and hardware, as well as easy and efficient programming. By providing additional training, we aimed to increase the reach, scope and accessibility of Biomaker in future. The No-Code Programming for Biology initiative was designed to introduce biologists to Arduino-based microcontrollers, sensor electronics, displays and actuators that are useful for measuring and controlling biological systems, as well as to provide the no-code programming tools that can be used to build integrated bioinstrument prototypes. Training in the use of these new tools allows participants to build a wide range of instruments and devices that are potentially useful for experiments in the lab and field. These new skills can be enabling in many ways. The components for this type of instrumentation are often very cheap, especially when compared with off- the-shelf commercial solutions. The use of simple hardware and software resources allow easy modification, extension and repair of custom instruments. The use of open-source components and systems promotes sharing of information and set up of collaborative projects, which creates a growing set of resources for the community to draw from. We have developed free training and distance learning materials: (i) Beginner's Guide: An illustrated step-by-step guide to using the Biomaker Beginner's Kit. (ii) Beginner's work-through tutorial: A XOD tutorial file to accompany the Beginner's Guide. (iii) Workshop recordings: Recordings of online workshops to for remote demonstration of tasks from the Beginner's Guide. (iv) Expansion Kit Handbook: a step-by-step guide to using the Biomaker Expansion Kit (v) Expansion Kit video tutorials: a series of video tutorials to accompany the Expansion Kit Handbook. (vi) Online Course (in development): an online course (MOOC) hosted on the Canvas platform. A central location to collate our online learning materials. SAW started developing a 'Build your own DNA Dave' workshop for schools in 2019, and the first session with schools was held on March 2020 (https://www.openplant.org/dna-dave). We are having another robot built 'RNA Ruth' that will have increased functionality to enable further explanation on DNA sequences and the important role of RNA. We believe that RNA is becoming a term increasingly used in mainstream media and so we need to ensure we have the best tools to explain its role in biology to the public at future events. We are currently developing a video version of the 'Build your own DNA Dave' workshop for schools which we plan to trail with schools who attended the live session last year. We are also creating a dedicated DNA Dave website to host the resources for the project to enable us to share it more widely. In addition, OpenPlant has directly contributed towards the Covid-19 response in various ways: - Jim Haseloff convened an online Biomaker Biodesign2020 Expert group to work on development of tools for Covid-19 detection. The group investigated accessible and low-cost technologies for RT-PCR and LAMP diagnostics, based on state-of-the-art electronics, sensors and 3D printing for thermal control. The group has extended to over 85 participants, and a core group met weekly. Key outputs were publicly shared designs for low cost diagnostic hardware. Collaborative work is ongoing. - Jenny Molloy's partnership with the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute has enabled them to increase throughput of RNA extraction pipelines and produce enzymes for LAMP assays to diagnose COVID-19. - During lockdown with limited access to the lab, in collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks, Stanford University and other OpenPlant collaborators such as the Federici group at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Molloy group designed the Research in Diagnostics DNA Collection and the establishment of the Reclone Community to support local manufacturing of enzymes for COVID-19 research, building on the Open Enzyme Collection. This toolkit has already been ordered by >30 groups in 21 countries and will be distributed under the Open Material Transfer Agreement (OpenMTA) that was developed by OpenPlant and the Biobricks Foundation. - Jenny Molloy is a Co-I on 500k EUR grant from EDCTP which will support the use of Open Enzyme Collection as part of efforts to locally manufacture enzymes for COVID-19 LAMP diagnostics in Ghana. - The OpenPlant spin-out Iceni Diagnostics has developed a 15-min Covid-19 test that is now to be trialled on thousands. - Movable liquid-handling platforms were relocated from the Earlham Institute to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to enable automation of the RNA-extraction protocol for Covid-19 detection. - George Lomonossoff's group have expanded the range of virus-like particles (VLPs) that can be produced in plants to include those of enveloped viruses, such as dengue virus. They have utilised the ability of CPMV VLPs to encapsidate bespoke RNA molecules to develop qRT-PCR positive controls for the diagnosis of Covid-19. These were produced using technology developed under OpenPlant, and have been assessed in collaboration with the Earlham Institute (EI) and St. George's Hospital, University of London (SGUL) and are currently being deployed by the Norwich Testing Initiative NTI). 2021-2022 The Biomaker programme has continued to be expanded, with the publication and sharing of new training materials, and a streamlined 3-stage approach to hardware required for training. The restriction of in-person training and project-based learning due to the COVID-19 epidemic has meant that we've needed to exploit online workshops and training sessions. Accordingly, that has allowed us to engage more successfully with international partners, and have developed collaborations in Europe, Africa, US and Latin America. Similarly, the Open Bioeconomy Lab managed by Jenny Molloy, and the SAW Trust directed by Anne Osbourn have benefitted from a shift to online tools for wider engagement, and these are providing very useful support as we move back to in-person and hybrid activities. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Electronics,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Advice for Government Report on Synthetic Cell. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Description | Attended Roundtable meeting to discuss how Government might further help in the UK's engineering biology sector. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | BBSRC IBBE Strategy Panel |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Impact | The Strategic panel provided advice and guidance for the setting up of the Networks in Industrial Biotechnology & Bioenergy (NIBBs), which aim to foster increased awareness and interaction between academics and industrialists in the bioeconomy. It was also important for the thinking behind the IB Catalysts, joint with Innovate UK & EPSRC. Many of the grants and proof-of-concept awards are aimed at increased sustainability through the use of IB solutions |
| URL | http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/networks-in-industrial-biotechnology/ |
| Description | Group members attending first regional cross-sectoral ABS workshop (Implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing in the UK) at the John Innes Centre, 22.11.16 |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Increased knowledge of implementation of Nagoya Protocol |
| Description | Hosted Prof Lionel Clarke at JIC to discuss future directions of synthetic biology in the UK in preparation for discussions with government |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Participation in UK-Kenya synthetic biology workshop at Imperial College |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Plant bioengineering and global climate change summit |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Visit by Minister of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | 21EBTA Engineering specialised metabolism and new cellular architectures in plants |
| Amount | £1,517,514 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W014173/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 01/2024 |
| Description | A world of virus structures: understanding how non-icosahedral capsids are built |
| Amount | £1,000,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T004703/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 02/2023 |
| Description | AMPlify: redistributed manufacturing of antimicrobial peptides for wound care |
| Amount | £68,622 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2021 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Description | Agri-Inno: Stimulating Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Egypt's Agricultural Sector |
| Amount | £28,520 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2017 |
| End | 01/2017 |
| Description | BBSRC GCRF IAA |
| Amount | £9,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | BBSRC High Value Chemical from Plants Network Proof of Concept Funds |
| Amount | £57,099 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | POC-OCT15-03 (OSBOURN) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 11/2016 |
| Description | BBSRC IAA |
| Amount | £8,200 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/S506710/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| Description | BBSRC IAA |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RG96069/Schornack /24597 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | BBSRC Responsive Mode |
| Amount | £459,425 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/P010490/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | BTT EAGER - Breakthrough Technologies to Advance Crop Breeding |
| Amount | £400,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/S020853/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 02/2021 |
| Description | Bio-cosmetics from Lithops |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2015 |
| End | 03/2016 |
| Description | Bio-engineering non-sugar modifications of saponins - BBSRC CTP studentship |
| Amount | £41,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R505584/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 10/2021 |
| Description | Bioinformatics and Biological Resources (BBR) Fund |
| Amount | £603,560 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BBS/E/T/000GP076 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Business Interaction Voucher |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | PHYCBIV-23 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Department | Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (NIBB) |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 10/2018 |
| Description | COVALENT MODIFICATION AND REGULATION OF PROTEINS BY CO2 USING CHLAMYDOMONAS AS A MODEL SYSTEM |
| Amount | $1,050,000 (USD) |
| Funding ID | RGP0058/2020 |
| Organisation | Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | France |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | COVID-19 diagnostics for Africa |
| Amount | € 499,933 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | RIA2020EF-2918 |
| Organisation | Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) |
| Department | European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 01/2021 |
| Description | Development of reagents to study and combat emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants |
| Amount | £14,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2021 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | EPSRC GCRF Diagnostics, Prosthetics and Orthotics |
| Amount | £1,541,002 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R014000/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 02/2021 |
| Description | ERA CoBioTech |
| Amount | € 1,643,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | BB/021554/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | EVOCATE Function and evolution of plant cell wall architecture for sustainable technologies ERC advanced award |
| Amount | £2,153,561 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/X027120/1 |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2022 |
| End | 08/2027 |
| Description | Engineering Quillaja saponin biosynthesis pathways for bio-production of QS-21 |
| Amount | £1,223,712 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R005508/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 07/2020 |
| Description | Engineering saponin biosynthesis pathways for bio-production of novel vaccine adjuants |
| Amount | £646,458 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W017857/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2022 |
| End | 04/2024 |
| Description | Engineering saponin surfactants |
| Amount | £71,590 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Unilever |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | Equipping the Next Generation of INnovative biological Engineers to develop disease diagnostics for Africa (BioENGINE Africa STAR) |
| Amount | £94,850 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T01735X/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2020 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Exploiting recent development in nano-rod technology for creations of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) Cantilever Tip. |
| Amount | £88,813 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2020 |
| End | 04/2021 |
| Description | Follow on Fund Innovation Fellow Funds - PI Anne Osbourn |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 05/2020 |
| Description | GCRF Pump-priming Fund |
| Amount | £80,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2018 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | Genome to Natural Products Network Award |
| Amount | £5,500,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | U101GM110699 |
| Organisation | National Institutes of Health (NIH) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 08/2015 |
| End | 04/2020 |
| Description | H2020 Grant: Building the product pipeline for commercial demonstration of plant molecular factories |
| Amount | £631,808 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 774078 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 10/2021 |
| Description | Harnessing enzymes from plants for selective functionalisation of triterpenoid scaffolds |
| Amount | £542,505 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/S016023/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2019 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | Implementing Algebra guidelines to risk assessments of scale-up of non-native species |
| Amount | £9,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2017 |
| End | 10/2017 |
| Description | Improving regulation of chloroplast gene expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii |
| Amount | £2,100 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | SSB-AU032214 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2022 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | Institute Strategic Funds: Starch analysis on high-amylose potatoes |
| Amount | £5,316 (GBP) |
| Organisation | John Innes Centre |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | LCVD: Low-cost Cell-extract Viral Diagnostics |
| Amount | £1,800,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R014000/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 01/2021 |
| Description | Mapping genetic and cellular interactions during growth of a simple plant system |
| Amount | £567,584 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T007117/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 02/2023 |
| Description | Metabolic characteristics of terrestrial algae and plants in Antarctica - research visit to Antarctica |
| Amount | £74,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2014 |
| End | 03/2015 |
| Description | NRP DTP |
| Amount | £120,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MARTIN_J18DTP: Natural blues: structure meets function in plant natural products |
| Organisation | Norwich Research Park |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | National Biofilms Innovation Centre Proof of Concept Award |
| Amount | £54,158 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 002POC19029 |
| Organisation | National Biofilms Innovation Centre |
| Sector | Private |
| Start | 12/2019 |
| End | 05/2020 |
| Description | Norwich Research Park Translational Fund |
| Amount | £51,119 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | REF 3.1 - Novel commercial saponins from synthetic biology |
| Organisation | Norwich Research Park |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2015 |
| End | 06/2016 |
| Description | Open microreactors for large scale manufacture |
| Amount | £12,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Department | Global Challenges Research Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2020 |
| End | 05/2021 |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Engineering Marchantia polymorpha chloroplasts for the production of high-value specialized terpenes - CY219-W08-C |
| Organisation | OpenPlant Fund |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Start | 09/2015 |
| End | 02/2016 |
| Description | OpenPlant-Earham Foundry GCRF Workshop for Practical Synthetic Biology in Africa |
| Amount | £39,250 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Phytoelectronic soil sensing |
| Amount | £813,225 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/T012293/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2019 |
| End | 11/2022 |
| Description | Playground to Polar - how do we measure Antarctic and UK biodiversity? |
| Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 06/2018 |
| Description | Producing SARS-Cov-2 Virus-Like Particles to support development of immune-assay diagnostics and vaccines for COVID-19. |
| Amount | £100,202 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Regulation of polyphosphate metabolism in Chlamydomonas and potential for exploitation as phosphorus sink in nutrient recovery systems |
| Amount | £65,772 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/N016033/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Description | Research Fellows Enhancement Award: Early Land Plant mechanisms to accommodate filamentous microbes - Sebastian Schornack |
| Amount | £92,500 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RGF\EA\180002 |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2017 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | Responsive Mode: Exploiting the power of heterologous expression in plants to discover new virus structures |
| Amount | £563,036 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R00160X/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Rewriting The Genetic Code: The Algal Plastome As A Testbed For Basic And Applied Studies |
| Amount | £3,146,402 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W003538/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2022 |
| End | 03/2027 |
| Description | Scaling up COVID-19 testing through open science hardware and local manufacturing |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Cambridge-Africa Alborada Trust |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2020 |
| End | 05/2021 |
| Description | Science Outreach Grant: The Transcription-Translation Machine |
| Amount | £940 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biochemical Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Scientific Outreach Grant - DNA Dave |
| Amount | £500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biochemical Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2019 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | Shuttleworth Fellowship |
| Amount | $261,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | Shuttleworth Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | South Africa |
| Start | 03/2018 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| Description | Spores against SARS-CoV-2 |
| Amount | € 110,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Volkswagen Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | Strategic Research Initiative for Synthetic Biology |
| Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2013 |
| End | 10/2016 |
| Description | Super Follow on Fund: Engineering Quillaja saponin biosynthesis pathways for bio-production of QS-21. 2018-2020 - Prof Anne Osbourn |
| Amount | £1,538,805 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R005508/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 05/2020 |
| Description | SynBio LEAP Catalyst Grant |
| Amount | $10,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program |
| Sector | Private |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | Syngenta |
| Amount | £71,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Syngenta International AG |
| Department | Syngenta Ltd (Bracknell) |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative |
| Amount | £165,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2016 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Description | Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative 2016-2019 |
| Amount | £165,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Targeted gene knockouts in crops using RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease |
| Amount | £603,560 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/N019466/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 08/2019 |
| Description | Towards machine learning-driven prediction of the product chemical space of oxidosqualene cyclases, key enzymes in triterpene diversification |
| Amount | £181,411 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Alan Turing Institute |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Translating Cambridge Synthetic Biology to impact LMIC bioeconomies |
| Amount | £166,886 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Isaac Newton Trust |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2021 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Description | UK Vaccine Network Project |
| Amount | £1,988,841 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 16-107-04 |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2016 |
| End | 08/2018 |
| Description | UKVRDN Grant |
| Amount | £1,988,841 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | GHR Project:16/107/04 |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2016 |
| End | 08/2018 |
| Description | Undiscovered High Value Products from Polar Algae. |
| Amount | £19,961 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Unilever |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2014 |
| End | 03/2015 |
| Description | University of Cambridge Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty Research Group Award |
| Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | University of Cambridge EPSRC GCRF Workshop Grants |
| Amount | £500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | University of Cambridge SRI/SRN Small Grants |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Isaac Newton Trust |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 06/2017 |
| Description | University of Cambridge SRI/SRN Small Grants |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Isaac Newton Trust |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 12/2017 |
| Description | University of Cambridge SRI/SRN Small Grants |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Isaac Newton Trust |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2017 |
| End | 10/2018 |
| Description | University of Cambridge Wellcome Trust ISSF Workshop Grant |
| Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
| Department | Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2015 |
| End | 09/2016 |
| Description | University of Cambridge-JIC iGEM 2016 team |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | iGEM |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 06/2016 |
| End | 11/2016 |
| Description | Unlocking the chemical potential of plants: Predicting function from DNA sequence for complex enzyme superfamilies |
| Amount | £650,682 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/V015176/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2021 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Description | Wellcome Trust ISSF Junior Interdisciplinary Fellowship |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
| Department | Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Wellcome Trust ISSF Junior Interdisciplinary Fellowship |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
| Department | Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2016 |
| Description | iGEM2014 |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2014 |
| End | 11/2014 |
| Description | iGEM2015 |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 11/2015 |
| Description | smart sustainable plastic packaging from plants S2UPPLANT |
| Amount | £844,880 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/V010565/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2020 |
| End | 10/2023 |
| Title | Cell-free expression toolkit for plant proteins |
| Description | A phytobrick-compatible molecular toolbox containing plasmid acceptors for cell-free expression using Escherichia coli or wheat germ lysates as well as a set of N- and C-terminal tag parts for detection, purification and improved expression/folding. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The toolkit enabled the rapid screening of candidate enzymes to identify those with the desired activity. The toolkit has been requested by a number of other laboratories and has been made available through the Addgene plasmid repository. |
| URL | https://www.addgene.org/browse/article/28215454/ |
| Title | E. coli Protein Expression Toolkit |
| Description | E. coli Protein Expression Toolkit is an all-in-one toolkit to build up constructs to express enzymes. It is a collection of >100 DNA parts including different promoters, RBSs, linkers, tags, reporters etc designed to be assembled in one-pot reaction using BsaI-based Golden-Gate assembly. DNA parts are MoClo, SEVA, Loop and CIDAR assembly compatible. The collection includes: 3 promoters 7 RBS and insulators 9 purification tags, 3 localization signals 5 cleavage sites, flexible linkers 23 genes of which 5 are reporters and 18 are used in diagnostics 2 destination vectors with pink or blue color screening. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | As the toolkit was only made available in late 2020, impact measures have not yet been gathered but will be tracked during 2021. |
| URL | https://stanford.freegenes.org/collections/open-genes/products/expression-tookit#description |
| Title | Establishment of a common syntax for plant synthetic biology |
| Description | Inventors in the field of mechanical and electronic engineering can access multitudes of components and, thanks to standardization, parts from different manufacturers can be used in combination with each other. The introduction of BioBrick standards for the assembly of characterized DNA sequences was a landmark in microbial engineering, shaping the field of synthetic biology. Here, we describe a standard for Type IIS restriction endonuclease-mediated assembly, defining a common syntax of 12 fusion sites to enable the facile assembly of eukaryotic transcriptional units. This standard has been developed and agreed by representatives and leaders of the international plant science and synthetic biology communities, including inventors, developers and adopters of Type IIS cloning methods. Our vision is of an extensive catalogue of standardized, characterized DNA parts that will accelerate plant bioengineering. To this end we have proposed a common syntax for exchange of DNA parts for plant synthetic biology. This is supported by the international community and has been published. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The establishment of a common plant syntax has paved the way for the introduction of an Open MTA for material transfer, now trialled and published (Kahl et al. 2018, Nature Biotechnology 36: 923), simple and open systems for recusrsive fabrication of DNA circuits (Pollak et al. 2018, New Phytologist: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15625) and for discussions with Addgene, the nonprofit global plasmid repository, archives and distributes plasmids for scientists. These advances are catalytic and we envisage that they will promote and accelerate plant biology research within the UK and internationally. |
| Title | Establishment of a reverse genetics TILLING platform for diploid oat |
| Description | We have established a TILLING platform for diploid oat (Avena strigosa accession S75) using a sodium azide-generated mutant population that we have generated. The platform has been made available to the international research community through the RevGen platform at the John Innes Centre |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This platform will enable identification of mutants in target genes for scientific research and crop improvement. |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/research-impact/technology-platforms/genomic-services/reverse-genetics/ |
| Title | Improved culture systems for the model plant system, Marchantia polymorpha |
| Description | Part of a set of new techniques and materials described in "Systematic tools for reprogramming plant gene expression in a simple model, Marchantia polymorpha" by Susanna Sauret-Güeto, Eftychios Frangedakis, Linda Silvestri, Marius Rebmann, Marta Tomaselli, Kasey Markel, Mihails Delmans, Anthony West, Nicola J. Patron, Jim Haseloff. Preprint distributed on BioRxiv, and acceprted for publication at ACS Synthetic Biology. The manuscript describes new techniques and materials useful for low-cost growth of Marchantia plants thoughout the plant's life cycle under sterile conditions. The new approach allows the simple isolation of sterile spores for further transformation work, and a way of producing relatively large amounts of sterile material for bioproducion in the system. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The technique is becoming widely adopted by other laboratories in the field. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.29.971002 |
| Title | Improved vector system for bioengineering in plants |
| Description | Part of a set of new techniques and materials described in "Systematic tools for reprogramming plant gene expression in a simple model, Marchantia polymorpha" by Susanna Sauret-Güeto, Eftychios Frangedakis, Linda Silvestri, Marius Rebmann, Marta Tomaselli, Kasey Markel, Mihails Delmans, Anthony West, Nicola J. Patron, Jim Haseloff. Preprint distributed on BioRxiv, and acceprted for publication at ACS Synthetic Biology. The manuscript describes a new set of plant transformation vectors and DNA partsthat are easier to manipulate, and useful for transformation of nuclear or plastid genomes. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Wide international distribution of a free vector and DNA parts kit via the OpenMTA, and deposit with Addgene. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.29.971002 |
| Title | In planta cytometry |
| Description | Published method for in vivo quantification of plant gene expression in vivo, using combined ratiometric fluorescence measurement and microscopic segmentation. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Published as Federici F, Dupuy L, Laplaze L, Heisler M & Haseloff J. Integrated genetic and computation methods for in planta cytometry. Nature Methods, 9:483-485 (2012). Forms the basis for a number of new approaches. |
| Title | Loop Assembly |
| Description | High efficiency methods for DNA assembly are based on sequence overlap between fragments or Type IIS restriction endonuclease cleavage and ligation. These have enabled routine assembly of synthetic DNAs of increased size and complexity. However, these techniques require customisation, elaborate vector sets and serial manipulations for the different stages of assembly. As part of a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Earlham Institute and the Universidad Católica de Chile. Bernardo Pollak and Fernan Federici have devised a new method for gene assembly based on two Type IIS restriction endonuceases, BsaI and SapI. Loop Assembly allows rapid and efficient production of large DNA constructs, is compatible with widely used Level zero (L0) DNA parts such as Phytobricks, and can be easily automated. Alternate use of two Type IIS restriction endonucleases and corresponding vector sets allows efficient and parallel assembly of large DNA circuits. Plasmids containing standard Level 0 parts can be assembled into circuits containing 1, 4, 16 or more genes by looping between the two vector sets. The vectors also contain modular sites for hybrid assembly using sequence overlap methods. Loop assembly provides a simple generalised solution for DNA construction with standardised parts. The cloning system is provided under an OpenMTA license for unrestricted sharing and open access. A preprint has been published: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/15/247593 |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The method is being developed for automation of DNA Assembly at the Earlham Institute and for building constructs for the OpenPlant Marchantia distribution, impacts are expected to increase during 2018 particularly following peer-reviewed publication. |
| URL | https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/15/247593 |
| Title | Loop Assembly |
| Description | High efficiency methods for DNA assembly are based on sequence overlap between fragments or Type IIS restriction endonuclease cleavage and ligation. These have enabled routine assembly of synthetic DNAs of increased size and complexity. However, these techniques require customisation, elaborate vector sets and serial manipulations for the different stages of assembly. We present Loop assembly, based on a recursive approach to DNA fabrication. Alternate use of two Type IIS restriction endonucleases and corresponding vector sets allows efficient and parallel assembly of large DNA circuits. Plasmids containing standard Level 0 parts can be assembled into circuits containing 1, 4, 16 or more genes by looping between the two vector sets. The vectors also contain modular sites for hybrid assembly using sequence overlap methods. Loop assembly provides a simple generalised solution for DNA construction with standardised parts. The cloning system is provided under an OpenMTA license for unrestricted sharing and open access. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | International distribution of the vector DNAs both directly from teh lab, and through Addgene. |
| Title | Marchantia toolbox |
| Description | Publcation of a collection of 33 open source protocols for culture, handling and genetic manipulation of Marchantia polymorpha, a new model system being developed and improved as part of the OpenPlant initiative. (https://www.protocols.io/workspaces/openplant-project) |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | There are currently around 50 researchers who have subscribed to the protocol-sharing group, and many more informal participants. We are seeing increased numbers of requests for reagents and advice, and interest in Marchantia as a simple model plant system increases. |
| URL | https://www.protocols.io/workspaces/openplant-project |
| Title | Measurement of intrinsic properties of promoters |
| Description | Combined software and technical approach to reducing noise and providing accurate estimations of promoter properties in microbial systems, based on multi-parameter measurement and use of integrated models of cell proliferation and gene expression. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Being used to evaluate gene circuit components prior to assembly of elaborate circuits, e.g.: Grant PK, Dalchau N, Brown JR, Federici F, Rudge TJ, Yordanov B, Patange O, Phillips A, Haseloff J. Orthogonal intercellular signaling for programmed spatial behavior. Molecular Systems Biology 12:849-861, (2016). |
| Title | MoClo Toolkit for Chlamydomonas |
| Description | A kit of 119 standard DNA parts that can be used for Golden Gate (Modular Cloning, MoClo) cloning to prepare constructs for genetic modification of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The kit is freely available to the community (for a small distribution fee) and should enable much more rapid preparation of clones and then easy comparison between results from different groups |
| Title | Modular DNA tools for reprogramming Marchantia nuclear and chloroplast gene expression |
| Description | Deposited over 120 plasmid vectors at Addgene for distribution, under the OpenMTA, where possible. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Has facilitated use of Marchantia polymorpha as a new, simple plant model system, cemented the use of standard techniques for gene assembly in this system, and exchange of DNA parts and collaboration. |
| URL | https://www.addgene.org/Jim_Haseloff/ |
| Title | Molecular Diagnostics Toolkit |
| Description | Enzymes are the heart of each and every diagnostic test. Enzymes are the means we can track, study and defeat old and new infectious diseases. However, enzymes are globally distributed from centralized foundries and, most often, require a cold chain for stability restricting their access to the many, even more in times of supply chain disruptions like is happening in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The Molecular Diagnostics Toolkit includes: 1) IPTG inducible, T7 promoter driven ready-to-use expression cassettes to produce essential enzymes used in diagnostic among which RT, Bst-LF, RPA enzymes, RNA inhibitors. Enzymes are His-tagged and cassettes design are based on literature and experimental evidence 2) A set of constructs for the production of Sars-CoV-2 RNA positive and negative controls |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The Molecular Diagnostics Toolkit has been distributed to > 40 researchers in >20 countries as of Feb 2021 and is being used for locally funded projects to manufacture enzyme for research and diagnostics in Chile, Peru, Argentina, Cameroon, Ethiopia and beyond. Impact will be tracked during 2021. |
| URL | https://stanford.freegenes.org/collections/open-genes/products/open-enzymes-diagnostic-collection#de... |
| Title | Open Enzyme Collection |
| Description | The Open Enzyme Collection consists of 81 useful genes for enzymes that are "workhorses" of molecular biology, including DNA polymerases, RNA polymerases, DNA ligases, reverse transcriptases and restriction enzymes. The enzymes are useful in both basic and applied fields as diverse as genomics, diagnostics, biodiversity, synthetic biology, DNA origami, immunology, biochemistry and more. The foundational technologies enabled by this collection of include polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cloning, isothermal amplification, reverse transcription of RNA into DNA, and dNTP synthesis. Additionally, the Open Enzyme collection contains enzyme genes for fixing damaged and degraded DNA prior to amplification, enzymes for cutting protein sequences to remove unwanted parts, and DNA-binding proteins that can be fused with other enzymes to improve functionality. The collection is codon-optimised for expression in Escherichia coli bacteria and all enzymes are obtained from expired patents or for various reasons are not encumbered by patent rights. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The Open Enzyme Collection has been distributed to >70 labs in >30 countries, impacts are being tracked during 2021. |
| URL | https://stanford.freegenes.org/collections/open-genes/products/openenzyme#description |
| Title | Open Reporters |
| Description | The Open Reporter Collection includes 42 commonly used reporter genes used in all kinds of biology labs for a variety of techniques including measuring gene expression, diagnostics, verifying successful transformations and more. The collection includes chromoproteins (which produce a colour that is visible to the naked eye), fluorescent proteins (that require excitation by a certain wavelength of light and emit another wavelength), luciferases (which emit bioluminscence) and other enzymes that enable colorimetric detection of a substrate by changing its color, for example horseradish peroxidase which classically turns a chemical substrate bright pink in very common antibody-based assays such as ELISA. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The Open Reporter collection has only recently been made publicly available and impact will be tracked during 2021. |
| URL | https://stanford.freegenes.org/collections/open-genes/products/open-reporter-collection#description |
| Title | OpenMTA |
| Description | Introduction of a new MTA, the Open Material Transfer Agreement (OpenMTA), that relaxes restrictions on the redistribution and commercial use of biomaterials while maintaining aspects of standard MTAs that support widespread adoption (for example, incorporation into semiautomated administration systems). In developing the OpenMTA, our motivation was to realize a simple, standardized legal tool for sharing biological materials as broadly as possible without undue restrictions, while respecting the rights of creators and promoting safe practices and responsible research. Importantly, we wanted the tool to work within the practical realities of technology transfer and to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the needs of many groups globally (for example, providing support for international transfers and compatibility with public and philanthropic funding policies). |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We are seeing increasing adoption of this OpenMTA for public distribution of materials, now adopted by twenty academic reseach institutions, and a similar number of companies. Being adopted by Addgene as a major international partner. |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/openmta/ |
| Title | Phytobricks |
| Description | Help to establish a common syntax for plant DNA parts, allowing rapid assembly of gene circuits via Type IIS restriction enzyme cloning. The Phytobrick standard (RFC-106) has been established in the iGEM community and widely propagated within the professional plant biology community. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Establishment of the first publicly distributed Phytobricks in the iGEM Synthetic Biology competition, and establishment of the Plant Track and Prize in 2016. |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/dnaparts/ |
| Title | Speed breeding for crop breeding and model plant research |
| Description | To meet the challenge of feeding a growing population, breeders and scientists are continuously looking for ways to increase genetic gain in crop breeding. One way this can be achieved is through 'speed breeding' (SB), which shortens the breeding cycle and accelerates research studies through rapid generation advancement. The SB method can be carried out in a number of ways, one of which involves extending the duration of a plant's daily exposure to light (photoperiod) combined with early seed harvest in order to cycle quickly from seed to seed, thereby reducing the generation times for some long-day (LD) or day-neutral crops. We have developed glasshouse and growth chamber-based SB protocols with supporting data from experimentation with several crop species. These protocols describe the growing conditions, including soil media composition, lighting, temperature and spacing, which promote rapid growth of spring and winter bread wheat, durum wheat, barley, oat, various members of the Brassica family, chickpea, pea, grasspea, quinoa and the model grass Brachypodium distachyon. Points of flexibility within the protocols are highlighted, including how plant density can be increased to efficiently scale-up plant numbers for single seed descent (SSD) purposes. Conversely, instructions on how to perform SB on a small-scale by creating a benchtop SB growth cabinet that enables optimization of parameters at a low cost are provided. We also outline the procedure for harvesting and germinating premature wheat, barley and pea seed to reduce generation time. Finally, we provide troubleshooting suggestions to avoid potential pitfalls. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This methodology opens up opportunities to accelerate and revolutionise crop improvement programmes and the field of plant biology research more broadly. |
| URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-017-0083-8 |
| Title | Transcription Factor Relative Affinity Measurement (TRAM) |
| Description | A luminescence-based microplate assay for quantifying the relative affinity of transcription factors for DNA probes. This method uses short, unlabelled DNA probes, which are cheaply obtained, and minimal quantities of recombinant protein with a minimal genetically-encoded tag. We have demonstrated the use of this assay to quantify the affinity of transcription factors to target sequences. We have also applied knowledge of binding affinity to modulate the strength of minimal synthetic plant promoters. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This method has been used to investigate and guide the engineering of plant responses to nutrients. This is important for the development of crops that require fewer applications of agrochemicals. |
| Title | Transient plant expression technology for triterpene production at preparative scale |
| Description | We have develop a method for transient heterologous expression of biosynthetic enzymes in N. benthamiana for production of high-value triterpenes. Agro-infiltration is an efficient and simple means of achieving transient expression in N. benthamiana. The process involves infiltration of plant leaves with a suspension of Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying the expression construct(s) of interest. Co-infiltration of an additional A. tumefaciens strain carrying an expression construct encoding an enzyme that boosts precursor supply significantly increases yields. After a period of five days, the infiltrated leaf material can be harvested and processed to extract and isolate the resulting triterpene product(s). This is a process that is linearly and reliably scalable, simply by increasing the number of plants used in the experiment. We have developed a protocol for rapid preparative-scale production of triterpenes utilizing this plant-based platform. The protocol utilizes an easily replicable vacuum infiltration apparatus, which allows the simultaneous infiltration of up to four plants, enabling batch-wise infiltration of hundreds of plants in a short period of time. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Generation of gram-scale quantities of 98% pure triterpenes and demonstration that we can rapidly carry out combinatorial expression of enzymes from our triterpene toolkit to generate known and new-to-nature compounds. This had attracted considerable interest from industry and led to four new projects directly funded by different companies in the pharma, ag, food and drink and home and personal care sectors. |
| URL | https://www.jove.com/video/58169/transient-expression-nicotiana-benthamiana-leaves-for-triterpene |
| Title | pUAP1 plasmid vector |
| Description | We have constructed, a "clean" plasmid vector (pUAP1) suitable for cloning of Level zero DNA parts. Further, we have constructed two families of Loop plant transformation vectors, based on pCambia and pGreen backbones, respectively. These differ in replication origins and copy number in bacterial hosts. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None |
| URL | https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/15/247593 |
| Title | Marpodb.io |
| Description | DNA parts- centric database for the description of genome resources from Marchantia polymorpha - a synthetic biology database |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Marpodb is providing a framework for design and characterisation of synthetic gene parts in Marchantia (http://marpodb.io/query) |
| URL | http://marpodb.io |
| Title | Research data supporting Cell size control driven by the circadian clock and environment in cyanobacteria |
| Description | This record contains data on birth and division times, as well as on birth and division lengths, of single cells of the cyanobacterium S. elongatus. Data for wild type and clock-null (deletion of kaiBC operon) cells are included. 3 environmental conditions (constant light, graded 12 h light : 12 h dark, and graded 16 h light : 8 h dark) were assayed. Data were obtained from time-lapse microscopy movies, which were acquired on an inverted Nikon Ti-E microscope. Acquired images were subsequently analysed in Matlab using the software Schnitzcells. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Title | S. elongatus circadian clock model |
| Description | Dr Bruno Martins and Dr James Locke (both UCam) developed S. elongatus constructs for examining the circadian clock and its outputs at the single cell level. This software model was published in Molecular Systems Biology and made available in Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) format. Publication: Martins et al. (2016). Frequency doubling in the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Molecular Systems Biology 12(12):896. doi: 10.15252/msb.20167087. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None |
| URL | http://msb.embopress.org/content/12/12/896 |
| Description | A world of virus structures |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Department | Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration involved the plant-based production of virus-like particles (VLPs) by my group at JIC via transient expression. The future project will focus on the production of VLPs that do not have icosahedral symmetry - these will then be sent to the Astbury Centre, University of Leeds for structural characterization. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Astury Centre has state-of-the-art Cryo electron microscope facilities that enable near-atomic resolution strcture of viruses and VLPs. The collaboration enables us to solve the structures of viruses that are difficult or impossible to propagate and purify. |
| Impact | There are numerous publications from this collaboration. These are listed under the appropriate award. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | An improved bioproduction system for proteins and small molecules |
| Organisation | John Innes Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Lead applicant on joint funding proposal |
| Collaborator Contribution | Co-aplicants on joint funding proposal |
| Impact | Funding Award BB/P010490/1 |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | An improved bioproduction system for proteins and small molecules |
| Organisation | Leaf Expression Systems |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Lead applicant on joint funding proposal |
| Collaborator Contribution | Co-aplicants on joint funding proposal |
| Impact | Funding Award BB/P010490/1 |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Analysis of potatoes subjected to Cas9-mediated mutagenesis of SBE genes in potato |
| Organisation | Quadram Institute Bioscience |
| Department | Food & Health Programme |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We partnered with colleagues in the Quadram Institute Bioscience to conduct analyses of starch structure in potato tubers generated at JIC in which starch branching enzymes genes were mutated by introduction of the Cas9 gene and sgRNAs targetting both sets of SBE homoeoalleles. |
| Collaborator Contribution | QIB used state-of-the-art HPLC-SEC and 1H-NMR tools to examine the chain-length distributions and the ratio of alpha 1,4 to alpha 1,6 linkages in starch from wild-type and mutated potatoes in this analysis |
| Impact | Manuscript submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal. The work made use of biophysical techniques for analysis of polymer structure, synthetic biology, and plant biochemistry and molecular biology |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Biomakespace Cambridge |
| Organisation | Biomakespace |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Prof Jim Haseloff and Alexandra Ting (OpenPlant Cambridge) develop and implement the Biomaker Challenge that funds interdisciplinary team-based projects at the intersection of biology, engineering, sensor technology, and low-cost instrumentation. Participants in the Biomaker Challenge are encouraged to use the Biomakespace (and allowed to use funding to pay for membership) as a resource and prototyping space for their projects, and to contribute to a community dedicated to open science in Cambridge. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Founded by former Cambridge OpenPlant coordinator Jenny Molloy, Biomakespace is Cambridge's first community based, open access biology and prototyping space. Biomakespace provides members with affordable access to a well-equipped lab and prototyping space as well as to training and social events. The Biomakespace is a crucial resource for the development of the Biomaker initiative as it provides an open lab space, as well as training, for interdisciplinary teams that may not have access to one. |
| Impact | During the 2018 summer challenge, two multidisciplinary Biomaker Challenge teams developed their projects at Biomakespace: 1. Microbial Bioreactor: an open source, benchtop, batch bioreactor to optimise yield of enzymes producing recombinant proteins for molecular biology such as Taq polymerase or for cell-free extract production. This will build on existing open source projects to further reduce the cost of components and pay particular attention to their global accessibility. By generating a modular design with thorough and useful documentation of different options to suit budget and accuracy requirements, the devices will be easier to build and maintain for a wider range of users in universities, companies and biomaker spaces: in particular those in resource-constrained contexts. Project documentation on Hackster (8,782 views) 2. Spectre: low-cost whole-cell biosensors for environmental and medical surveillance. The team has created a minimum viable product (MVP) for proof-of-concept purposes. By using a low-cost fluorometer, signal processing unit and 3D-printed imaging chambers, we can detect green fluorescent protein signal with appreciable gains. The measuring capability of our MVP is comparable to a high-end plate reader, which is traditionally used for a similar purpose but only under controlled laboratory environment. Project documentation on Hackster (228 views) |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Cell-free expression of plant proteins |
| Organisation | National Institute of Biology |
| Country | Slovenia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We optimised a method for cell-free expression of plant proteins. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partner received an ERASMUS training fellowship to visit our lab for 4 weeks. They subsequently transferred the new protocol and tools to their own lab. A publication resulting from this collaborative work has been submitted (February 2022). |
| Impact | Scientific publication. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with Cambridge Glycoscience |
| Organisation | Cambridge Glycoscience Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have jointly investigated the production of novel carbohydrates from plant cell walls. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The company has attempted scale up of products |
| Impact | We have obtained collaborative grant awards. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Cryo-EM of VLP structures |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Department | Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Production of VLPs in plants |
| Collaborator Contribution | Cryo-EM analysis of the structure of plant-produced VLPs |
| Impact | This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration using plant-based expression (JIC) to produce VLPs. The structure of these can be determined by near -atomic resolution cryo-EM (Leeds). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Developing resources for science activities in schools |
| Organisation | Interdisciplinary Research Centre |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Off the back of two OpenPlant Fund projects, a new collaboration has been formed to exchange knowledge, resources and tools for integrating multidisciplinary activities, learning and research projects into schools. The collaboration is with both the Open Science School (http://openscienceschool.org/) and the EU-funded project, doing it together science (DITOs; http://togetherscience.eu/) both based at the Centre Recherches Interdisciplinaire (CRI) in Paris. We have exchanged expertise and ideas to support their projects and once ready will share tools and resources developed by OpenPlant, for use in France and beyond. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The DITOs project have contributed a number of practicals for use in UK schools, and their learning from developing and testing these together with teachers. |
| Impact | A visit to paris to present on OpenPlant projects in outreach and engagement. A plan for an extension of one of the DITOs practicals. The nature of the collaboration is to develop multidisciplinary teaching resources in the context of synthetic biology. To date, disciplines include biology, design, chemistry, maths, electronics, and information technology. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | ENGINEERING SMALL RNA-BASED GENE REGULATION PATHWAYS IN THE PRIMITIVE PLANT Marchantia polymorpha |
| Organisation | University of Veracruz |
| Country | Mexico |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have helped to construct a series of knock-out mutants of Marchantia polymorpha for genes expected to interfere in small RNA metabolism |
| Collaborator Contribution | Mario Arteaga's group is characterising the above mutants. We expect to produce modified plants that have dual use for studying natural RNA metabolism and plant chassis that will have application for transgenic work in synthetic biology. |
| Impact | Scientific reagents, protocols and plant lines |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Engineering plant responses to environmental nitrogen |
| Organisation | University of California, Davis |
| Department | UC Davis Genome Cente |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contributed expertise in genome engineering in plants. Contributed to two joint grant proposals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Contributed expertise on epigenetics and plant nitrogen reponse networks. Contributed to two joint grant proposals. |
| Impact | Collaborative grant funded: "18 BTT EAGER - Engineering complex traits using targeted, multiplexed genetic and epigenetic mutagenesis" |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Genetic determinants of transcriptional stochasticity |
| Organisation | Biochemistry and Plant Molecular Physiology |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Collaborative experiments to investigate the role of transcription-factor-DNA interactions in stochastic gene expression |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaborative experiments to investigate the role of transcription-factor-DNA interactions in stochastic gene expression |
| Impact | Ongoing |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Investigating carbon flux between lignin and chlorogenic acid biosynthetic pathways |
| Organisation | State University of Campinas |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Supervision of visiting FAPESP graduate fellow |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sponsor of FAPESP graduate fellow |
| Impact | Sucessful FAPESP graduate fellowship for Nathalia Volpi, who spent six months in the UK progressing this project. Co-publications. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Mint Genome Project |
| Organisation | Michigan State University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We are collaborating with the Mint genome project group which includes Robin Buell, Doug and Pam Soltis and Natalia Dudareva. Post-doc Benjy Lichman has discovered and s developing new enzymatic tools from the sequence data generated in this collaboration. http://mints.plantbiology.msu.edu |
| Collaborator Contribution | We are collaborating with the Mint genome project group which includes Robin Buell, Doug and Pam Soltis and Natalia Dudareva. Post-doc Benjy Lichman has discovered and s developing new enzymatic tools from the sequence data generated in this collaboration. http://mints.plantbiology.msu.edu |
| Impact | Two manuscripts are currently submitted. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Plant lines with selectable insertion sites |
| Organisation | University of Essex |
| Department | University of Essex EssexLab |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Production of DNA constructs and experiment design |
| Collaborator Contribution | Production of plant lines |
| Impact | Production of reserach materials. Other outputs are in progress. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Promoting algae for industrial biotechnology |
| Organisation | Rothamsted Research |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have been very active in promoting the idea of using algae as industrial biotechnology (IB) hosts. This has led to a successful BBSRC sLoLa award, and also contributed to the debate about how to cement the rather fragmented algal expertise in the UK. Ultimately the introduction of the BBSRC networks in IB (NIBBs) were borne out of this debate, and these include Phyconet, which is specifically algal biotechnology. In addition several other NIBBs consider using algae as source of novel products, pathways, genes (NPRONet, HVCfP), or as platforms for community based metabolism (ADNET) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research and development collaborations with colleagues in the algal biotechnology field, but also in metabolic engineering and SMEs in algal biotechnology |
| Impact | sLoLa Several BBSRC NIBBs, with Phyconet as specific one on algal biotechnology IB Catalyst award |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | Promoting algae for industrial biotechnology |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Department | Division of Biosciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have been very active in promoting the idea of using algae as industrial biotechnology (IB) hosts. This has led to a successful BBSRC sLoLa award, and also contributed to the debate about how to cement the rather fragmented algal expertise in the UK. Ultimately the introduction of the BBSRC networks in IB (NIBBs) were borne out of this debate, and these include Phyconet, which is specifically algal biotechnology. In addition several other NIBBs consider using algae as source of novel products, pathways, genes (NPRONet, HVCfP), or as platforms for community based metabolism (ADNET) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research and development collaborations with colleagues in the algal biotechnology field, but also in metabolic engineering and SMEs in algal biotechnology |
| Impact | sLoLa Several BBSRC NIBBs, with Phyconet as specific one on algal biotechnology IB Catalyst award |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | Promoting algae for industrial biotechnology |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have been very active in promoting the idea of using algae as industrial biotechnology (IB) hosts. This has led to a successful BBSRC sLoLa award, and also contributed to the debate about how to cement the rather fragmented algal expertise in the UK. Ultimately the introduction of the BBSRC networks in IB (NIBBs) were borne out of this debate, and these include Phyconet, which is specifically algal biotechnology. In addition several other NIBBs consider using algae as source of novel products, pathways, genes (NPRONet, HVCfP), or as platforms for community based metabolism (ADNET) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research and development collaborations with colleagues in the algal biotechnology field, but also in metabolic engineering and SMEs in algal biotechnology |
| Impact | sLoLa Several BBSRC NIBBs, with Phyconet as specific one on algal biotechnology IB Catalyst award |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | Sugar nucleotides |
| Organisation | Keele University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Enzymatic synthsesis |
| Collaborator Contribution | Chemical synthesis - methods development and target synthesis. |
| Impact | New integrated chemical and enzymatic methods for sugar nucleotide synthesis |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Sustainable Bioproduction of Pheromones for Insect Pest Control in Agriculture |
| Organisation | National Institute of Biology |
| Country | Slovenia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Co-applicant on funding application |
| Collaborator Contribution | Co-applicant on funding application |
| Impact | Sucessful funding application (ERA-CoBioTech). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Sustainable Bioproduction of Pheromones for Insect Pest Control in Agriculture |
| Organisation | Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) |
| Department | Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Co-applicant on funding application |
| Collaborator Contribution | Co-applicant on funding application |
| Impact | Sucessful funding application (ERA-CoBioTech). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Sustainable Bioproduction of Pheromones for Insect Pest Control in Agriculture |
| Organisation | Technical University of Darmstadt |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Co-applicant on funding application |
| Collaborator Contribution | Co-applicant on funding application |
| Impact | Sucessful funding application (ERA-CoBioTech). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Towards machine learning-driven prediction of the product chemical space of oxidosqualene cyclases |
| Organisation | Alan Turing Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The PDRA on this grant is based in my group, carrying out computational work on oxidsqualene cyclase product prediction. He is co-supervised by Brooks Paige of the Alan Turing Institute. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr Paige brings critical expertise in machine learning to the project. |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary project involving computational and experimental work. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Title | Metabolic engineering |
| Description | The invention relates generally to materials and methods for biosynthesising quillaic acid in a host by expressing heterologous nucleotide sequences in the host each of which encodes a polypeptide which in combination have said QA biosynthesis activity. Example polypeptides include (i) a Beta-amyrin synthase; (ii) an enzyme capable of oxidising Beta-amyrin or an oxidised derivative thereof at the C-28 position to a carboxylic acid; (iii) an enzyme capable of oxidising Beta-amyrin or an oxidised derivative thereof at the C-16a position to an alcohol; and (iv) an enzyme capable of oxidising Beta-amyrin or an oxidised derivative thereof at the C-23 position to an aldehyde. Preferred nucleotide sequences are obtained from, or derived from, Q. saponaria. |
| IP Reference | WO2019122259 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | This patent has been pivotal to the development of a large collaboration with a major pharma company. |
| Title | CellModeller |
| Description | High performance software tool for modelling cellular behaviour in large populations, that provides a physico-genetic model. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Cell modeller allows precise description of fractal-like cell buckling and cohort behaviour in biofilms: Rudge TJ, Steiner PJ, Kan A and Haseloff J. Cell shape-driven instability generates self-organised, fractal patterning of cell layers. ACS Synthetic Biology, 2:705-714, (2013). Rudge TJ, Steiner PJ, Phillips A and Haseloff J. Computational modeling of synthetic microbial biofilms. ACS Synthetic Biology, 1:345-352, (2012). The software has also been used to model plant cell growth and dynamics: Dupuy, L., Mackenzie, J. and Haseloff, J. Coordination of plant cell division and expansion in a simple morphogenetic system. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107:2711-6 (2010). |
| URL | http://haselofflab.github.io/CellModeller/ |
| Title | DNA Dave |
| Description | Dr Jenni Rant (SAW) and Dr Colette Matthewman (JIC) secured funding from the Biochemical Society to work with designer Molly Barratt to design and build a "Transcription-Translation machine" for education and publica engagement. The outcome was DNA Dave, an interactive robot to explain how proteins are made using instructions encoded in DNA. DNA Dave has been a great success with general public and school groups at the 2017 Cambridge Science Festival, the JIC 50th Anniversary open day, and Norwich Science Festival. Teachers are keen to take DNA Dave into the classroom, so we are now exploring possible routes to make the robot available to schools. |
| Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | Teachers have commented that the description of the processes of DNA transcription and translation to make proteins is very difficult to put across in the classroom, but when DNA Dave was used to explain these processes, they could see the lightbulb moments in their pupils where they suddenly understood and engaged with the process. Subsequently we have had enquireys about loaning DNA Dave to schools. |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2017/3/23/cambridge-science-festival-stand-20-improved-design |
| Title | DocuBricks |
| Description | DocuBricks is an open source documentation tool for open hardware. The DocuBricks editor helps to easily create documentation that is modular and explained. The DocuBricks format is designed to enable modular sharing, better readability and community quality management. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The platform is the preferred option for documenting hardware published in the new Journal of Open Hardware (Ubiquity Press) and has seven projects already documented. |
| URL | http://docubricks.com/ |
| Title | MarpoDB |
| Description | Software framework for an open registry of Marchantia polymorpha genetic parts |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | MarpoDB is a gene-centric database developed for genetic engineering and synthetic biology. This is the result of dealing with highly fragmented genomic data (from a non-sequenced organism, Marchantia polymorpha) and compiling it into an accessible resource for sequence exploration and retrieval. The database framework, however, can be used with any type of genetic data and can be set up locally. |
| URL | https://github.com/HaseloffLab/MarpoDB |
| Title | One-click installation of JBEI ICE DNA registry |
| Description | A simple method for the one-click installation of a DNA database has been implemented. In collaboration with Nathan Hilson (JBEI), we have compiled a public OSX based version of the ICE DNA registry. The resulting IceApp is available and documented as an open source project on Github (https:// github.com/fathomlabs/IceApp) and provides a platform for compilation and distribution of the ICE in app form, for individual and local use as a one-click installation for the DNA database. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | None |
| URL | https://github.com/fathomlabs/IceApp |
| Title | Open Pi-Image: A low cost-open source plant growth imaging and analysis platform |
| Description | OpenPi is a near infrared image capture system based on a Raspberry Pi computer and PiNoir camera and custom 3D printed parts. This runs an extensible and modular open source software suite we developed called Open Pi Image that controls automated image capture and spawns image analysis. The Pi software can be accessed on any external system (e.g. a laptop) via a web server running on the Pi and the system can be embedded in inaccessible places. Open Pi Image is designed to incorporate new user provided scripts for analysis and can be easily extended and customised. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Software is still in testing phase in a small number of labs |
| URL | https://github.com/TeamMacLean/install_opimage/blob/master/README.md |
| Title | Open Source Autonomous Imaging Station |
| Description | An open source fluorescent imaging system that integrates low-cost and open-source hardware, software and genetic resources. The project was published in PLOS and was the Editor's Pick on the PLOS Open Source Toolkit Channel in Dec 2017. All hardware designs, software and protocols are openly licensed and shared. Publication: Nuñez, I., Matute, T., Herrera, R., Keymer, J., Marzullo, T., Rudge, T., & Federici, F. (2017). Low cost and open source multi-fluorescence imaging system for teaching and research in biology and bioengineering. PLOS One, 12(11), e0187163. Project Lead: Fernan Federici (UCam and PUC) |
| Type Of Technology | Systems, Materials & Instrumental Engineering |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | None |
| URL | http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187163 |
| Title | Plant electro-mechanics hardware |
| Description | Project is developing an affordable, open source, hardware-software "sandbox" to allow plant scientists to explore the possibilities of in-vivo experimentation with plant electrophysiology. Built based on the existing Plant SpikerShield* system, which consists of electrodes (positioned on the plant by means of a 3d printed "manipulator") whose signal is amplified by a custom made electronic circuit which then is sent to a computer via an Arduino microcontroller. We have built a number of 3D manipulators prototypes for the positioning of electrophysiology probes, and the control boxes that allow controlling them via a cheap Playstation 2 controller. The micromanipulators plans are available on the project's github repository, which contains also all the schematics and software for building all the tools we developed (https://github.com/calugo/OpenPlant-Electrophysiology ). Intructions and more specific details about assembling the kits are or soon will available in the project's website (http://calugo.github.io/OpenPlant-Electrophysiology/ ). |
| Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | The hardware and software is still undergoing development. It will be used by the researchers involved in this project and be made openly available for others wishing to use the product. |
| URL | http://calugo.github.io/OpenPlant-Electrophysiology/ |
| Title | Plant-ProChip 2.0 |
| Description | Development of on-chip encapsulation and analysis of protoplasts isolated from the emergent plant model Marchantia polymorpha at processing rates of >100,000 protoplasts per hour. The technology demonstrated on-chip sorting of droplets containing YFP-expressing protoplasts from wild type cells using dielectrophoresis force and opens the door to droplet-based microfluidic analysis of plant cells for applications ranging from high-throughput characterisation of DNA parts to single-cell genomics. Publication: Yu, Z., Boehm, C. R., Hibberd, J. M., Abell, C., Haseloff, J., Burgess, S. J., & Reyna-Llorens, I. (2017). Droplet-based microfluidic analysis and screening of single plant cells. bioRxiv, 199992. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | None |
| URL | https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/08/199992 |
| Title | Synthetic gene expression system in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii |
| Description | A platform was developed by Dr Francisco Navarro and Dr Marielle Vigouroux that allows testing of the the expression of fluorescent reporters in different strain backgrounds. It includes the first Chlamydomonas-specific MoClo DNA parts following the common syntax for gene assembly in plant synthetic biology co-authored by many members of OpenPlant. Some of these parts are already being used by other researchers of the Plant Sciences department of the University of Cambridge, who have since contributed new parts to the repertoire available for Chlamydomonas research. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | None |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/projects/new-codon-optimization-tools |
| Title | Whiskeroscope: rodent whisker inspired sensor for use in analysis of plant tissue structure |
| Description | Understanding mechanical properties of plant biomass is crucial for multiple industries, including building construction and production of lignocellulosic biofuels. Current methods to analyse mechanical properties of biomass are slow and provide little accuracy. The aim of the project was to develop a prototype of a novel type of mechanical sensor which addresses challenges outlined above. The device is inspired by rodent whiskers and relies on two inputs, obtained using thin steel rod, to quantify stiffness. During each measurement the primary, macromotion, dataset is obtained by analysing the extent to which the whisker bend during the contact with the material. Additional information is obtained by overlaying the macromotion data with the impact of the whisker contacting the material on its micro-oscillation. The instrument successfully discriminated between materials with unlike mechanical properties (steel and foam) and differently aged stem samples from willow. Whiskeroscope was also applied to study Arabidopsis thaliana stems with altered composition of secondary cell walls. The project and the background information on plant cell walls were demonstrated to the wider public as a part of the Open Plant's contribution to the Cambridge University Science Festival. |
| Type Of Technology | Detection Devices |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | No further use currently. |
| URL | https://github.com/Cyberius/Whiskeroscope |
| Title | smFISH for imaging single RNA molecules at the cellular level in Arabidopsis thaliana tissues and the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha |
| Description | Improvements to current smFISH technology allowed researchers to image three, rather than two, RNA targets simultaneously and led to amplified signals which were compatible with confocal imaging. RNA could also be visualized in more differentiated root cells than previously possible, e.g. root hairs. LGC are now promoting the technique at conferences and have made Dr Susan Duncan an expert collaborator. Publications: Duncan, S., & Rosa, S. (2017). Gaining insight into plant gene transcription using smFISH. Transcription, 1-5. Project Lead: Susan Duncan (EI) |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | Posters describing smFISH work were presented at the 2016 RNA Society conference in Kyoto and OpenPlant Forum in Norwich. Whilst in Japan, Susan gave invited smFISH seminars to plant scientists at Kobe University, the University of Tokyo and RIKEN Institute in Yokohama Following invitations, details of the existing method have now been submitted to the open platform Bio-Protocol (http://www.bio-protocol.org) and the smFISH probe manufacturers, LGC (http://www.biosearchtech.com). Once published online, these versions of the protocol will increase open access options for researchers wishing to find out more about this technology. In addition to extending the existing smFISH method to the Haseloff lab in Cambridge, ongoing support has been provided to other groups interested in this method - most notably to labs led by Prof. Anne Osbourn (JIC) and Prof. Fujiwara (University of Tokyo). In recognition of her ongoing efforts to promote plant smFISH, LGC has made Susan an expert collaborator. The company will present posters at both the Plant and Animal Genome Asia and Asia Plant Genomics and Gene Expression conferences to explicitly promote Susan's method. There are ongoing discussions for Susan to organise an LGC funded workshop that would enable researchers to visit Norwich and gain hands-on experience of smFISH and Susan presented her smFISH work at the Norwich Single Cell Symposium at the Earlham Instute in May. |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/projects/advancing-the-ability-to-image-single-rna-molecules-at-the-cellula... |
| Company Name | BENEFICIAL BIO LTD |
| Description | Beneficial Bio is a network of social enterprises run by biologists with the goal of helping labs around the world secure reagents quickly and economically. Beneficial Bio Ltd UK is a non-profit company which supports the development of manufacturing and sales nodes in the global South to produce open source reagents using materials including those emerging from OpenPlant, specifically the Open Enzyme Collection and Biomaker Challenge hardware. The initial pilot partner is in Cameroon with further partnerships being explored in Chile, Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria. |
| Year Established | 2019 |
| Impact | Partnered with MboaLab Biotech in Cameroon to establish the country's first private sector biomanufacturing facility using synthetic biology techniques and open source tools. Employing four full time staff including two scientists. Six interns hosted from local universities, one of which has gone on to full time employment with the company and two have gone on to MSc or PhD programmes in Europe. Projected revenues of $250k+ in 2021 and further funding secured from Volkswagen Stiftung and Open Society Foundations. |
| Website | https://beneficial.bio |
| Company Name | Colorifix |
| Description | Colorifix has developed a new method to dye textiles where microbes are used to produce, deposit and fix pigments to fabric. The patent pending process can use engineered microbes |
| Year Established | 2016 |
| Impact | The method developed by Colorifix is sustainable and can be made into a circular economy. Importantly, the production of pigments are mostly from engineered microbes that are produced using synthetic biology methods developed in the UK, supported by RCUK (BBSRC, EPSRC). These include DNA assembly methods, LOOP and BASIC. Importantly, the company also has engaged with DNA foundries in London and in Norwich (Earlham Institute). From an environmental standpoint, compared to conventional methods based on petrochemical dyes and dyeing: No hazardous chemicals (no taxes or fines for use/disposal) No extraction of pigment (80% cost of fermented products) 90% reduction of water use 30% reduction in energy use <1% dye waste (3x better than industry standard) Combines two processes: lower carbon footprint |
| Website | https://colorifix.com/ |
| Company Name | Iceni Diagnostics Ltd |
| Description | Iceni Diagnsoptics offers bespoke solutions to third parties with requirement in carbohydrate and bioconjugation chemistry. It also has an in house program of glycodiagnostics development. |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | Too early |
| Company Name | Leaf Systems International |
| Description | Leaf Systems® International Limited is a new contract development business specialising in the expression and production of proteins, metabolites and complex natural products for research and bio-medical applications using a proprietary, transient expression technology. Leaf Systems uses the proprietary Hypertrans® expression technologies developed by Prof.George Lomonossoff at the John Innes Centre, UK. The Hypertrans system allows for the simultaneous production of multiple gene products in a controlled and coordinated manner within the tissues of plants. Using gene synthesis and modular vectors, new products can be developed, validated, scaled and produced very quickly. Leaf Systems is employing state of the art containment facilities to produce and engineer its feedstock plants and has industry standard downstream processing capabilities to ensure production quality and bio-security. Leaf Systems works with companies as a contract development organisation to develop and scale the production of their products or intermediates. We also work alongside academic scientists to translate their science into scalable processes or to develop new enabling technologies, including as a collaborator on grants. Leaf Systems has SME status and is available to participate in translational research and development consortia, including EU framework programs. |
| Year Established | 2016 |
| Impact | As it is less than a year old, it is too soon for Leaf Systems to have had an impact yet. |
| Website | http://leafsystems.com |
| Company Name | Persephone Bio Ltd |
| Description | Persephone Bio is a plant natural products company (Company Number 9128375) producing bioactive compounds for the cosmetics and skin therapeutics sector. It was spun-out by CM and Eugenio Butelli supported by their prize money for the BBSRC's most promising innovation of 2014. Its mission is to establish routes to market for non-food ingredients produced in tomato, in particular for cosmetics |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | Proprietary TomPro production system for making extracts from tomatoes without use of chemicals |
| Website | http://persephonebio.co.uk/ |
| Description | "An edit for Good?" Popular Science article for lab News |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Article for the online magazine, Lab News: "Gene editing could allow incredible crop improvements, with the potential to reduce the harmful impact of agrochemicals on biodiversity while boosting yield. However, the recent European Court of Justice ruling that gene editing be regarded as the same as GM poses a huge barrier to farmers and hamstrings European science. So, should the UK embrace gene-edited crops post-EU?" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.labnews.co.uk/article/2024846/an_edit_for_good |
| Description | "Meet the Scientist" Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | During the Norwich Science Festival we organised a "meet the scientist" event where scientists who had won a space to have their images exhibited in a display were invited to come and give a 5 minute presentation next to their image about their work. This was a free ticketed event for a maximum of 50 people, all tickets went and the audience response was excellent with everyone staying behind after the presentations to chat to the scientists. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | 'Reach and Teach Science in Africa': Strengthening Agricultural Research Capacity to Tackle Food Insecurity in Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant provided support to a Molecular Biology workshop in Africa: From 1-5 April 2019, early-career researchers from the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge organised a large-scale Molecular Biology Training & Open Labware Building Workshop in collaboration with the Laboratory of Genetics, Horticulture and Seed Science (GBioS) at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin Republic. The purpose of the workshop was designed to provide core bio-scientific knowledge and laboratory skills to Africa-based agricultural researchers who would lead their own future research agenda. The event was a great success, received attention from media and policy makers and got lots of positive feedback. Plans for follow-on meetings were made. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/projects/2020/01/29/reach-and-teach-science-in-africa |
| Description | 2017 Youth STEMM Gold Awards |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on synthetic biology followed by a practical workshop on designing genetic circuits. Sudents then presented their ideas, asked technical questions and discussed the potential impacts of synthetic biology and biotechnology on society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://ysawards.co.uk |
| Description | 2022 CEPAMS Workshop on Traditional Chinese Medicine 9 - 10 January 2022 Virtually on Zoom Session 2: Natural Products and Quality of Traditional Chinese Medicine - |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Chaired by Evangelos Tatsis 08:55 - 09:15 16:55 - 17:15 Anne Osbourn (John Innes Centre) "Triterpene pathway discovery and engineering" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | A Horizon Scan of Bioengineering Issues |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jim Haseloff, Nicola Patron, Jenny Molloy, Benjamin Lichmann and Colette Matthewman from OpenPlant joined an international working group to participate in a 'horizon scanning' exercise organised by Bonnie Wintle from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) in Cambridge. The aim of the exercise was to identify new and emerging issues in bioengineering and to gain a better understanding of current and future risks and opportunities in the field. A paper summarising and analysing the emerging issues has been written collaboratively between all working group members and submitted for publication. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | A visit to the Vavilov |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A short article in the International Society for Plant Molecular farming (ISPMF) newsletter describing a visit to the Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia by George Lomonossoff and Ian Gibson , Jul 2017 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | AO attended Synthetic Biology Industrial Translation Showcase @Synbio_Showcase:Synbite Showcase Programme at the Royal Academy of Engineering 17.11.22 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the 1-Day SynbiTECH Showcase was to reflect important issues and changes in the field of synthetic biology/engineering biology. As with the previous SynbiTECH meetings, the focus was primarily be on the development of the U.K.'s industrial and commercial synthetic biology/engineering biology sector. Consequently, the programme did not only reflect industrial and company development, but, also, important associated matters including strategy and policy, finance, policy and biosecurity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://www.synbicite.com/news-events/2022/nov/17/synbicite-showcase-2022/ |
| Description | AS gave a seminar to Festival of Genomics & Biodata |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | AS gave a seminar to Festival of Genomics & Biodata entitled 'Using Synthetic Biology to Develop Algal Production Platforms for High Value Compounds'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.genomicseducation.hee.nhs.uk/events/festival-of-genomics-2021/ |
| Description | AS gave a talk at SymBLS21 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | AS gave a talk entitled 'Synthetic Biology Approaches to Developing Microalgal Production Platforms' at SymBLS21, a student-led research conference for postgraduates in Life Sciences at the University of Cambridge. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | AS gave a talk at the 2nd Biodesign Research Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | AS gave a talk at the 2nd Biodesign Research Conference entitled Redesigning the Chlamydomonas chloroplast genome' to an audience from across biological and engineering disciplines, both academics and industrialists. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.biodesign-conference.com/2021/ |
| Description | Agritech East - outreach evening to algal innovation centre by those interested in and working in farming sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This is the text from the Agritech East Report after the event: Sainsbury Lab and Algal Innovation Centre - Cambridge University At the end of January we hosted a Young Innovators' Forum (YIF) visit to the Sainsbury Lab and Algal Innovation Centre, Cambridge University. This was visit as part of YIF programme which aims to bring together early career entrants from across farming, science and technology at innovative agri-business and research facilities. On the night we were joined by farmers, scientists, researchers and engineers who were all interested to find out about the work happening in the lab. The Sainsbury Lab is a world class research facility which opened in 2011. The group found out that the research which is carried out is exploring the regulatory systems which control growth and development in plants. We were able to get an insight into the labs as we walked through the building due to the open plan nature of the space. Unlike some research facilities, the Sainsbury Lab is unusual in having individuals from different research groups sat on the same benches, which encourages more conversation and collaboration across different research strands. We heard about the findings of some of the research and particularly enjoyed finding out about the most unusual discovery which was made totally by accident when a plant was found to produce minerals that were previously only believed to be found in asteroids! We then moved onto the Algal Innovation Centre which sits within the Botanic Gardens. A purpose built facility, the AIC provides a secure environment to carry out research into the uses and behaviour of algae. Matt Davey, Senior Research Associate, talked us through some of the different work which has been carried out within the lab. This includes working with a local water company on growing algae on waste nitrate which can then be used to produce energy by putting it into an anaerobic digester. We learnt about other research linked to the health food sector due to the fact that Omega oils, which in the past have been extracted from fish, an actually be captured from the algae which produces it. Some of the work that Matt and his team have been carrying out is how to optimise growing conditions and nutrient supply, especially understanding how different algal strains survive in different climates. It was a surprise to learn that algal pigments can be found in everyday products such as Smarties and wine gums! Finally, we were shown around the Plant Growth Facility. In this building there are lots of separate chambers in which all factors needed for plant growth can be controlled, such as humidity and light. This enables researchers to be able to drill down into the specific variables that might influence or affect a particular result. As we walked around the facility, we saw a range of plant species being tested on including wheat, potatoes and rice. These secure, air tight chambers also allow tests into plant pathogens to happen as they can be contained and assessed within a rigorous framework. We were really lucky to be able to explore the Sainsbury Lab and Algal Innovation Centre. It was so interesting to hear about all the research that is going on which could impact the agricultural industry in the future. As with all of our YIF events, attendees then had the opportunity to discuss the tours as well as talk about their experience and knowledge in the area. We chatted to some of the attendees to see what they got from attending the event, here is what they had to say: Matt White, Engineer, Cambridge Consultants The YIF visit was an excellent opportunity for industry members like ourselves to learn about the cutting-edge research being carried out in agricultural sectors. Having the opportunity to speak with leading researchers in algae growth and cultivation was fascinating and highly valuable for expanding our knowledge in this area! These events are great at increasing links between academia and industry to help us develop agricultural technology together more effectively. Pamela Ribone, Researcher, Sainsbury Lab The reason for attending the YIF visit was that I really wanted to try and apply what I have done so far with my research to a more applied science, and this was an incredible opportunity to know more about what is in between really basic science and the final application to a product. The Algal Innovation Centre looks like the kind of things I would like to go for the next step. From the visit I understood that they do laboratory research, but focusing on solving problems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=23903&qid=1491603 |
| Description | Agritech Sixth Former Course |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In 2016 we ran a pilot course for sixth formers to give them an insight into careers in the Agritech sector. The students spent one day at the John Innes Centre learning about academic research into crops with lots of hands-on practical work and a second day at Easton & Otley agricultural college to learn how research is applied and the innovations in precision agriculture. The course was funded by Robert Carter, Royal Norfolk Show president of 2015, who came to JIC to open the first day and also commissioned a video of the course. We presented the results to the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association trustees and are currently fund raising to run another course this year for a larger number of students in collaboration with the University of East Anglia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2tX0hct-CoZLUVWN0gzX1REeEU/view?pref=2&pli=1 |
| Description | AlgaeEurope 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of research into algal synthetic biology to the principle conference in Europe aimed at supporting and developing the algal biotechnology sector. About half the participants were from industry (including large multisector, SMEs and startups)and 10% or so policy makers and officials eg from EU. The aim was to inform this group about the potential of synthetic biology in developing algal industrial biotechnology, providing the impetus to consider algae as production platforms for high value products as well as simply for biomass production. As a result, a consortium has been formed of academic colleagues who will share best practice and resources in SynBio. I also described our recently opened Algal Innovation Centre (AIC), where it is possible to carry out pilot-scale algal cultivation, including of GM algae. As a result of the talk several contacts have been made with companies who are interested in the AIC. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Anne Osbourn - one of EDP 150 Norfolk Heroes of Science and Nature |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Published: 10:24 AM October 13, 2020 Updated: 7:06 PM November 22, 2020 Anne Osbourn. The professor of biology and director of the Norwich Research Park biotechnology alliance has been involved in discoveries to help agriculture and medicine and is also a writer and founder of an initiative linking science, art and writing. She and her scientist sister were both made OBEs last year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/edp-150-norfolk-heroes-of-science-and-nature-6407500 |
| Description | Anne Osbourn interviewedon the Stephen Bumfrey programme on BBC Radio Norfolk on 10 February 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn interviewed on the Stephen Bumfrey programme on BBC Radio Norfolk (from approximately 1:44:02) - 10 February 2022 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bj2cbr |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bj2cbr |
| Description | Anne Osbourn meeting with George Freeman MP during visit to Norwich Research Park |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn met George Freeman MP (Minister of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) as one of the NRP Entrepreneurial Researchers. Professor Anne Osbourn, Founder of Hothouse Therapeutics, spoke about Unlocking Nature's Inaccessible Chemistry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | ArtCell Exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Scientific art exhibit with microscopy images from Jim Haseloff and Fernan Federici, opened by the Mayor of Cambridge and open to the public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Article: 'Should we genetically edit the food we eat?' The Conversation. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article co-written with an editor and social scientist and published at 'The Conversation'. This article is part of The Conversation's 'Head to Head' series, which feature academics from different disciplines chewing over current debates. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/should-we-genetically-edit-the-food-we-eat-we-asked-two-experts-162959 |
| Description | Attendance of Synthetic Biology UK 2019 conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The SBUK 2019 gave a broad overview of research in a number of areas of synthetic biology and facilitated discussions about strategies and future directions. Another event will be held in 2020. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=22575&eventID=52&traceRedir=2 |
| Description | BBC Radio 4 interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview about the potential impact of Synthetic Biology |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | BBSRC Exploring Innovation Workshop - Progress in intellectual property rights for plant science and crop breeding |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant Case Study was presented by Jenny Molloy "OpenPlant and a two-tier model for IP and open innovation". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://members.niab.com/sites/default/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/files/IPR%20A4%20programme%2... |
| Description | BBSRC NIBB IBCarb, Cambridge UK - September 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented a talk at BBSRC NIBB IBCarb Event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | BBSRC Taiwan partnering award meeting 23-24 March, 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | BBSRC Taiwan partnering award meeting 23-24 March, 2015. I gave a 20 min presentation on metabolic pathway engineering in the Osbourn group. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | BBSRC virtual meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | AEO gave a presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Bahir Dar Biomaker Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Biomaker Africa workshops were set up to get non-programmers up and running within a day or two. This is due to use of the no-code programming environment XOD, which can be used to introduce biologists to hands-on physical computing. This proves to be a great way of promoting co-creation in interdisciplinary teams - where both the engineers and the biologists can communicate properly! (https://www.hackster.io/jim-haseloff/biomaker-starter-kit-xod-023e8b). In addition, we've doubled down on the use of the 4D Systems touchscreens with XOD and the Biomaker Starter kits, to allow code-free communication between Arduino devices and the touchscreens, with their ViSi-Genie interfaces. We've built better tutorial materials to kick-start this (e.g. https://www.hackster.io/jim-haseloff/biomaker-tutorial-4-programming-the-4ds-touchscreen-3b2006). Details of the 2-day workshops and associated open resources can be found at https://www.biomaker.org |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/visiting-workshops |
| Description | Big Algae Open Experiment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The Big Open Algae Experiment team were funded by OpenPlant Fund to help enhance algal knowledge by performing the biggest parallel algae experiment in history. They are inviting universities and citizen scientists to participate in an open-source data collection experiment on outdoor microalgal growth. During the OpenPlant Fund project, low-cost bioreactors, the website and app were constructed (http://bigalgae.com/about). In this last two years we have been running the "Big Algae Experiment" and have interacted with school groups at Latitude Festival, the New Scientist Festival, Rugby School and through events in Cambridge. Big Algae was showcased at the CRI, Paris and at the Open Source Tech conference in Santiago, Chile. As part of UCL Engineering's programme of CPD activities for teachers, we have also organised sessions with STEM teachers to demonstrate the bioreactors and train them in how to run the experiments. The concept is being developed into an 'Algaegotchi' pet with the Iaac Advanced Architecture Group in Barcelona. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| Description | Biochemistry Focus Webinar Series: Developments in Industrial Biotechnology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Developments in Industrial Biotechnology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj3gNIInKA0&feature=emb_title |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj3gNIInKA0&feature=emb_title |
| Description | Biodiversity Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | New SAW workshop delivered at Bignold Primary School on World Biodiversity Day to introduce year 4 children to the importance of biodiversity for people and the planet and to some of the factors that are causing species decline across the globe. The children were amazed by the wealth of species, their importance in the ecosystem and how humans utilise natural products and shocked by the driving forces to extinction, a term they believed to only apply in the past, linked to dinosaurs, and not something that was ongoing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/in-schools/world-biodiversity-day-at-bignold-primary-school/ |
| Description | Bioengineering Horizon Scanning Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Several members of OpenPlant took part in a one day horizon scanning exercise organised by the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. This has resulted in a submitted publication and a follow up workshop is planned with a focus on biorisk and biosecurity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Bioinformatics training in kenya |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The OpenPlant Fund supported a bioinformatics training From 30th November to 5th December 2015 for 37 students from nine African countries. The course was held at ICIPE in Nairobi, Kenya and involved six days of theory and practical work, starting from the principles of Unix and programming, through to advanced scientific programming and visualisation. Towards the end of the week students worked on specific analysis methods in various areas of genetics and genomics, with a special focus session on synthetic biology delivered by Richard Smith-Unna. An ongoing student-led study group, coordinated online, will help the students keep the momentum from the course going and the course was also repeated with a new cohort in 2016. The course materials were made freely available online. Dr Jelena Aleksic explained why such courses can have such an enormous impact in Africa "In an environment where all scientists above undergraduate level are expected to lecture regularly, the impact of advanced training courses quickly goes beyond the original participants. All our students hold Masters qualifications or above and work at African research institutions. We estimate that each of our course attendees will have the chance to pass on some of those skills to an additional 200 colleagues within the first year alone, and many more on an ongoing basis from there." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Bioluminescence display |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Collaboration between Bernardo Pollak and Anton Kan (Haseloff lab, Cambridge) and Victoria Geany (Royal College of Arts) to create a bioluminescent dress design. This resulted in public displays as part of the eLuminate Festival in Cambridge, and Display at the RCA, London - followed by a photo essay in Wired UK magazine in January 2017 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| Description | Biomaker Challenge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Biomaker Challenge calls on interdisciplinary teams to (i) build low-cost sensors and instruments for biology or (ii) develop some biological resource or outreach project. Over a number of years, the initiative has funded over 175 projects and involved hundreds of participants from a wide range of backgrounds. It has proved a great opportunity to learn new skills, collaborate with an interdisciplinary community and, in a short amount of time, develop tools and resources that are useful for real-world applications. Tools and resources developed during the Biomaker Challenge are openly documented and made freely available. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/projectindex |
| Description | Biomaker Challenge and OpenPlant Fund Mixer - June 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This event, held in Cambridge, provided an opportunity for participants to discuss ideas for OpenPlant Fund proposals for innovative and interdisciplinary projects in plant synthetic biology or prototyping projects for the Biomaker Challenge. Several researchers traveled from Norwich to join the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/events-calendar/2017/6/14/biomaker-challenge-and-openplant-fund-mixer |
| Description | Biomaker Fayre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Forty interdisciplinary teams exhibited their prototypes for the 2017 Biomaker Challenge at the Department of Engineering. Projects covered everything from spectrometers for measuring the colour of penguin guano, microfluidics for tissue culture, to ultrasonic systems for measuring plant height and 3D printed modular microscopes. Each group was given a £1000 grant and four months to turn their big ideas for open source and DIY research tools into reality and over 100 people came along to the final event. The Challenge and Fayre aimed to show the value of open, low-cost and DIY technologies as convening points for interactions between biologists and engineers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/news/biomaker-fayre-showcases-40-open-source-low-cost-biological-instru... |
| Description | Biomaker Fayre 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Biomarker Challenge is an annual competition that funds creative interdisciplinary projects at the interface of biology and engineering. Each of the 20(+) teams that took part this year, have been supported to produce low cost, open access resources and instruments, for biology. At the Biomaker Fayre, a whole array of innovative and creative projects returned to Cambridge to showcase their final products. Interesting discussions were held and ideas for follow-on activities were made. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2019/11/14/biomaker-fayre |
| Description | Biomaker Training Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Series of Training Workshops for no-code programming and assembly of scientific instrumentation as documented at https://www.biomaker.org. Follow-on participation in open source projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org |
| Description | Biomaker.org website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We established this new website to host project information and outcomes from the OpenPlant Fund and Biomaker Challenge funding schemes. There are now over 100 projects documented on the website, and we have had around 4,000 independent visitors to the site. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.biomaker.org |
| Description | Biotech Gamechangers: Introduction to Synthetic Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Workshop for secondary school students, organised by Hethel Innovation. Hannah Griffiths contributed a talk, and ran an activity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Blog post - 'Unlocking power of gene editing to protect the natural environment' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Blog post - 'Unlocking power of gene editing to protect the natural environment' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.earlham.ac.uk/newsroom/unlocking-power-gene-editing-protect-natural-environment-earlham-... |
| Description | Blog post: New legislation granted to progress plant gene editing in UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog post: New legislation granted to progress plant gene editing in UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.earlham.ac.uk/newsroom/new-legislation-granted-progress-plant-gene-editing-uk |
| Description | Botanical workshop for children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A botanical drawing workshop for 20 children was held at the John Innes Centre of 29 June 2015. This was led by a botanical artist from Kew Gardens who had been on many international plant hunting expeditions to document new species, who told stories about her travels. The JIC rare books collection was used to show the children historic collections and to highlight how plant natural products were discovered and documented. The children then made their own botanical drawings. They also learned about seed banks and the importance of maintaining biodiversity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Built new image library for the Norwich Research Park |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | To help raise awareness of the high quality research carried out across the Norwich Research Park, we developed an open access image library to showcase images of NRP science accompanied by accessible legends suitable for a general audience. The image library has the potential to attract new traffic to the NRP institute websites and research group homepages and will allow groups such as the media, schools, the general public and other researchers to gain a glimpse of the great depth and diversity of research that is being carried out in Norwich. Although all the images are freely available to download and use, people are required to sign up to use the library and are asked to enter information at the time of download about their intended use of the image. This helps to capture who is using the library and where the images are being used. So far images have been downloaded 582 times and have been used in presentations, publications, on websites, for education and advertising. We ran an image competition to raise awareness across the NRP site and then assembled a judging panel to select the top 12 images which were used to create an NRP calendar for 2016. The calendar was sent to politicians, business leaders, industry and academics at institutions in the UK and internationally. The competition featured in the local paper, the Eastern Daily Press and an overall winner was picked and used to make a large canvas which is hanging in the new Centrum building. We have received many positive comments about the libraries ease of use for finding good quality, copyright free images to use in presentations from fellow researchers across the site. In October 2016 we put on a two-week, large scale image exhibition at the Forum in Norwich as part of the first Norwich Science Festival. The images attracted a lot of interest and several artists have been in touch with scientists whose research images were on display to set up new collaborations using science to inform artistic practice. We will post outcomes of these endeavours onto the image library website to widen our exposure to new audiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
| URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/ |
| Description | CDT-Sumitomo online workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | UK-Japan online workshop to discuss advanced research topics and possible translation to applications |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | CPSC PhD course: SYNthetic BIOlogy, From pro- to eukaryotic SYStems (SYNBIOSYS) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Delivered lectures and workshops as part of the University of Copenhagen's CPSC PhD course: SYNthetic BIOlogy, From pro- to eukaryotic SYStems (SYNBIOSYS) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://cpsc.ku.dk/calendar/2017/cpsc-phd-summer-course-2017-synbiosys/ |
| Description | Cafe Synthetique |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Café Synthetique is the monthly meetup for the Cambridge synthetic biology community with informal talks, discussion and pub snacks. We meet monthly at the Panton Arms to share the latest developments in synthetic biology and related approaches and techniques. Speakers range from students and group leaders to industry professionals and entrepreneurs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/events/cafe-synthetique/events/cafe-synthetique/past-cafe-synthetique |
| Description | Cafe Synthetique Synthetic Biology Graduate Student Talks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Cafe Synthetique is an informal monthly pub meeting for Synthetic Biology in Cambridge. In July 2017 it highlighted graduate student work in synthetic biology including algae, arsenic testing and automated labs. Algal synthetic biology featured heavily as Aleix Gorchs Rivera, Stefan Grossfurthner and Patrick Hickland from Prof Alison Smith's Lab, in the Department of Plant Sciences, presented different approaches to engineering algae to generate valuable products, such as pigments and medicinal compounds. Jan Lyczakowski (Department of Biochemistry) from Prof Paul Dupree's lab described his efforts to engineer the structure of the plant sugar xylan in order to extract more biofuel from woody biomass. Tess Skyrme represented the Sensors Centre for Doctoral Training (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology), where 12 students have spent the summer designing and prototyping an arsenic biosensor. Clayton Rabideau (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) provided an introduction to the current state of the art in machine learning and automation in synthetic biology. Another event will be run in 2018 following popular demand and one of the speakers went on to curate their own Cafe Synthetique meetings, giving valuable networking opportunities and organisational experience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Cafe Synthetique: Towards Engineering Circadian Rhythms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Pub meeting in Cambridge with talks to 25 people by OpenPlant PDRA Lukas Muller (Department of Plant Sciences) on "Approaches to investigate the circadian system in Marchantia" and John O'Neill (MRC-LMB) on "Circadian Rhythms - Everything you always wanted to know about jet lag (but were too tired to ask)". There was excellent discussion after the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Cambridge Biomakespace |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Set up a community bio lab in the ex-MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology building in Cambridge |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| URL | https://biomake.space |
| Description | Cambridge Crash Course in Synthetic Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Annual 2-week interdisciplinary course in Synthetic Biology for professionals and students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010,2011,2012 |
| Description | Cambridge Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Designed and ran interactive activities at the Cambridge Science Festival to show what synthetic biology is and how we can apply this to plants to use either to gain deeper understanding about biological processes or to design new applications of benefit to society. The stand invited people to play games that generated different ideas for using synthetic biology in plants which created a great starting point for discussions around responsible innovation. Our stand won an award from the Cambridge BID (Business Improvement District) Awards following some 'mystery shoppers' evaluating stands across the Cambridge Science Festival. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/2016-event-recordings |
| Description | Cambridge Science Festival, Cambridge UK - March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Particiapated in the Cambridge Science Festical at the Department of Chemistry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Cambridge SynBio Forums |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The SynBio Forums are sponsored by the University of Cambridge Synthetic Biology Interdisciplinary Research Centre, and feature prominent international speakers and excellent networking opportunities - they provide excellent opportunities to learn more about cutting edge synthetic biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/events/forum |
| Description | Cambridge-JIC iGEM Team (iGEM Giant Jamboree) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant sponsored the Cambridge-JIC iGEM 2015 team. The team recruited 10 undergraduate students from across disciplines to the new iGEM Hardware Track, focusing on software-controlled electronic, optical, mechanical and chemical interfaces with biological systems. The team chose to build an ultra low-cost 3D-printed motorised web-streaming autofocus microscope for synthetic biologists,. This allows researchers to tailor the microscope to their needs - allowing imaging on any lab-bench, in the incubator, fume-hood or the field using remote access and battery power, or use many OpenScopes for parallel rapid preliminary screening. The microscope offers fluorescence imaging for schools and laboratories with small budgets, based on low-cost (£200 in its most expensive set-up) and easily sourced components. In addition to developing hardware and software for OpenScope, the team authored a guide on open hardware licensing for other iGEM teams and open teaching materials for use with high school students and undergraduates, including a 'Learning to Program with Arduino' pack. They visited the NRP-UEA team in Norwich and maintained useful contact with other teams in the UK and internationally during the competition. OpenScope was awarded a gold medal at the iGEM Giant Jamboree in Boston, where >2500 people attended, many of whom saw the project and poster. They were nominated by the judging team for four awards: ? Best Hardware Project ? Best Software Tool, Undergrad ? Best Applied Design, Undergrad ? Best Poster, Undergrad A working set-up of OpenScope and the software was demonstrated to huge interest from other teams and supervisors. A number of team supervisors mentioned that they were considering using OpenScope as an alternative to commercial microscopes in their teaching laboratories, both to reduce costs and as setting up the microscope would be an educational experience in itself. OpenPlant and the Synthetic Biology SRI in Cambridge are providing a funding mechanism to follow up collaborations. The iGEM students have founded a Synthetic Biology Student Society and are continuing to develop OpenScope with support from the Cambridge SynBio Fund. There are plans to collaborate with Norwich students and potentially apply for further OpenPlant funding. As part of broader engagement of OpenPlant with the iGEM competitions, a cross-track prize for plant projects has been established by a team including two OpenPlant PIs. The Cambridge-JIC 2016 team will again be supported by OpenPlant and will work with plant systems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://2015.igem.org/Team:Cambridge-JIC |
| Description | Canadian Mission to UK SynBio Centres |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of OpenPlant to a Canadian delegation of 10 participants from academia, industry, funding bodies and policy making organisations as part of their mission to to provide a better understanding of the global impact of the Synthetic Biology; to explore/enhance international collaborative opportunities (including research, funding and investment); strengthen collaborations with UK synthetic biology research centres; and to influence/inform Canadian policy makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Case study to be used as A-level resource for teachers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Lomonossoff G. P., Thuenemann E., Bushell C."Plants as biofactories" - Case study to be published by Pearson in A-level text book |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk |
| Description | Cell-Free workshop and presentation at Community Biotechnology Summit (MIT Media Lab) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jenny Molloy and Dr Fernan Federici presented the work of the OpenPlant Curriculum Development working group and ran an accompanying practical workshop at the Community Biotechnology Summit at MIT Media Lab in Oct 2017. This reached >200 people from community organisations, artists, researchers, makers, engineers, media professionals and more. There was positive follow up with several groups leading to new collaborations and an invitation to run the workshop at Genspace, New York which will take place in April 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Cell-free Synthetic Biology workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Recent technical advances in the preparation of microbial cell-free extracts have given rise to a new class of highly efficient systems for gene expression that are cheap to deploy and have huge potential benefit for the provision of a wide variety of diagnostics, sensors, vaccines and research materials. Cell-free synthetic biology is thus a topic of growing interest to many groups in Cambridge and the Synthetic Biology IRC is pleased to share its programme of activities to promote and support interdisciplinary work in this space. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/cell-free-synthetic-biology |
| Description | Cereal engineering workshop: 3 min talk and participation to the debate on synthetic biology technics applied for cereal engineering. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Cereal engineering workshop: 3 min talk and participation to the debate on synthetic biology technics applied for cereal engineering. Held at MIT in Boston on the 8th and 9th of June 2015 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Co-lab OpenPlant |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant teamed up with the Open Science School at the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire (CRI), Paris to deliver a series of three "Co-Lab" workshops where scientists, designers, artists and makers came together to learn from each other and design project proposals. Several of these projects were supported further to create prototypes at a big Making Weekend. A report on the workshop methods and outcomes has been produced and will be distributed. The project has fostered a longer term collaboration between organisers from the Open Science School, Cambridge University and the John Innes Centre who are working together to develop synthetic biology teaching tools and information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://openscienceschool.org/ |
| Description | Collaboration on Floreana, musical composition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Collaboration on Floreana with music composer Rosalind Page as part of The Origin Cycle, an avant garde music and media piece that celebrated Charles Darwin, and incorporated plant microscopy images related to collections made on the voyage of the Beagle. The piece was performed at the Harvard Natural History Museum, Boston, and Australian Museum, Sydney. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010 |
| Description | Conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk entitled "Synthetic virus-like particles and how to make them in plants" at AIchE conference "Plant synthetic biology, bioengineering and biotechnology. This resulted in scientific discussions and promotion of the technology involved. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.aiche.org |
| Description | Conference presentation by KC & PMM |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Posters presented at Synthetic Biology UK meeting describing our work in developing synthetic biology approaches in algae |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.biochemistry.org/events/synthetic-biology-uk-2022/ |
| Description | Conscious Consumers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Working with the Food and Farming Discovery Trust, Youth STEMM Award and LEAF Education, we have produced a set of activity materials for teenagers on the topics of food miles, plant-based diets, personalised nutrition, animal welfare, rewilding and climate change. The resources are a mix of activities, videos from experts and links to case studies and further info for teenagers to access. The similarity between all the topics is that it challenges young people to question sources of information on topical issues on social media sites to enable them to filter information by its reliability and quality to make informed decisions as young adults. We are now working with the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development on an additional set of resources focused on gene editing plants as this is another topic in the media that we want young people to be able to engage with and understand in a non-biased way. We trialed the resources with some teenagers and they all said that they learned a great deal and had an increased understanding of the topics. The resources are being promoted through the British Science Association and are currently hosted on the Countryside Classrooms website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.countrysideclassroom.org.uk/resources?search=conscious%20consumers |
| Description | Creation and running of online training workshops for Biomaker |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | In response to the COVID lockdown Stephanie Norwood and I, as organisers of the Biomaker initiative, introduced more easily accessible hardware resources and created novel training materials for online teaching of no-code programming techniques for biologists lacking in formal programming skills. (https://www.biomaker.org/nocode-programming-for-biology-handbook). We have distributed around 200 hardware kits and run a series of online workshops via Zoom. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org |
| Description | Creative Collaborations: Bringing Science and the Arts Together (Virtual event, Norwich Science Festival) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | https://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/creative-collaboration-bringing-science-and-arts-together Creative Collaboration: Bringing Science and the Arts Together, 26 October 2020 https://youtu.be/OZ8qn4huj8Q Q&A Led by Jenni Rant and Anne Osbourn |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/creative-collaboration-bringing-science-and-arts-toget... |
| Description | Curriculum Hacks event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented a large display on engagement activities developed and run by the SAW Trust for OpenPlant at a variety of events to share ideas with other people working in synthetic biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | DITOs/OSS Leadership Programme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman presented on OpenPlant, the Synthetic Biology for Schools project and the SAW Trust to a group of french secondary school biotechnology teachers in Paris as part of the Doing it together science (DITOs) EU project and the Open Science School. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://togetherscience.eu/ |
| Description | DNA Dave Presentation at the Biomakers Fayre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We were awarded Biomaker and biochemical society funding to progress ideas for creating resources and designing a workshop for schools to build their own robot and presented our prototype teaching kit at the Biomakers Fayre in Cambridge in November 2020. We will be running pilot workshop for secondary schools in 2020 to test the resources and we will follow each schools progress as they work towards building their own biology-themed robots before hosting a sharing event for students to bring their robots along to present and to discuss their experiences during the process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/news/dna-dave-at-the-biomakers-fayre/ |
| Description | DNA workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We delivered a Science Art and Writing workshop on the theme of DNA at a local Junior school in a deprived area who were hosting a visiting group of Chinese children. Due to the language barriers, the local children paired up with a Chinese child to work through the activities together which meant they had to first understand the required process before helping their partner to complete tasks. This gave a new depth to the learning process which was reinforced by the local children having to take on the role of the instructor in their pair. This built confidence in the children. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Decoding and recoding Biological Systems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Norwich Research Park Industrial Biotech Alliance event "Decoding and recoding Biological Systems" was a one day symposium that involved several OpenPlant researchers from both Norwich and Cambridge. The aim of the workshop was to bring together scientists working across interdisciplinary interfaces spanning genomics, computational and synthetic biology and to provide a forum for enhanced interactions and collaborative research opportunities. Jim Haseloff, Nicola Patron and George Lomonossoff all gave scientific talks on their research. Anne Osbourn hosted the event and Colette Matthewman helped with the organisation and chaired the poster presentations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.nrp.ac.uk/decoding-and-recoding-biological-systems/ |
| Description | Design as a host for growth: What are the new modes of cultivation for designing with life? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Design with the Living aims to provide a space for critique and to drive an annual review of the agency of 'design with the living' in a global perspective. It is co-organised by the Design Museum, the Design & Living Systems Lab (Central Saint Martins UAL), The Bio ID Lab (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL) and the British Council. This event asked "Can designing with living systems be the change we need in the context of today's current environmental and ecological challenges?" In contrbuted to the panel "Design as a host for growth: What are the new modes of cultivation for designing with life?" to discuss design of tools and infrastructure to support living systems and the role of open-source frameworks for bio-design, including the outcomes of OpenPlant. >100 people attended the event which sparked an interesting panel discussion with architects and designers that influenced some of my thinking about my work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://designmuseum.org/whats-on/talks-courses-and-workshops/design-with-the-living-2020 |
| Description | Development of an Open Source Autonomous Imaging Station for Distribution in High Schools, Universities, and Emerging DIY Scientific Communities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The advent of easy-to-use open source microcontrollers, off-the-shelf electronics and customizable manufacturing technologies has facilitated the development of inexpensive scientific devices and laboratory equipment. The team developed and published (Nuñez et al., 2017) an imaging system that integrates low-cost and open-source hardware, software and genetic resources. The multi-fluorescence imaging system consists of readily available 470 nm LEDs, a Raspberry Pi camera and a set of filters made with low cost acrylics. This device allows imaging in scales ranging from single colonies to entire plates. The team have used these resources in workshops in high schools, community spaces and cultural centres; and implemented advanced practicals to teach in vitro synbio, DNA fab and microbiology. The open source and low cost nature of the resources has allowed citizens to better understand the principles behind gene expression analysis and modelling. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | E. chromi museum displays |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | E. chromi at the Wellcome Trust, display of iGEM biological designs for human health and new biosensors, scientific collaborator with designers Daisy Ginsberg and James King. This was followed by displays at: Design Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York, and a travelling exhibition in Australia and New Zealand. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2011,2012 |
| URL | http://www.echromi.com |
| Description | EI Innovate: Linking datasets and bioscience |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | EI Innovate 2021: Linking datasets and bioscience Through effectively linking datasets we can accelerate bioscience and deliver the key innovations needed to improve food security, environmental management, conservation, health and wellbeing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.earlham.ac.uk/ei-innovate-2021-linking-datasets-and-bioscience#SpeakersandOrganisers-1 |
| Description | EI SAB meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Member EI SAB: Meeting held 4-5 November 2020 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | EPSO/FESPB Joint Congress |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was chair of the scientific advisory committee for this biennial meeting held in Copenhagen in 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | ERA-SYNBIO/BBSRC OPENPLANT Summer School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A summer schools at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK designed to provide participants with 'An introduction to synthetic biology in plant systems' in conjunction with OpenPlant, a collaborative plant-focussed Synthetic Biology Research Centre linking the University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13433/abstract |
| Description | EU 2WAYS hands-on exhibit for Synthetic Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Constructed a touch-screen based interface for computer modelled growth of flowers, as part of a collaboration with Christophe Godin, Montpellier. A simple interface allowed children to explore the genetic control of plant growth and explore different floral structures. The interactive exhibit was teamed with a display board of floral architecture. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010,2011 |
| Description | Early Years Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Set up an exhibition stand at the Early Years conference to showcase SAW materials and in particular our Plant Growth and Development lesson plan developed for OpenPlant. We had a lot of interest from early years educators and we are now working with a local nursery school to trial some new plant-themed activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Edible East |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We set up online workshops for scientists to discuss their work with artists interested in plants, health and the future of food security and climate change. The sessions led on to the artists creating installations for an art trail around the city utilising public spaces such as empty shops, churchyards and museums all inspired by the science stories. As well as the art trail, we put on a number of workshops for the public that provided new experiences in a range of activities from science, art, dance and horticulture with a central aim to spark discussions on our use of outdoor space for food growing as communities. The project was the start of a longer term aim to bring people together to make Norwich more food secure and to bring the latest scientific studies into everyday discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://edibleeast.org.uk/news/ |
| Description | Edinburgh Science Festival: Designer Life |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Panelist on public debate on Synthetic Biology, transmitted as part the "Material World" programme radio. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Engagement Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an 'in-house' event where scientists were invited to put up displays of their engagement resources so that other scientists could come and get ideas, see what is available to share and to encourage more scientists to try public engagement. We took a selection of tried and tested outreach resources, including activities that help to explain genome mining, biosynthetic pathway building and biological engineering. We also took our DNA robot, 'DNA Dave' and his new companion 'RNA Ruth' that definitely seemed to encourage people to be bold and creative with their ideas for the tools they could make to help their research come to life for a general audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Engaging Images Competition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We ran an image competition for researchers across the Norwich Research Park to win a spot in an image exhibition at the Norwich Science Festival. Entrants were asked to upload high quality images of their work with accessible legends to the NRP Image Library Website. A mixed judging panel comprised of representatives from business, the media and the arts were brought together to judge the images and decide on the final 11 winning entries. The winning images were put on display in the Forum building in the centre of Norwich for 2 weeks and the images were also featured in print in a double-page spread in the Eastern Daily Press as well as on their website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of Case study on Gene Editing of Crops to members of the European Parliament |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | FABI awards |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Keynote talk by Anne Osbourn 26 November 2020 Osbourn A Key Note Address by Professor Anne Osbourn 17:30 PM Presentation of FABI Awards | 18:00 PM Director's Address | 18:30 PM |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Festival of Algae meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation by PMM. Audience interested in approaches developed and potential for exploitation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.algae-uk.org.uk/events/a-festival-of-algae-2/ |
| Description | Festival of Plants at Cambridge Botanic Garden on the 16th of May 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Helped Jenni Rant to hold a stand describing the scientific research ongoing at JIC, at the Festival of Plants at Cambridge Botanic Garden on the 16th of May 2015 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/Botanic/Event.aspx?p=27&ix=597&pid=2718&prcid=0&ppid=2718&edit=n |
| Description | Festival of Plants, Botanical Garden, Cambridge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Exhibit at the Festival of Plants (was called Fascination of Plants in 2012) in Cambridge University Botanic Garden. It provided basic information about algae, showcased our scientific work, and then explained how we were using this in collaboration with companies to carry out remeidation of waste water. There were activities such as viewing microalgae with microscopes and observing algae phototaxis. Children could handcraft their own algae using pipe cleaners or take part in an interactive algae quiz to win prices. Several members of the public asked for additional information. Interest from several visitors about how to incorporate algal growth in their activities, eg anaerobic digestion or green energy generally |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014,2015 |
| URL | http://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/Botanic/Event.aspx?p=27&ix=351&pid=2718&prcid=0&ppid=2718 |
| Description | Finding drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Conference Title: Hope for the Future - RIKEN Symposium on Sustainable Resource Science - 28 May 2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.yokohama.riken.jp/topics/img/Symposium_Hope%20for%20the%20Future.pdf |
| Description | Food Matters Live |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Eugenio Butelli gave a presentation entitled "synthetic biology to design novel healthy foods" at the Future Nutrition Seminar at Food Matters Live, November 2016, including presenting OpenPlant research from the Martin lab. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.foodmatterslive.com/ |
| Description | GAP Summit, Cambridge 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was part of an expert panel designed to promote Leadership in Biotechnology. The meeting took place on 05/04/16 in Trinity College, Cambridge. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.cambridgeahead.co.uk/2016/02/gapsummit-2016/ |
| Description | GARNET-OPENPLANT CRISPR WORKSHOP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CRISPR technology is fast emerging as the breakthrough technology for precise genome editing in a range of experimental systems. In order to highlight the current developments and future potential for using this technology in plants, Nicola worked with Colette Matthewman (OpenPlant) and Geraint Parry and Ruth Bastow (GarNET) to organise a workshop including a day of seminars as well as a hands-on workshop on day 2. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://plantmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13007-016-0104-z |
| Description | GM presented a poster at the Synthetic Biology UK 2021 conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | GM presented a scientific poster entitled "Engineering 5'UTRs to enhance gene expression in a green alga" on the 22-23 of November in Nottingham, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=53019&ef_sel_menu=703&eventID=1... |
| Description | Gardeners Question Time Display |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The John Innes Centre hosted Gardeners Question time for BBC Radio 4 and as part of the event put up several displays for the audience to view before and after the recorded event. We put a display up about the Global Garden workshop we have been running to showcase the outputs and to raise awareness for future workshops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Gatsby plant science summer school: engineering plants for farming and pharming |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented a lecture and particilaped in a discussion session with undergraduates as part of the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School. The summer school is an opportunity for first year undergraduate students in the UK to discover the challenge and opportunities of studying plant science. 76% of students rated this particular talk as good or very good with some very positive comments such as, 'I realised how much I loved to learn about Synthetic aspect of biology after the talk by Dr Nicola Patron'. 69% of students atteneding the whole summer school responded that they were more interested in plant science as a result of attending and one third of students reported in their feedback that they are now thinking of doing a PhD with some plant science, an increase in 12% from when asked before attending. 93% of students reported that they are interested in or are considering a career in or with plant science as a result of attending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://intobiology.org.uk/dr-nicola-patron-engineering-plants-for-farming-and-pharming/ |
| Description | Genetic resources in the age of the Nagoya Protocol and gene/genome synthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jim Haseloff, Jenny Molloy, Orr Yarkoni and Colette Matthewman participated in a one-day workshop, part-funded by an OpenPlant Fund award and organised by Dominic Berry and Deborah Scott from the Engineering Life project, University of Edinburgh. The aim of the workshop was to collect information on current developments, share views, highlight potential areas of concern, and establish grounds upon which to build better understanding of the interactions between and implications of the Nagoya Protocol and gene synthesis for collection, circulation, and use of genetic resources. A report will be prepared and published on this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.stis.ed.ac.uk/engineeringlife |
| Description | Genome Editing Reflection Afternoon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman supported a Genome Editing Reflection Afternoon at Norwich High School. There she talked about the work of OpenPlant, supported debate amongst the students on social and ethical questions related to genome editing in humans and participated in a panel discussion with student representatives of each discussion group. Here she reflected on the science process, ethical practices and regulations and commented on some existing research in this area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | George's Marvelous Medicines |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We took a workshop to the Latitude Festival for children to explore natural products from plants. We gathered a group of science undergraduate students to work with us as volunteers and spent three full days running 20 minute sessions for children visiting the Latitude Festival in July 2021. The students gained a great deal from the experience, growing in confidence over the time and I have since found that many of them are keen to get involved with more public engagement opportunities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Global Collaborations Panel: Story of some DNA at Global Community Biosummit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The activity presented the global collaborations built around the open enzyme collection to an audience of >100 people and elicited many questions and >5 requests to obtain the collection or get involved in using it, particularly from Africa and Latin America. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.biosummit.org/ |
| Description | Global garden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Following on from the pilot of the Global Garden workshop in 2017 we ran a public workshop as part of the Norwich Science Festival that invited anyone to explore plant natural products and the regulations and ethics around access and benefit sharing. We then ran another session for a group of scientists which provided an interesting contrast of opinions around ethics compared to those shared by members of the public. This is an ongoing project that seeks to raise awareness of these issues as well as to get people thinking and talking about the importance of plants. In 2019 we took the Global Garden workshop to Cambridge as part of the Festival of Ideas and ran the workshop at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. We also had garden curator Dr Sam Brockington attend and give a presentation on the importance of plant collections for research as well as for enjoyment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | Great British Bioscience Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We were successful in a winning a BBSRC science communication award to develop a new science stand called 'Nature's Factories' to run at local events and as part of the BBSRC's Great British Bioscience Festival showcasing the best of British bioscience in its 20th anniversary year. Human evolution is tightly linked to our use of plants for food, building materials, fuel, medicines etc., and we continue to look for innovative ways to use natural resources to provide us with sustainable solutions that support our lifestyles. Scientific research is enabling us to discover and develop new plant products that improve our lifestyles by creating better medicines, healthier foods and greener technologies whilst also demonstrating the importance of protecting plant species diversity and ecosystems. The Nature's Factories stand was designed to enable the public to find out how science is exploring and exploiting the valuable variety of chemicals made by plants as well as making natural remedies to take away and pick leaves from our fact-tree. We took the stand to the Science in Norwich Day at the Forum in Norwich (1st June 2014), to the Cambridge Botanic Gardens (19th August 2014) and on the 12th November 2014 used the stand for a training workshop for EU scientists to learn how to create interactive displays for public events. On 14-16 November 2014, our exhibit headed to Museum Gardens, Bethnal Green, London to be showcased at BBSRC's Great British Bioscience Festival. The festival, delivered in partnership with London Science Festival was open to the general public and free to attend. Since then the exhibit has featured at the Bury St Edmunds family science festival (21st March 2015), the Fascination of Plants day at the John Innes Centre (14th May 2015), the Festival of Plants at Cambridge Botanic Gardens (16th May 2015) and at the Youth Stem Awards (13th January 2016). We plan to use the exhibit throughout 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/engagement/exhibitions/gb-bioscience-festival/ |
| Description | HVB Management Board Meeting 17 November 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | HVB Management Board meeting 17.11.21 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | HVCfP ABS/Nagoya workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman gave a presentation on Synthetic Biology and the Nagoya Protocol at a 1-day workshop on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and the Nagoya Protocol, run by the High Value Chemicals from Plants NIBB. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://hvcfp.net/events/sharing-natures-genetic-resources-implementing-the-nagoya-protocol-on-acces... |
| Description | Hackster.io biomaker collection |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Design files for twenty six projects, mostly funded through the Biomaker Challenge scheme, have been documented on the hackster.io website. This website enables a user friendly documentation style for maker projects. A biomaker collection has been established to tie these projects together. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.hackster.io/biomaker/projects |
| Description | High Value Chemicals from Plants- Harnessing the potential of synthetic biology for industrial biotechnology. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | High Value Chemicals from Plants- Harnessing the potential of synthetic biology for industrial biotechnology. 13-14 July 2015, Dunston Hall, Norwich. I delivered a 20min talk about the use of the HyperTrans system in goldengate vectors and its benefits for metabolic engineering. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | High Value Products from Plants conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of algal synthetic biology approaches to help support algal industrial biotechnology. This was at a Network in Industrial Biotechnology & Bioenergy (NIBB) meeting organised by the High Value Compounds from Plants NIBB. Interest was sparked amongst researchers to consider using algae, as well as plants, and production platforms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | High-Value Biorenewables Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | High Value Biorenewables Network Meeting 20-21 October 2020 https://www.highvaluebiorenewables.net/events/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.highvaluebiorenewables.net/events/ |
| Description | Independent review of UKRI Roundtable discussion co-hosted by the Campaign for Science and Engineering & Sir David Grant |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn was a member of an independent review of UKRI. Roundtable discussion. Co-hosted by the Campaign for Science and Engineering and Sir David Grant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/news/ukri-welcomes-independent-review-report/ |
| Description | Inside Synthetic Biology 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A one-hour interactive workshop exploring synthetic biology as part of a three-day course for 17 gifted and talented pupils from years 11-13. Three activies explored standards in plant synthetic biology, gene circuits and natural product engineering using synthetic biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | International education visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Hosted a group of teachers from Shanghai and took them to visit a range of science-themed SAW workshops running in local schools to show how the academic research community can provide enrichment to the curriculum for children and opportunities for teachers to access information and new activities based on current research straight from the lab. Also organised a sharing event for teachers and representatives from the County Council to hear about how SAW is being embedded in Chinese schools and the impact it has on teaching and learning. All parties took new ideas away from the experience to try and implement in their own settings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | https://fivebooks.com/best-books/science-2020-royal-society-book-prize-anne-osbourn/ The Best Science Books of 2020: The Royal Society Book Prize recommended by Anne Osbourn The Royal Society is the world's oldest independent scientific academy, dedicated to promoting excellence in science-and that includes an annual prize for the best popular science book. Here Professor Anne Osbourn, Fellow of the Royal Society and chair of this year's judging panel, talks us through the six books that made the 2020 shortlist-and what makes them intriguing, accessible and exciting. Interview by Caspar Henderson |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Interview with iNews |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview with iNews Science and Environment correspondent. This resulted in the article: "Scientists welcome Government plans to lift ban on gene editing in agriculture" published March 16, 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://inews.co.uk/news/science/scientists-welcome-government-plans-to-lift-ban-on-gene-editing-in-... |
| Description | IntoBiology resource |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A final year undergraduate student in Plant Sciences produced a webpage describing work on algae in Plant Sciences and Biochemistry. The webpage is part of the programme established by IntoBiology, aimed at encouraging school children to consider studying plant biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://intobiology.org.uk/unlocking-the-potential-of-algae-how-the-green-stuff-in-your-pond-might-go... |
| Description | Introducing Norwich Biomakers Network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | At this event participants were introduced to the Norwich biomarkers: Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. This group meets monthly at a variety of local spaces for events including talks, training in the use of technologies and to work on projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited Speaker: Women in Biotech meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Our Women in Biotech continues in virtual format this September. Join us for an early evening event with networking and thought-provoking discussion. We're thrilled to have three incredible speakers for you - Jane Osbourn OBE and Ann Osbourn OBE, chaired by Jo Pisani - discussing their career highlights, defining moments, and their approaches to managing disruption and resilience in uncertain times. The BIA's Women in Biotech event series has been running for over 12 years and aims to connect, inspire, and support women across the sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.bioindustry.org/event-listing/women-in-biotech-september.html |
| Description | Invited presentation at CRI, Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation: Open Tools for Engineering Biology |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Invited presentation at online Hitachi-sponsored workshop in Cambridge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | UK-Japan online workshop to discuss advanced research projects and possible industrial translation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | John Innes Centre Open Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The John Innes Centre opened its doors to the public in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the centre's move to the current site. This included a host of interactive exhibits and activities to engage visitors with the science of the centre. The Osbourn and Lomonossoff labs teamed up to put on an exhibit about using plants as production systems. Visitors could infiltrate Nicotiana benthamiana plants (with water), design their own protein piece to be added to a growing virus like particle, extract a natural product from oat roots which glows under UV light, and learn about the science behind these activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news-and-events/blog-copy/2017/09/open-day/ |
| Description | Judge for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom celebrate the past accomplishments and future potential of the UK's most innovative young faculty-rank (academic staff) scientists and engineers working in the three disciplinary categories of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK/Blavatnik Family Foundation and independently administered by the New York Academy of Sciences. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Judge for the 2022 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom (held in 2021) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | KEC Science Innovation Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentations to visitors from local/national/ international companies showcasing the research done at JIC. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | KG Talk at AlgaeEurope 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the event was held online in 2020. Around 250 researchers, industry and business partner with interests in algae biotechnology joined the four-day event. We gave a talk presenting the research in the lab and attended a Q&A session afterwards. Discussions with ongoing partners (e.g. Algenuity) and new partners continued throughout the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://algaeurope.org/participants-information/?utm_campaign=2911&utm_source=enormail&utm_medium=em... |
| Description | KG presented a poster at the Metabolic Engineering 14 Conference, 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Discussions about research results. Updating community on developments on synbio parts. Plans made for future related research activities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://whova.com/web/biolo_202107/ |
| Description | KG presented a talk at the 10th International CeBiTec Research Conference: Prospects and challenges for the development of algal biotechnology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | KG gave a presentation entitled "Synthetic biology for the controlled production of high-value compounds in Phaeodactylum tricornutum." The conference took place att the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld University, Germany. Due to COVID restrictions the number of participants was restricted. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de/events/conferences/575-algal-biotech-202 |
| Description | Keynote Speaker Future Food Festival Toowoomba Queensland Australia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was a Keynote Speaker at the Future Food Festival Toowoomba Queensland Australia, giving 3 presentations to scientists, two to school kids and one grand discovery presentation at Queensland University of Technology to the general public |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Keynote presentation to AlgaEurope 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | AGS gave a keynote address to AlgaEurope 2022, the major conference for the algal biotech sector in Europe |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://algaeurope.org/ |
| Description | Kumasi Biomaker Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Cambridge Biomaker organisers headed to Ghana to run a two-day workshop at Kumasi Hive, an entrepreneurship and innovation hub and one of the implementing arms of the Biomaker initiative. Twenty participants gathered in Kumasi for an accelerated course in programming hardware for low-cost, open-source bioinstrumentation. Half of the participants had worked with the Biomaker system before, and together with the new participants, further developed their projects by learning to program a customisable touchscreen interface for their existing hardware. The fast-paced, energetic training sessions were broken up by project presentations from the teams, talks from researchers from Cambridge and the nearby Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/news/2019/8/29/biomaker-in-ghana-conversations-from-a-2-day-workshop-with-i... |
| Description | Latitude Festival OpenPlant Exhibit, 14-17.07.16 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Latitude Festival Led by Jenni Rant from the SAW Trust, Michael Stephenson, Colette Matthewman, Marc Jones and Dorota Jakubczyk (JIC) worked with Paolo Bombelli, Katrin Geisler (Cambridge University), Brenda Parker (UCL) and Marin Sawa (Imperial) to deliver a 3-day OpenPlant exhibit entitled "The Power of Plants" in the wildlife, weird science and adventure area at the Latitude Festival, Suffolk, from 14-17 July 2016. The exhibit showcased the potential applications of synthetic biology in plants in a hands-on and accessible way. The first day was dedicated to hosting organised school groups where children spent 40 minutes with us experimenting with a variety of plants to learn how scientists are using them in new and novel ways. The second and third day were run as a drop-in style to cater for family groups giving opportunities to engage with children and adults. Visitors were very interested to see science research straight from the labs and amazed by new innovations being developed through synthetic biology. The event was very tiring but the opportunity to work as a team with members from different institutes on a shared science theme was very enjoyable and rewarding whilst also expanding our understanding of each others work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.latitudefestival.com/stage/wildlife-weird-science-adventure |
| Description | Legume Project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Working with LEAF Education we developed a plant science project for secondary schools to learn outside the classroom using mini trial plots in school playing fields. The theme of the project was looking at symbiotic relationships between legume plants and rhizobia to harness Nitrates from soils. Students explored if intercropping wheat plants with legumes would be beneficial compared to wheat growing on its own in the absence of applied nitrogen fertilizers. The project encourages use of scientific methods and enables students to consider the benefits of understanding symbiotic relations for growing food whilst also exploring the need to apply less polluting nutrients to soils and improve soil quality by fostering microbial relationships with plant roots. Learning outside the classroom brought benefits to students well being and exposure to 'real research' topics gave them insight into careers in plant science. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/blog/legume-learners-and-the-nitrogen-fix/ |
| Description | Live television interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Live television interview with 'The World', international news and current affairs show (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Received multiple enquiries and comments from academics and general public following broadcast. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-26/the-year-of-crispr:-scientists-celebrate-new/8213772 |
| Description | London Science Museum Lates: Engineering Natural Products, The Year of the Engineer |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On the last Wednesday of every month, the London Science Museum opens its doors late into the evening to welcome adults to an engaging and free evening out, as part of the Science Museum Lates. Each evening is themed around a different science topic, attracts around 4,000 guests per night and offers a relaxed atmosphere where you can walk around with a drink in hand whilst talking science. OpenPlant participated in this event under the theme 'The year of the engineer' with a stand called 'Engineering Natural Products' to inform the general public about the activities of OpenPlant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2018/11/16/late-night-biological-engineering-in-london |
| Description | Ludham Primary School SAW workshop 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant teamed up with the Science Art Writing Trust to run a workshop at Ludham Primary School for 34 pupils age 9-11 in which they explored DNA, genetics, mendelian genetics, trait inheritence, Marchantia as a model plant organism and Synthetic Biology through science practicals, writing and art. The poetry that the pupils created showed a very impressive understanding of the science covered. At the beginning of the day, most pupils said they did not consider science as an interesting career option, but by the end of the day most all of the class said they would like to be scientists. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.sawtrust.org/sawtrust/in-schools/openplant-saw-project-at-ludham-primary-school/ |
| Description | Mad Hatters Tea Party, Boomtown Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant and the SAW Trust organized science, art and writing activities to excite young minds at the BoomTown Fair. BoomTown Fair attracts up to 60, 000 people and many of those came to visit our stand. The children were tasked with many exciting science-based activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2018/8/22/the-mad-hatters-tea-party-at-boomtown |
| Description | Marvellous Medicines at Boomtown Festival Kidztown |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant and SAW teamed up this year to deliver a science tent for exploration of "Marvellous Medicines" in Kidztown at Boomtown festival (Aug 2017), which attracts over 50,000 people each year. This was the first time that the kids' area offered a science tent. The interactive exhibition included a natural products periodic table filled with different plants for extracting colours, scents, and citric acid. Kids could choose a selection of plants to make a potion from, which would change colour, fizz and give off a scent as the experiment progressed. Throughout, the children learned about a plant's ability to make different compounds that define their features such as colour, scent and taste. They extracted the colour pigment themselves and used other natural extracts to complete their potions, observing how we can use things that plants make for our own products. The older children also learned about pH and colour indicators, a classic chemistry practical they will no doubt carry out in secondary school. A further use for plants was discovered in the art stand: the plant materials could be used as 3D elements to decorate the potion bottles. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2017/9/14/boomtown-fair-august-2017 |
| Description | Meet the Poet - Heidi Williamson & Anne Osbourn |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Mon 4th Aug, 8PM (UK time) - via YouTube Meet the Poet - Heidi Williamson & Anne Osbourn Free poetry event hosted by Home Stage. Featuring a selection of readings on ideas of place, belonging and science, plus interviews with the two poets and discussions on their work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dZQ6DVbAt4 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dZQ6DVbAt4 |
| Description | Meeting (Virtual) SynbiTECH2020: Food and the Environment - Working with the Natural World |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 26-27 October 2020 Prof Anne Osbourn, Group Leader, John Innes Centre - CHAIR for Company Presentations: Food and the environment - working with the natural world Pascoe Harvey, Senior Scientist, Biotangents Annabelle Cox, CEO, Tensei Chris Reynolds, Co-Founder and CTO, Better Dairy Niall Dunne, CEO, Polymateria |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.synbitech.com/conference-programme |
| Description | Meeting on Norwich Research Park |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation "Transient expressions of synthetic biology in plants" at Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Meeting "Decoding and Recoding Biological Systems", 19/05/17 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Metabolic Engineering: From Model Plants to Medicinal Plants OpenPlant Forum, Cambridge, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Yang Zhang, Eugenio Butelli and Cathie Martin gave an oral presentation "Metabolic Engineering: From Model Plants to Medicinal Plants" on 29.07.2015 at the OpenPlant Forum, Cambridge, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory Training Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The overall purpose of the workshop was to build capacity of early- and mid-African agricultural researchers and academics who can help advance innovative research and contribute to food security in Africa. This event was sponsored through an OpenPlant Fund grant, Nicola Patron presented, Susana Sauret-Gueto and Efty Frangedakis ran practical sessions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/projects/2017/7/2/plant-prochip-j4sb3-flzfp-kx5mc-jkg9j |
| Description | Molecular Training Workshop for African Scientists, University of Cambridge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lectures deleivered as part of a two week training evint for agricultural research scientists, academics and PhD students from across Africa. This was followed by discussion and follow-up questions by email. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.jrbiotekfoundation.org/cambridge-lab-training-2018/ |
| Description | NRP DTP Summer Conference 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | NRP DTP Summer Conference 2015 held in the assembly house in Norwich. 15 min talk: Pathway engineering using the GoldenGate MoClo system. Norwich Research Park Doctoral Training Partnerships |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/ |
| Description | NRP-UEA 2015 iGEM Team (iGEM Giant Jamboree, Science in Norwich, Norwich Writers Centre Workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Instructed an undergraduate iGEM team that presented at the iGEM Giant Jamboree in Boston, MA. The team also interacted with various audiences at Science in Norwich public outreach event, a workshop for scientists and poets at the Norwich Writers Centre, and to large numbers of students at the iGEM Giant Jamboree. The team also collaborated with other teams in Spain and the Netherlands. The project took different approaches to increase butyrate levels in the colon to protect against colonic cancer and also interacted with Cancer charities to discuss preventative measures to combat cancer and the use of bioengineering to make healthy foods and medicines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://2015.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich |
| Description | NanoBioMater |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lectured on "Plant viruses and virus-like particles as building blocks for bionanotechnology" at the NanoBioMater summer school, Bad Herrenalb, Germany, 22/06/15 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Nature News Technology Feature: How DIY technologies are democratizing science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Open Enzyme Collection was featured in Nature News feature on "How DIY technologies are democratizing science" following an interview with Jenny Molloy. This led to further requests for information and invitations to contribute to other features e.g. comment on the future of biotechnology for Nature Biotechnology's 25th anniversary. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03193-5 |
| Description | Neo.Life - 25 Visions for the Future of our Species (Book) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Contributed a book section to Neo.Life - 25 Visions for the Future of our Species (Book). Editors: Jane Metcalf and Brian Bergstein |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://neo.life/visions/ |
| Description | New Phytoloigist Trustees meeting (virtual) 14:30 - 16:30, 19 November 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | New Phytologist Trustees |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | New initiative uses science to inspire creative writing in Eastern Daily Press (edp24.co.uk) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | New initiative uses science to inspire creative writing in Eastern Daily Press (edp24.co.uk) Writers and researchers have come together through an exciting new project to spread the word about the world-leading science Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science'. It aims to engage more people in science through creative writing that has been inspired by some of the research conducted by scientists working at the Park. Translating Science paired several established writers and poets with researchers at the various institutes based at Norwich Research Park. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-translating-science-project-at-norwich-research-park-8643544 |
| Description | No-code programming online workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Organised and delivered an online workshop to provide training for non-programmers in the use of microcontrollers for scientific applications. Distributed standard hardware for the training sessions ahead of the workshop. Dec 8th and 9th 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org |
| Description | No-code programming workshop, University of Veracruz, Mexico |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Online workshop, co-sponsored with Prof. Mario Arteaga, University of Veracruz, Mexico - introducing research students to no-code programming for scientific instrumentation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org |
| Description | Norwich Bio Makers 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Involvement by GP Lomonossoff in Norwich Bio Makers "Building Nanostructures in Plants", St. Andrews Brew House, Norwich, UK 13 Dec 2017 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: 3D Printing for Beginners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. At this meetup, Brian Norman from the Norwich Hackspace gave a beginners introduction to 3D printing: including an explanation of some of the different types of printers, how to access and adapt files for printing from thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/), and how to use openly available software to create your own designs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/248890539/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Arduinos: Electronics from basics to projects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. This biomakers meetup provided a beginners introduction and chance to explore projects based on Arduinos. Arduinos are small open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. During the session, time was spent on working in multi-disciplinary teams to come up with ideas, plans and designs of Biomaker projects that involve the use of arduinos. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/244658016/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Artificial Intelligence in Life Sciences |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. At this meetup, Dr Ji Zhou from the Earlham Institute introduced his work in artificial intelligence and deep learning and it's uses in the life sciences, including projects such as in field monitoring of wheat growth and automated seed germination screening. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/258268625/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Building Nanostructures in Plants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. In this session, Professor George Lomonossoff from the John Innes Centre talked about his work using plants to produce virus-like particles - tiny non-infectious nanospheres - which can be used as effective vaccines, and potentially for a variety of other purposes. PhD student Roger Castells-Graells brought along a variety of models to explain how these nanostructures form. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/244753486/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Building circuits with DNA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. At this meetup, Nicola Patron (Earlham Institute) and Millie Stanton (John Innes Centre) talked about the relatively new scientific/engineering field of synthetic biology, and explained some of the basics of DNA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/251989408/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Discover the Power Beneath Your Feet |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. This Norwich Biomakers meetup included a short talk from Prof Julea Butt to introduce the 'rock-breathing bacteria' that act as biobatteries and consider how they can be harnessed as a sustainable source of power. Discussions were held on how different disciplines - such as design, engineering, electronics, computing, biology etc - feed into such a project, and what biomakers could contibute to the multifaceted challenge of generating energy using biological organisms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/243884032/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Explore Visual Programming with XOD |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. This meetup provided an opportunity for participants to discuss ideas for innovative and interdisciplinary projects in plant synthetic biology. The focus of this meetup was to build up resources in XOD for use when building low-cost sensors and instruments for biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/256838944/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: How to generate electricity from plants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. In this meetup, Dr Paolo Bombelli from the University of Cambridge talked about his work understanding plant and algae photosynthesis, and discussions were held on investigating ways for harnessing electricity directly from these plants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/247546753/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Light-powered bacteria as biofactories |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. At this meetup, David Lea-Smith (UEA) discussed how cyanobacterial strains can be genetically engineered to improve growth and produce compounds of interest. Discussion were held on the development of photobioreactors that may make this a commercially viable technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/249032432/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Sensors and plant growth |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. This meetup was focused on learning about how different types of sensors and sensing equipment can be used to track and measure plant growth. Oscar Gonzalez (Quadram Institute) and Ricardo Ramirez Gonzalez (John Innes Centre) gave a hands-on demonstration of their ultrasonic ruler for measuring plant height in the field, showing the different sensors used in their setup. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/255634010/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomaker Event: Speedy breeding for crop plants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. At this meetup, Sreya Ghosh (John Innes Centre) told the story of how speed breeding technology was developed, and Oscar Gonzales (Quadram Institute) and Ricardo Ramirez-Gonzalez (John Innes Centre) talked about a low-cost desktop chamber for the speed chamber he has built to enable this technology to be used on a smaller scale. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/events/248891990/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomakers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers brings together an interdisciplinary network of people from across NorwichCity and the Norwich Science Park that share an interest in the cross-over of biology with design, technology, engineering, electronics and software. This group meets monthly at a variety of local spaces for events including talks, training in the use of technologies and to work on projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/ |
| Description | Norwich Biomakers meet-up |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Biomakers is a network of people with varied skills who share an interest in the cross-over of biology with technologies such as design, electronics, software, hardware engineering and art. Norwich Biomakers is a place to learn about the latest technologies and scientific advances, share ideas and skills and start new projects. On 28 Nov 2019 OpenPlant ran an event to discuss novel Biomaker meet-up ideas for 2020. Good discussions were held and plans for new meet-up sessions were made. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Biomakers/ |
| Description | Norwich Science Festival 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our exhibit on plant natural products at the 2017 Norwich Science Festival was so popular that we had a constant queue of people waiting for their turn to try out the activities. These included extracting plant pigments, making "potions" using these pigments which changed colour under acid and alkali conditions, and then creating a volcano effect due to the reaction of the acid and alkali together. We also had displays about different plant natural products that are already readily used by society, and some that are less well known but are being researched by scientists. We provided a handout that children and parents could take home to experiment further at home. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Norwich Science Festival John Innes Centre Exhibit 22.10.16 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Science Festival. The interactive 'Power of Plants' stand from the Latitude Festival made another appearance at the first Norwich Science Festival with Katrin Geisler coming over from Cambridge University to join JIC scientists Michael Stephenson, Hannah Griffiths, Colette Matthewman, Zhenhua Liu, Nadiatul Radzman, Dorota Jakubczyk, Don Nguyen, Miriam Walden, Jenni Rant and Roger Castells-Graells for two days as part of the Norwich Research Park's 'solving problems with science' weekend. A new addition to the stand was developed by Roger who introduced visitors to the structure of viruses through his challenge to build a giant virus particle. Plants are being used to produce virus particles for use as vaccines and so for visitors this deeper look at viruses in combination with a hands-on experience of mock infiltration of Nicotiana benthamiana plants with water enabled the scientists to explain the techniques involved and exactly what is being made by plants in this system. People were very interested in the variety of science on display and asked lots of questions. It was good to showcase our research at the first Norwich Science Festival and to show people locally how far reaching the work taking place in essentially a rural county can be in terms of impact to societies across the globe. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/ |
| Description | Norwich Science Festival Schools Week 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Following the creation of DNA Dave, a robot made using funding from a Biochemical Society grant to explain how DNA is transcribed and translated into protein, we were asked by the organisers of the Norwich Science Festival if they could borrow Dave for the schools week of the festival. We delivered Dave to the Forum in Norwich and gave a group of volunteers some training in how Dave works and how to use him while explaining the processes to the public. Dave then spent a week meeting groups of school children and helping them understand this fundamental principle. Teachers feedback highlighted how effective DNA Dave had been in getting students to piece together the various steps they had learned in school but not quite grasped. We have since been asked if Dave could make visits into classrooms to help with teaching this concept. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Norwich Science Festival: Super charged plants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The general public is informed on the activities of OpenPlant during the Norwich Science Festival. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Norwich Single Cell Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman presented on the OpenPlant Fund and Biomkaer Challenge opportunities at the Norwich Single Cell symposium. The Norwich Single Cell Symposium aimed to bring researchers curious about single cell genomics together with external speakers presenting advanced single cell research, to highlight the developing single cell capabilities available at Earlham Institute and to act as a platform to catalyse future development and application of single cell genomics approaches in the region. At least two OpenPlant Fund projects were proposed and funded as the result of this activity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.earlham.ac.uk/norwich-single-cell-symposium |
| Description | Nourishing ten billion sustainably: resilient food production in a time of climate change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk to retired medical doctors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Nourishing ten billion sustainably: resilient food production in a time of climate change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | CLIMATE CHANGE : SCIENCE AND SOLUTIONS | BRIEFING 10 The global food system accounts for around one third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by human activity. It therefore offers a major opportunity for progress towards net zero if emissions can be reduced at the same time as delivering food security and building resilience to the inevitable impacts of climate change. Research shows how solutions can be found in diet change, respectfully approached, sustainable agricultural practices and harnessing the continuing wave of innovation in food biotechnology |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/climate-change-science-solutions/climate-science-so... |
| Description | Open Technology Week |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Open Technology Week showcases and celebrates open source technologies in research and education developed across Cambridge and beyond. This multi-day event includes lectures, demos and workshops that explore examples of open technologies and their implications, featuring projects by Biomaker Challenge teams as well as makers in the community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/Open_Technology_Week/ |
| Description | Open digital tools and infrastructures in biology workshop (Newcastle) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The thematic focus of the workshop was on open digital tools and infrastructures in biology. The discussions was organized in three sessions: The two first sessions presenting tools and infrastructures that have been developed by different communities in a out of institutional settings -with a special focus on the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) and DIYbio projects. The third and last section will be a collective discussion. Jenny Molloy presented on OpenPlant activities in relation to op |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | OpenPlant All-hands meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman organised and facilitated a 1-day meeting on 6th may 2016 to bring together OpenPlant researchers from across the entire programme to discuss cross-cutting topics such as methods for sharing information, data, tools and technologies, research synergies and opportunities for increasing impact. Among other things, this event led to the identification of several new synergies, the establishment of an online discussion forum for OpenPlant researchers, and open sharing of a collection of protocols on protocols.io |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.protocols.io/groups/openplant-project |
| Description | OpenPlant Exhibit at SynBioBeta London 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The 6 UK SBRCs shared an exhibit space at SynBioBeta London 2016. A new banner and leaflet about OpenPlant were developed for this event, and Colette Matthewman manned the exhibit and talks to a wide range of people at the event. This was felt to be a very useful exercise and as a result the SBRCs are planning to repeat this together with the UK Foundaries at SynBioBeta London 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://synbiobeta.com/conferences/synbiobeta-london-2016/ |
| Description | OpenPlant Forum 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 2015 OpenPlant Forum provided a focus point for gathering members of the OpenPlant consortium and others in the field of plant (and broader) synthetic biology, open technologies and exchange. The event was held as part of Open Technology Week in Cambridge which included activities for developing fundamental tools for synthetic biology and beyond, including a Maker Faire, Open Technology Workshop, Pitches for the OpenPlant Fund and a meeting of the OpenPlant working group that is informing the development of the OpenMTA, a key focus of OpenPlant's aims to promote freedom to operate. All these activities fed into the theme of the OpenPlant Forum, which focused on access, openness and enabling technologies and attracted a strongly interdisciplinary, intersectorial group of ~90 participants. A SynBioBeta Activate! Event "Reprogramming Life with Synthetic Biology" provided a networking event with local, national and international industry during the Forum. The event was instrumental for showcasing the work of OpenPlant to a broader audience and engaging with the synthetic biology community and external experts that will add value to the OpenPlant programme. Feedback from attendees, including the OpenPlant Scientific Advisory Board, was positive and various discussions were seeded that shaped plans for OpenPlant Forum 2017 and interim activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://openplant.org/openplantforum/ |
| Description | OpenPlant Forum 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 2016 OpenPlant Forum was based on the theme of "Reprogramming Agriculture", with invited keynote talks from Allan Green (CSIRO, Australia), Johnathan Napier (Rothamsted Research) Patrick Jarvis (AB Sugar, Wissington), Dominic Berry (University of Edinburgh), Spencer Adler (Bioeconomy Capital), Tom Knight (Ginkgo Bioworks), Peter Murray-Rust (ContentMine, Cambridge), commentary from Monique Simmonds (Kew Gardens), Wieke Betten (University of Amsterdam) and industry perspectives from Leaf Systems, NCG:Earlham Institute, OxSyBio, Cambridge Consultants, Rainbow Seed Fund/Midven, and Plant Bioscience. The event was held at the John Innes Conference Centre and included an industry showcase, a variety of talks from OpenPlant researchers and invited speakers, panel discussions, and poster sessions. Around 130 people participated and engaged with the Forum across the three days intiating discussions and sparking ideas that have fed into subsequent activities. Feedback was very positive, including that of the OpenPlant Science Advisory Board. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/blog/2016/09/openplant-forum-2016-reprogramming-agriculture-with-synb... |
| Description | OpenPlant Forum 2016, JIC, Norwich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I delivered a talk entitled "Making all kinds of everything - The joy of plant-based transient expression" at OpenPlant Forum 2016, JIC, Norwich on 26th July 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.openplant.org |
| Description | OpenPlant Forum 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The annual OpenPlant Forum explores potential applications of reprogrammed biological systems and the wider implications of the potentially disruptive new technologies. The 2019 Forum was themed: "Smart design for the future Bioeconomy". It was well attended and received positive feedback. The event will beheld again in 2020. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/forum |
| Description | OpenPlant Forums |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The annual OpenPlant Forum explores potential applications of reprogrammed biological systems and the wider implications of the potentially disruptive new technologies. The Forum is held annually, running over several days in the last week of July, alternating between Cambridge and Norwich. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/forum |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund Mixer - Nov 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This event was a mixer for the winter 2017 OpenPlant Fund call. It provided an introduction to the opportunities offered by the OpenPlant Fund, a chance to present initial project ideas and to meet potential collaborators, a team-based activity emphasising the importance of effective documentation of projects, and a brief training on communication. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.openplant.org/fund |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund Mixer Dec 2016, Cambridge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A mixer event for the OpenPlant Fund was held in Cambridge on Monday 21 November, together with the Cafe Synthetique evening on microfluidics. A group of participants joined from Norwich. The mixer initiated several new collaborations across the two sites and contributed to the development of 10 applications pitched for OpenPlant Funds. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.meetup.com/Cambridge-Synthetic-Biology-Meetup/events/235487332/ |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund Mixer: Innovation and Entrepreneurial Opportunities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event, held in Norwich, provided an opportunity for participants to discuss ideas for OpenPlant Fund proposals for innovative and interdisciplinary projects in plant synthetic biology. Several researchers traveled from Cambridge to join the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/events-calendar/2018/6/22/openplant-fund-mixer-open-innovation-entrepreneu... |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund mixer activity at NoCaSS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Norwich-Cambridge Student Symposium for Plant and Microbial Sciences is organised by and brings together postgraduate students across Norwich and Cambridge. Jenny Molloy and Colette Matthewman participated in the 2017 symposium, which was held at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. They presented on the OpenPlant Fund and Biomaker Challenge funding shemes, and ran a mixer activitiy during the lunch break which was designed to build bridges between Norwich and Cambridge students, generate new ideas, and help the students to undestand the role of these funding schemes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://nocass.org/ |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund mixer event, Cambridge 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A mixer event aimed at post-graduate students and post-docs, to present the OpenPlant Fund and set up new multidisciplinary project collaborations between Norwich Bioscience Institutes and Cambridge University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund mixer event, Cambridge 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A mixer event run in Cambridge but with participants from both Norwich Bioscience Institutes and Cambridge University, aimed at post-graduate students and post-docs, to present the OpenPlant Fund and set up new multidisciplinary project collaborations between Norwich Bioscience Institutes and Cambridge University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund mixer event, Norwich 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A mixer event run in Norwich with participants from both Norwich Bioscience Institutes and Cambridge University, aimed at post-graduate students and post-docs, to present the OpenPlant Fund and set up new multidisciplinary project collaborations between Norwich Bioscience Institutes and Cambridge University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | OpenPlant Fund presentation, BBSRC SynBio for Growth meeting, Edinburgh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman gave a presentation at the BBSRC-EPSRC Synthetic Biology for Growth meeting in Edinburgh in November 2016. There was a lot of interest in the funding scheme which led to other SBRCs considering similar schemes, and an invitation for Colette to present at the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council open meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/fund/ |
| Description | OpenPlant Intellectual Property Working Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Twenty four experts were recruited to the first OpenPlant working group on the topic of IP solutions for OpenPlant and the wider SynBio community, specifically an open Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) that would allow materials such as DNA parts to be exchanged between institutions with a standard contract that allows for redistribution and commercial use. A meeting of the IP Working Group took place on 30 July 2015. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together academic researchers, technical experts, and legal practitioners to explore the challenges and solutions for creating and sustaining an international platform of open technologies for plant synthetic biology. A report on the meeting was drafted and will be made available online along with the draft OpenMTA Linda Kahl from the BioBricks Foundation is compiling. Decisions and refinement of this draft was a direct outcome of the meeting. The working group had regular teleconferences following the meeting and BioBricks Foundation and University of Cambridge have recently entered the Wellcome Trust/NIH/HHMI supported Open Science Prize for additional funding to continue this collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | OpenPlant Twitter account |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The OpenPlant twitter channel is used as a wide-reaching route to share and exchange information about events, opportunities, methods and tools, and research and other outcomes relevant to OpenPlant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/_openplant |
| Description | OpenPlant Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The OpenPlant website is a central information point for those on the OpenPlant programme and those interested in it. The website contains information about the programme, upcoming events and opportunities, and blogs commenting on events that have happened. We are currently looking at expanding the website audience base by setting it up to host information for the general public, teaching resources and outcomes and resources generated by OpenPlant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.openplant.org |
| Description | OpenPlant Working Group on Open Curriculum Development for Cell-Free Synthetic Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In 2017 an OpenPlant working group was established which focuses on curriculum development and teaching resources for fast and frugal biotechnology, specifically cell-free synthetic biology. The first meeting of the working group took place on Thursday 27 July 2017, after the annual OpenPlant Forum. A range of key stakeholders and influencers were invited, including researchers at the cutting edge of cell-free technology, educationalists and outreach experts. The working group focused on the educational opportunities offered by cell-free systems and freeze-dried components to provide a platform for teaching synthetic biology at low-cost and without use of GMOs. The first meeting lay the groundwork for assembly of open and modular curriculum components that could be combined into different teaching frameworks across multiple disciplines, drawing on existing work from organisations such as BioBuilder, the National Centre for Biotechnology Education, Science and Plants in Schools and the ARM Education Programme. There was a high level of interest in continued activities and plans include: includ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Oral presentation at AAB Conference "Advances in Plant virology", 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lomonossoff G. P.(2018) Synthetic virus-like particles and how to make them in plants AAB meeting "Advances in Plant Virology", Jury's Inn, Birmingham 12-13th April 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Oral presentation at ISPMF Helsinki, 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lomonossoff G. P., Marsian J., Paley R., Hurdiss D. L., Ranson N. A.(2018) Global food security - Plant-made Virus-Like Particles as a candidate vaccine against Nervous Necrosis Virus. Oral presentation at the 3rd meeting of the International Society for Plant Molecular farming (ISPMF), 11-13th June 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Oral presentation at ISPMF meeting, Helsinki 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Peyret H., Lomonossoff G. P.(2018) Using a synthetic biology approach to develop a novel, easy to use, and open access transient expression system Helsinki, Finland, 3rd ISPMF conference, 11-13th June 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Oral presentation at Ninth International Virus Assembly Symposium, Madeira 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Castells Graells R., Johnson J. E., Lomonossoff G. P.(2018) Studying virus maturation stages with an insect virus Madeira - Portugal, Ninth International Virus Assembly Symposium, 6th-10th May 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Oral presentation at SEB Florence 2018 symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lomonossoff G. P.(2018) Transient expression of virus-like particles for use in biomedicine and bionanotechology SEB Florence 2018 symposium "Plant Biotechnology for health and nutrition, |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Oral presentation at VLPNPV, Bern 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Saunders K., Hesketh E. L., Fisher C., Ranson N. A., Lomonossoff G. P.(2018) The generation of aberrant geminivirus-like particles in infiltrated plant leaves Inselspital, Universitatsspital, Bern, Switzerland. The Fifth International Conference on: Virus-Like Particle & Nano-Particle Vaccines - VLPNPV 2018 25-27th September 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Outreach at Botanic Gardens Festival of Plants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outreach at Botanic Gardens Festival of Plants - Paul Dupree |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Oxford Uni BioSoc talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk at student-run science society entitled "Synthetic biology approaches to developing algal biotechnology platforms" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | PAGIT Project: Synthetic Biology/Gene Editing Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman participated in a workshop for the BSI/ESRC PAGIT Project: Proportionate and Adaptive Governance of Innovative Technologies, on Synthetic Biology/Gene editing. The workshop presented an updated version of the PAGIT Framework and discussed proposals for implementation of a more proportionate and adaptive approach to governance of syntheric biology/gene editing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pagit-project-synthetic-biologygene-editing-workshop-tickets-3109292878... |
| Description | PAGIT workshop on the role of standards in shaping SynBio regulation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Proportionate and adaptive governance of innovative technologies (PAGIT) project is a collaborative project led by the Innogen Institute and the British Standards Institution. Colette Matthewman participated in the PAGIT Project: Synthetic Biology/Gene Editing Workshop on the role of standards in shaping regulation and supporting innovation. Discussions from this workshop will form the basis of a report aimed at influencing decision-makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/uk-national-standards-body/BIS-Exploring-new-areas-with-gov... |
| Description | PBVAB Conference Presentation 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation "Combining transient expression and high resolution cryo-electron microscopy to produce novel virus-like particles" by Walden M., Meshcheriakova Y., Marsian J., Hesketh E., Ranson N., Lomonossoff G. P. PBVAB 2017, Albufeira, Portugal, ,5-7th June 2017 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2014,2017 |
| Description | PDRA Gonzalo I Mendoza-Ochoa presented poster at: Aptamers in Bordeaux |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mendoza-Ochoa GI, Mehrshahi P and Smith AG. "Thiamine riboswitches for controlling transgene expression in the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii". Poster presented at: Aptamers in Bordeaux; 2018 June 28-29; Bordeaux, France. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.aptamers-in-bordeaux.com/final-programme-2019/ |
| Description | PHYCONET (BBSRC NIBB) Meeting: "UK Microalgal biotechnology, creating a unified vision" Cambridge February 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A workshop of academia, funders, policy makers and industry, aimed at identifying ways to augment and support the UK microalgal business. As a result of the meeting, we made links with several companies and have obtained two Business Interaction Vouchers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.phyconet.org.uk/document_category/uk-microalgal-biotechnology-creating-a-unified-vision |
| Description | PM presented a talk at the EIT-Food event "Through the keyhole" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | PM, LA, EH gave joint talk about acitivities in the Algal Innovation Centre. The presentation was titled "Through the Keyhole Algal Innovation Centre" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.opencambridge.cam.ac.uk/events/through-laboratory-keyhole |
| Description | PM presented a talk for the University of Cambridge Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | PM gave a presentation titled "Algal solutions for a sustainable future" introduced research from the Algal Innovation Centre that is leading to sutainable practices in the microalgal sector and which is of interest to industries in this sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/master-of-studies-in-sustainability-leadership |
| Description | PODCAST with Anne Osbourn in Bumps In The Road series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Podcast series: Bumps In The Road - https://emmaelvidge.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/episode_4_anne_osbourn/ PODCAST No 4 (Science, art, reflection and following your own path) is by Anne Osbourn and is entitled "Science, art, reflection and following your own path"Guests come from all walks of HE/research life: from PhD students to Royal Society Fellows, spanning Physical and Social Sciences and the Humanities and Arts. "The project was designed by Emma Elvidge to help reconcile the inevitability of 'failure' (setbacks, difficulties - pick your terminology!) within the research process with how little it's often honestly discussed. But this podcast series ended up going far beyond thatand anyone with an interest in excellent HE teaching/redesigning the curriculum, mental health, resilience, research community and careers will find something of interest." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://emmaelvidge.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/episode_4_anne_osbourn/ |
| Description | Participation at SynbiTECH 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant was represented at the SynbiTECH 2019 meeting in London. SynbiTECH is Europe's leading international synthetic biology conference for innovators and experts in synthetic biology research, commercialisation, investment and policymaking. SynbiTECH 2019 was themed: "Engineering the future with Synthetic Biology: Building a multibillion-dollar synthetic biology industry" and served to showcase the immense opportunities from synthetic biology. The event was a great success and the OpenPlant SBRC got attention from other participants. The event will be repeated in 2020, and OpenPlant as well as OpenPlant spin-outs will be represented again. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.synbitech.com/#last-years-highlights |
| Description | Phyconet (BBSRC NIBB) Annual Meeting, Plenary speaker |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The talk was aimed at showing that the potential exploitation of algae for industrial purposes needs to be underpinned by fundamental biological understanding. Several industrial colleagues agreed, saying they recognise the need for better algal taxonomy and physiology to support their activities and ensure their IP can be protected. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.phyconet.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/PAC17_programme.pdf |
| Description | Pint of Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a talk on the potential uses of algae for bioenergy production as part of the Pint of Science festival in Cambridge, where scientists engage with people having a drink in a local pub. This takes place in London, Cambridge, Bristol and other university towns each year. As result of my talk and questions afterwards, although most people were not aware initially what algae were, nor how they could be used to generate energy, their opinions became more positive and optimistic towards biofuels generally. Pint of Science was awarded "Points of Light" by the Prime Minister David Cameron in November 2015 and the founders were interviewed about it on London Live TV. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015 |
| URL | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint_of_Science |
| Description | Pint of Science Festival 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentations by R Castells-Graells and G.P. Lomonossoff at Pint of Science Festival Norwich - Medicinal Viruses: From Foe To Friend, 16 May 2017 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/medicinal-viruses-from-foe-to-friend |
| Description | Pint of Science: 20,000 Leagues Under the Microscope: Viruses & Nanomachines |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | PhD Student and OpenPlant Fund holder Roger Castells-Graells presented to a sell out audience at the Norwich 2017 Pint of Science Festival. Roger's presentation '20,000 Leagues Under the Microscope: Viruses & Nanomachines' took the audience on a journey into the nano world of viruses. During the entertaining talks, the audience took part in various activities such as making a virus molecule out of pipe cleaners and creating virus inspired sketches on beer mats. To help the audience engage with the research, Roger used 3D printed models of viruses produced through his OpenPlant Fund project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2017/11/23/openplant-scientists-take-part-in-norwich-pint-of-science-... |
| Description | Pint of Science: Finding Drugs in The Garden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Professor Anne Osbourn presented to a sell-out audience at the 2017 Norwich Pint of Science Festival. Anne took to the stage at the St Andrews Brewhouse to present on 'Finding Drugs in The Garden'. Anne's talk invited people into the plant kingdom to hear about its very own chemistry toolkit. She presented her teams current work harnessing the DNA that encodes the pathways to these chemicals and using them to produce designer molecules for medicinal, agricultural and industrial applications. The talk was followed by a lively discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2017/11/23/openplant-scientists-take-part-in-norwich-pint-of-science-... |
| Description | Pint of Science: Just Eat Your Greens - A New Way of Vaccinating? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Professor George Lomonossoff gave a talk to a sell out audience at the Norwich Pint of Science Festival. George's talk was entitled 'Just Eat Your Greens - A New Way of Vaccinating?' and took place at the York Tavern. It covered the use of a highly efficient transient expression system developed in his laboratory. This Hypertrans® system allows for the relatively quick and cheap production of large quantities of virus-like particles in plants, which have been proven to be effective as experimental vaccines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2017/11/23/openplant-scientists-take-part-in-norwich-pint-of-science-... |
| Description | Pitch in a Punt |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Applicants for the 2015 OpenPlant Fund round were invited to attend the Pitch in a Punt workshop to learn about pitching for money, prior to their short pitches for OpenPlant funding. Most of the participants had not been exposed to this method of presenting their ideas and proposals and so found the course very useful for improving their skills. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://openplant.org/fund/ |
| Description | Plant Genetics Resources and the Sustainable Development Goals: Needs, Rights, and Opportunities. Rockefeller Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 18 experts from a range of disciplines were hosted by The Rockefeller Foundation at its Bellagio Center in Italy to discuss how plant genetic resources relate to and can be instrumental in meeting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The group had three objectives, which were to: • Advance the ongoing global dialogue about how science, technology, data, and digital information about plant genetic resources (PGR) may impact and potentially help agriculture adapt to the changing climate and augment food and nutritional security, particularly in the developing world • In the context of the SDGs, explore the interaction between emerging R&D opportunities (emanating from scientific and technological advances and increased data sharing capability) and the current policy framework related to access, use, and benefit-sharing of PGR and related information. • Identify pathways for harmonizing the PGR policy framework with rapid developments in science and information technology to ensure safeguards and enhance opportunities to address the SDGs. The group agreed to pursue three outputs, to be completed in the next six months: • As a group, the participants will develop a comprehensive meeting report for public distribution. This report was initiated during the meeting and will be completed early in 2017. • During the meeting, participants from the Diversity Seek Initiative (DivSeek) gathered input for their response to an invitation by the Secretary of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources in Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) "to report on the implications for the objectives of the Treaty of the technologies underlying the DivSeek initiative" (as per paragraph 6 of Resolution 3/2015 of the Sixth Session of the Treaty Governing Body). This outcome can be used by the Secretariat to compile a synthesis on this report for consideration by the Governing Body of the Treaty at its Seventh Session in 2017. Participants agreed to provide additional input on the draft submission to the Treaty upon request from DivSeek. • Finally, at least one scholarly article will be published as a result of this meeting describing the issues discussed and exploring potential solutions and bottlenecks to progress. The group agreed that it would be ideal to aim to develop a balanced treatment such that all participants would be happy to be identified as authors or contributors where their expertise was relevant to the subject matter. Participants also discussed how best to communicate the results with other audiences and agreed to consult with one another if any developed blog posts or articles related to the meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Plant Synthetic Biology Hackathon at TGAC (Norwich) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The hackathon engaged technologists and users from diverse scientific backgrounds to build on and use ContentMine tools to liberate synthetic biology scientific literature. The workshop centered on novel methods for discovering information about plants from the existing literature ("Content Mining"). Peter Murray-Rust and 3 other colleagues from Cambridge prepared ContentMine software specifically for the workshop on the basis that "anyone can run it and get useful results". The hackathon took place over 2 days, with the first day comprising talks and demos from the ContentMine team, alongside an afternoon of splitting into groups based on skills and/or interests gleaned from the morning, and installing the software on whatever operating system they commonly used. The second day saw the groups continuing to work on developing and improving ContentMine functionality, fixing software bugs, and using the tools to gather papers and facts from synthetic biology terms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Plants in iGem Workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Workshop on Plants in synthetic biology held at the iGEM Giant Jamboree every year since 2014. Members of many international iGEM teams, industry and civil society representatives, as well as the iGEM executive team attend. The workshops comprise short talks followed by discussion (with audience participation) and information-sharing about plant synthetic biology tools and techniques. these workshops, together with other activities have resulted in - The establishment of a Plant Committee at iGEM - The acceptance of parts in the Common Plant Syntax in the iGEM Registry - The establishment of a Special Award for excellence in Plant Synthetic Biology in the iGEM competition (from 2016 onwards) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://2016.igem.org/Resources/Plant_Synthetic_Biology |
| Description | Plenary Speaker IAPB Congress Dublin Ireland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was a Plenary Speaker at the IAPB Congress Dublin Ireland |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Plenary Speaker SEB Meeting Florence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plenary speaker at SEB Meeting in Florence. England beat Colombia on penalties in the World Cup. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Plenary Speaker at Foods of the Future Workshop in Koln |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was a Plenary Speaker at Foods of the Future Workshop in Koln |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Plenary speaker, International meeting on plant genomics, Verona Italy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was a Plenary speaker, at the International meeting on plant genomics, Verona Italy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Policy seminar on gene editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A webinar on "Making crops for the future: Innovative plant science explained" was hosted by BASF, VIB, Ghent. The majority of attendees were advisors for MEPs, students and scientists from industry. There was significant discussion on the technical differences between genome editing and other plant breeding techniques, and how these are regulated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://agriculture.basf.com/global/en/media/public-government-affairs/agri-science-policy-events.ht... |
| Description | Posdoc talk at the Plant Sciences Departmental Seminar - Gonzalo Mendoza |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Plant Metabolism Group member and OpenPlant-funded postdoc Gonzalo I Mendoza-Ochoa, gave a 25-minute talk to postgraduate students and postdocs within the Department. During the seminar, he talked about his previous and current research work and expertise. The aim was to present himself as a new member of the department and to seek interactions and collaborations with his colleagues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/82681 |
| Description | Post Doctoral Retreat |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented career pathways in science communication to a large group of Post Doctoral Researchers and led a discussion on the need and importance of engaging society with research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Poster and Oral Presentation by Ingo Appelhagen Colour bio-factories: towards scale-up production of anthocyanins in plant cell cultures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentations by Ingo Appelhagen at the 3rd Conference of the International Society for Molecular Farming, Helsinki, 11-16 June 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and discussion at Norwich Science Festival 2018 (Engineering Day) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on biomanufacturing to general public including interactive activity with biochemical pathways and debate about the meaning of the word 'natural', biological vs chemical manufacturing methods and whether manufacturing can be sustainable. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/events/building-with-biology/ |
| Description | Presentation at BISON workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented synthetic biology-themed science engagement approaches to a group of academics for a BISON workshop in Norwich. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://bison.ceitec.cz/ |
| Description | Presentation at BrisSynBio 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | On 22/02/17 I visited BrisSynBio in Bristol to talk to people working there and to tour the facilities. I also delivered a lecture entitled: Transient expressions of synthetic biology in plants |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007,2017 |
| URL | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/brissynbio/ |
| Description | Presentation at a Symposium: (Metabolic Diversification in Plants) ISMPMi |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | https://www.ismpmi.org/Events/2021Congress/Pages/default.aspx December 1 - 2 Plant-microbe interactions in the environment - Navigating a complex world This symposium was held December 1-2, 2021, hosted by Cara Haney (British Columbia, Canada) and Paul Schulze-Lefert (Cologne, Germany). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ismpmi.org/Events/2021Congress/Program/Pages/December.aspx |
| Description | Presentation at the European Parliament Plants, Diet and Health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to the European parliament on the importance of fruit and vegetables in the diet. we discussed how best to implement lower costs, greater access and greater consumption of fruit and vegetables. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation by D.Ponndorf, Korea |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Ponndorf D., Peyret H., Meshcheriakova Y., Dobon Alonso A., Lomonossoff G.(2018) Virus-like particles from plants: Versatile tools for research in vaccine development Korean Society for Plant Biotechnology: from Farming to Pharming . |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation for Norwich Research Park Industrial Biotech Alliance 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented OpenPlant industrial biotech case studies to the Industrial Biotechnology Alliance Science Advisory Board |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation on Responsible Governance at PAGIT workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Proportionate and adaptive governance of innovative technologies (PAGIT) project is a collaborative project led by the Innogen Institute and the British Standards Institution. Colette Matthewman gave a presentation entitled "How standards can contribute to responsible governance of innovation: a perspective from synthetic biology" at the PAGIT Project: Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Workshop on delivering 'responsibility' in the development of innovative technologies through standards. Colette also contributed to discussions which will form the basis of a report aimed at influencing decision-makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/uk-national-standards-body/BIS-Exploring-new-areas-with-gov... |
| Description | Presentation on open source and technology transfer at UK government meeting with World Health Organisation COVID Technology Access Pool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on open source models and importance of technology transfer for diagnostics related biotechnology to UK government BEIS and FCO representatives, industry associations, companies. This was on behalf of UN Technology Access Partnership and drew on models of technology transfer being explored by OpenPlant. The event overall led to a longer discussion between C-TAP and the UK government. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Presentation to DBT consortium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plant-expressed Proteins, The technology and its use for BTV Meeting for BBSRC/DBT India Grant Consortium, School of Veterinary Sciences, Sutton Bonnington, University of Nottingham, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation to the Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Patient Participation Group at Oak Street Surgery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We were invited to present our work on the SAW antibiotics book to the Norfolk CCG who are interested in working with us to improve understanding on AMR in communities but also on other health-related topics. We also presented our work to the PPG at a local GP surgery who are interested in running an AMR-themed workshop for patients and potentially developing subsequent workshops on topics such as flu and norovirus to help limit the spread of infection. The work we are developing here is being fed back to Public Health England representatives from the Healthcare-Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance Unit. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentations at AlgaEurope 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Several posters were presented highlighting our research and R&D activities to the major conference for the algal biotech sector in Europe |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://algaeurope.org/ |
| Description | Pretoria Biomaker Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Biomaker Africa workshops were set up to get non-programmers up and running within a day or two. This is due to use of the no-code programming environment XOD, which can be used to introduce biologists to hands-on physical computing. This proves to be a great way of promoting co-creation in interdisciplinary teams - where both the engineers and the biologists can communicate properly! (https://www.hackster.io/jim-haseloff/biomaker-starter-kit-xod-023e8b). In addition, we've doubled down on the use of the 4D Systems touchscreens with XOD and the Biomaker Starter kits, to allow code-free communication between Arduino devices and the touchscreens, with their ViSi-Genie interfaces. We've built better tutorial materials to kick-start this (e.g. https://www.hackster.io/jim-haseloff/biomaker-tutorial-4-programming-the-4ds-touchscreen-3b2006). Details of the 2-day workshops and associated open resources can be found at https://www.biomaker.org. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/visiting-workshops |
| Description | Production and distribution of Biomaker training materials for online training. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Provision of free online training materials to complement a starter pack is based on the Grove All-in-One Beginner Kit for Arduino. We have developed a visual guide, which provides step-by-step instructions of how to control the board using the XOD visual programming environment. The first lessons are available for download now. XOD tutorial code is also available to accompany this guide. In addition, training videos can be viewed online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/nocode-programming-for-biology-handbook |
| Description | Programmable biology for diagnostics: impacting global health and development (as part of BB/GCRF-IAA/04) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This activity was funded by IAA grant BB/GCRF-IAA/04. On 16 March 2017, we gave a workshop titled Programmable biology for diagnostics: impacting global health and development. Around 25 people attended the workshop, 15 of whom also stayed for the sandpit session in the afternoon. The event kicked off with a presentation on the progress of OpenDiagnostics, followed by two guest speakers. Richard Echodu, a professor from Gulu University in Uganda, gave a presentation about challenges and opportunities for crop disease diagnostics in Africa. The second guest speaker was Keith Pardee, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and co-founder of the technology on which cell-free paper-based diagnostics rest. During the afternoon, participants formed three sandpit groups: biology, hardware, and open technology & development. They proposed projects that could contribute to the Open Diagnostics projects. We also ran a hands-on practical to complement the OpenDiagnostics Forum for potential collaborators and others interested in finding out more about cell-free diagnostics. This was attended by around 20 postdocs and PhD students from a range of disciplines, including computer science, engineering and physics as well as biological sciences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Public art and poetry competition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Using a collection of 11 science images featuring our research on display as part of the Norwich Science Festival we invited the public to create art or poetry inspired by the images. We had a judging panel choose favourites from several catagories and the winners work was put on display at the Sainsburys Centre for Visual Arts during December. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | RRI Workshop, 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop for post-docs employed within or associated with the OpenPlant SBRC, providing an overview of responsible research and innovation and exploring bioethics, styles of argumentation, and openness in science. These topics sparked much discussion amongst the group, as well as consideration and questioning of how to incorporate responsible research and innovation into the participants own research projects. This workshop was associated with the SAW Workshop for researchers which explored engagement with the public through art and writing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Responsible and open innovation with large bioresources: goals, challenges and proposals (UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An OpenPlant Fund supported workshop (funds to Kathy Liddell, Nicola Patron, Rob Doubleday). Organised by the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge this workshop sough to explore the access and ownership issues surrounding large-scale bioresources such as Synthetic Biology Repositories of Biological Parts, TheStructural Genome Project, and the 100,000 Genome Project. Attendees from government, academia, investment and industry discussed Openness and bio-resource policies that would support both academic research and market-driven private investment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/3/draft-programme-for-28-january-policy-workshop-1.pdf |
| Description | Royal Norfolk Show plant science stand |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We designed and delivered science activities in the Discovery Zone at the Royal Norfolk Show for visiting children to learn about the properties of gluten in wheat and the use of insect predators as biocontrol for crop protection. Hundreds of children participated in our activities and most had heard of gluten as it is commonly mentioned now in terms of food allergies so we were able to give them some context around what gluten actually is, where its found and the properties it has. Many children were surprised by this! |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Royal Society Meeting for New Fellows introductory presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I presented my research that underpinned my election as a Fellow of the Royal Socity |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Royal Society: Future Technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public discussion at South Bank, London with Sir Tim Burners-Lee, Stephen Fry, Prof. Dame Wendy Hall and Bill Thompson |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | SAW Project on DNA and Cells |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a SAW project with a year 6 class at a local primary school on DNA and cells and also talked about careers in science with the children. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | SAW School Visit & teacher training (China) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In December 2012 we were invited by the Tianyang Foundation and the Xuhui Education Bureau to visit Shanghai to launch the Science Art and Writing(SAW) initiative in China. This was the beginning of a very exciting partnership that enables Chinese teachers and children to develop their creativity using the SAW philosophy. We worked with a group of children and delivered a training workshop to enable teachers and volunteers to explore SAW techniques and begin experimenting with how SAW could be used in their classrooms. As the John Innes Centre strengthens its links with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the scheme will be rolled out more widely with support from Norfolk County Council's International Schools Partnership. We returned in 2014 to give further training to new schools and found that since the launch they had used SAW with about 1000 children in 18 schools and kindergartens in the Xuhui district, training 140 teachers and involving around 50 social volunteers! In December 2015 we hosted a visit to the UK by a group of Chinese teachers who use SAW in China so they could see how it works here. During 2016 we supported collaborations between teachers locally in Norfolk and in Shanghai working on SAW Lunchbox Science projects to assist Norfolk County Council in strengthening partnerships between international schools. In April 2017, in collaboration with Norfolk County Council, we took a group of teachers from Norfolk schools who had been participating in the Lunchbox Science projects to visit the teachers in Shanghai that ad also been working on this for a series of sharing presentations, demo lessons and visits to several schools in the city. We also moved further out of the centre to deliver a SAW Plant Natural Products training workshop for 40 new Chinese teachers. Further visits are being planned for 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2014,2015,2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.jic.ac.uk/news/2013/02/dr-jenni-rant-takes-science-and-eternal-rainbows-to-china/ |
| Description | SAW School Visit to Salem State University, Boston, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The Science Art and Writing initiative has been used to run complementary projects with educationalists in the US since its inception in 2005. In 2008 we visited the School of Education at Salem State College to work with 7-9 year olds exploring the theme of 'Maple Syrup' through science art and writing, and trainee teachers attended a SAW training workshop. Salem State has long been an advocate of the SAW approach, and SAW exercises continue to be part of the teacher training delivered by the institution. On the 28th April 2015 we returned to Salem State University to run a SAW project on the theme of photosynthesis with a class of 9-10 year old children and were joined by trainee teachers who wanted to learn the process. We have been invited back in 2016 to further develop training and partnerships in the Boston area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | SAW Science Inspired Poetry Workshops at the Writers Centre Norwich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The SAW Trust have begun a new collaboration with the Writers Centre Norwich(WCN) to provide science-inspired poetry workshops for adults using current science topics as a starting point for writing. The first pilot project took place on the evening of 18th August 2015 and was delivered as a partnership with a group of undergraduate students from the University of East Anglia competing in an international synthetic biology challenge called iGEM ( http://igem.org/Main_Page ). The students wanted a novel approach to exploring the human practices component of their project so the SAW Trust helped the team link with Jonathan Morley from WCN to set up a poetry workshop. Jonathan invited Esther Morgan, a highly experienced poet and workshop provider to lead the poetry session (http://www.esthermorgan.net/). Esther came to visit the students at the Norwich Research Park prior to the session and had an afternoon of tours around the laboratories to see what the students were working on. The poetry session began with a presentation by the students on the science to give all the attending writers an insight into the aims of the research. Esther then took over providing some warm-up activities linked to the science and then got the scientists to break out into pairs with the writers to discuss the scientific language in more detail. A great selection of poetry emerged from the workshop and was presented at a jamboree for all competing teams by the Norwich iGEM team in Boston, USA, which is the final stage of the competition. The team were delighted to be awarded a gold medal for their project and be rated in the top 5 of all 280 teams for their approach to education and public engagement. We have since run an antibiotics-themed poetry workshop on 12th February 2016 and have plans for a further 3 workshops throughout the year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | SAW Seminar - Sowing the seeds for science outreach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented creative outreach projects and ways to capture impact at the department seminar to encourage scientists to be bold with their outreach plans and to demonstrate the value of documenting the process and the outcomes for reporting, reflection and to improve the method. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | SAW Training Workshop for PhD Students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | We provided a SAW Training workshop for PhD Students from Cambridge and Germany who are working on an EU collaborative project entitled PlaMatSu to help them think creatively about how to communicate their research topics to diverse audiences. They completed practical tasks in science, art and writing and made presentations in small groups. The students undertook this training as part of their studentships to prepare them for designing and developing an installation to be put on display at the Cambridge Botanic Garden and in a host venue in Germany. The day concluded with a brainstorming session where the students pulled together their ideas and mapped out next steps as they work to progress their designs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.plamatsu.eu/About-Us/Events/Training-Workshop-4 |
| Description | SAW Workshop 'Green factories' at Tunstead Primary School Yr3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 'Green factories' was a cross-disciplinary Science, Art and Writing (SAW) project at Tunstead Primary School based on the work of the Osbourn group and the importance of plants for production of useful chemicals. The 7-8 year olds took part in a range of a activities including infiltrating plants, penning potion poetry and creating beautiful leaf artwork |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://sawtrust.org/news/saw-in-action/ |
| Description | SAW Workshop: Tunstead Primary School Year 5/6 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant / SAW Trust intern Emma McKechnie Welsh ran a SAW workshop for the year 5/ year 6 class (age 10/11 years) at Tunstead Primary School, Norwich, working with writer Mike O'Driscoll and artist Chris Hann with a day themed around plant evolution. Te class began by guessing the number of different plant species on earth and the children suggested why plants are useful. In groups, they were given cards representing each component of photosynthesis and had to arrange them to think about the process. The topic of pollination was covered, and its importance for increasing genetic variation. The children dissected plants to look up close at the reproductive parts under the microscope. Different types of seed dispersal were covered and the importance of varying environmental conditions for evolution. Then children carried out DNA extraction from strawberries after learning a bit about what DNA was and how important it was in controlling the appearance of the plant, with a single mutation in a gene coding region potentially greatly changing this. Following on from DNA extraction there was a game to match the numbers of genes to different organisms. After the morning science sessions the children had poetry and art sessions based on the content. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/plant-science-saw-projects-at-tunstead-primary-school |
| Description | SAW Workshop: Tunstead primary School Yr 1 + Yr 2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant / SAW Trust intern Emma McKechnie Welsh ran a SAW workshop for the year 1/ year 2 class (age 4/5 years) at Tunstead Primary School, Norwich, working with writer Julia Webb and artist Lara Nicole. The aim was to get children thinking about the functions of different parts of a plant. To start off the lesson they played a "build a plant" game to get more familiar with the main parts of a plant, their function, and what plants use from their environment to grow. Each child also put a cut flower in coloured water to think about the use of the stem. Then the children were given a selection of fruit and vegetables and asked to decide what part of the plant each came from. They were given a flower to look more closely at the reproductive parts and think about how seeds are formed by pollination. Finally, they looked at different types of seeds in a seed kit and we discussed the different types of seed dispersal tactics plants use. The children wrote poems imagining that they were a seed growing up, and made flower hand puppets after designing a flower |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/plant-science-saw-projects-at-tunstead-primary-school |
| Description | SAW Workshops at the Cambridge Science Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A new festival that celebrates everything to do with light took place in Cambridge in February 2013. For the e-Luminate festival, the SAW Trust worked with the Cambridge Science Centre and artist Jenny Walsh to run a workshop entitled 'Lighting up inspiration'. Families learned about the relationship between the colour spectrum and light wavelengths. Light was then used to create a collaborative piece of art that explored the iridescent properties seen in oily puddles and in nature to create a peacock. For the 2013 Festival of Ideas in Cambridge we worked with scientist Andy Osborne who specialises in eye research. We ran a drop-in workshop at the Cambridge Science Centre for families where they could learn about how the eye works and the variety of different eye diseases and disorders that can impact on sight. Andy had some great vision altering glasses that helped people to understand what sufferers of different eye conditions can see. We were joined by artist Jenny Walsh and some sixth form students who invited people to help build a giant eye sculpture to learn more about the rods and cones in the eye. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | SAW stand at the Royal Norfolk Show 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 2015 marked the 150 year anniversary of a presentation of research to the Natural Science Society in Brno by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, who is regarded as the "father of modern genetics". In 1865, Mendel presented his work from studies done on pea plants in the gardens of the monastery in Brno that provided the first description of the Laws of Inheritance. To celebrate Mendel's work and enable children to follow his methods to understand how the Laws of Inheritance work, we ran an interactive stand in the Discovery Zone at the Royal Norfolk Show. The stand provided a mix of hands-on science led by scientists from the John Innes Centre and an art activity that invited children to contribute to the build of some giant pea pods led by environmental artist Ruth MacDougall. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | SAW workshop for OpenPlant researchers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An evening workshop to introduce the SAW Trust to OpenPlant post-docs, and to show the power of using poetry and art to explore science with the general public. The workshop focused on plant synthetic biology from the OpenPlant programme and enabled participants to explore write poetry and create artwork based on their own research area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | SAW workshop on Limonoids |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We are developing a Science Art and Writing workshop on the topic of Liminoids to enable sixth form students to explore mining and synthesis of natural products from plants that are of interest/value to society. The project was designed and trialed with A Level students in Norwich in March 2022 and will then be used as the basis for a teacher-training workshop in the autumn to enable science teachers to run the project themselves. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | SMART.map - Industrial Dialogue on Synthetic Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | SMART-map is an EU-funded project to develop RoadMAPs to Societal Mobilisation for the Advancement of Responsible Industrial Technologies. Colette Matthewman participated in their Industrial Dialogue on Synthetic Biology and contributed to a proposal for a tool for framing, guiding and encouraging best practice in responsible research and innovation. This particular tool is to be presented to the SBLC for consideration. The SMART-map consortium will be reporting on the outcomes of the workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2017 |
| URL | http://projectsmartmap.eu/ |
| Description | SRA Payam Mehrshahi and Dr Lorraine Archer presented via a video walk-through the Algal Innovation Centre for the EIT food workshop ALGAL BIOTECHNOLOGY 2020 - TECHNIQUES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE BIOECONOMY |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Due to Covid-19 restrictions the EIT Food Professional Development course was redesigned so that 3x 2day courses were combined and presented online once over a two-day course. As the lead organisation, the University of Cambridge team (Payam Mehrshahi, Matthew Davey, Lorraine Archer) produced daily programme of lecture/seminars that brought together leading international experts to introduce the theory of techniques, SOPs best practice and live demonstration of equipment and facilities. The course offered insights and examples from an industrial and entrepreneurial perspective, that helped the participants to start or improve their own algal-based business. The video walk-through of the Algal Innovation Centre at the University of Cambridge was designed by Payam and Lorraine to reflect the wide range of research involving algae that is carried out in the university and in this facility. The 30 minute video was followed by a 45 minute Q&A session during which participants asked about technical aspects of equipment, consumables, algae strains, culturing conditions and trouble shooting advice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.eitfood.eu/media/documents/ALGAL_BIOTECH_DRAFT_TRAINING_COURSE_2020_FINAL_v10.pdf |
| Description | SRA Payam Mehrshahi presented at the EIT food workshop ALGAL BIOTECHNOLOGY 2020 - TECHNIQUES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE BIOECONOMY |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | In 2020 due to the COVID restrictions, the EIT Food professional development course ALGAL BIOTECHNOLOGY - TECHNIQUES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE BIOECONOMY was held as a hybrid course. This course was developed and led by colleagues at The University of Cambridge (UK), Matis (Iceland) and Fraunhofer (Germany). The course attendees were graduate, postgraduate and industry professionals who are interested in gaining exposure to the latest insight into technical, commercial and policy concepts that impact algal biotechnology. Payam's talk titled "Genetic Engineering Approaches For Algal Biotechnology" was followed by a Q&A session. The range of questions was testament to the diversity of interests and stage in career of those in attendance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.eitfood.eu/projects/algal-biotechnology-techniques-and-opportunities-for-the-sustainable... |
| Description | STEMM Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Helped to set up a STEMM conference aimed at sixth form students and provided a workshop on plant breeding, nodulation and working towards reduced toxicity in grass pea for consumption in Africa. The session was well attended (students got to choose from a range of sessions) and the pupils enjoyed the hands-on activities but also liked hearing about the research into grass peas and its potential impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | School Science Art and Writing (SAW) project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We delivered a SAW project on the theme of plant defence at Avenues Junior School in Norwich. The children were encouraged to collect samples from the school garden of plants showing symptoms of disease and observe them using microscopes. This enabled them to look closely at plants, learn about a range of pathogens and develop confidence in using microscopes. They moved on to an experiment where they had to identify wheat and oat seedlings by grinding up roots using pestle and mortars and viewing the exudates under UV light to look for the presence of the fluorescent molecule avenacin that is present only in oat and protects it from attack by the 'take all' fungus Gaeumannomyces tritici. We then discussed how scientists are learning how plants make important molecules and reconstructing biosynthetic pathways in model systems and that wheat plants could be engineered to also produce avenacin to protect them from take all disease. The children were then asked to design a defence for a plant to protect it from 1 of 6 potential threats by turning over a 'chance card'. They were very creative and enjoyed dreaming up ideas that could be used for defence. They took the new concepts and vocabulary on to write poetry and create pieces of art that represented the modular building of pathways. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | School visit (St Alban's) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk to 6th form biology students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Science Art and Writing (SAW) Project in school |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a SAW project on the theme of plants at Tacolneston Primary, a very rural school in Norfolk. The school were studying Arctic and Antarctic biomes and so we worked with them to add some plant stories to the very zoocentric approach schools usually take when exploring these regions as habitats. This enabled us to explain adaptations to environments which are particularly fascinating in plants and we touched on some local work by colleagues in Cambridge who discovered alpine plants making a fine wool out of flavonoids to cover its leaves. We explored chemical diversity and its many uses in plants and then looked at chemicals in plants that are useful to humans. The children were surprised to see this dynamic side of plants. We then focused on colours, flavours and fragrances and made extractions and then altered our extracts with acids and bases to make many new versions. The children enjoyed this plant-based chemistry session and then took their new facts, vocabulary and concepts forward to write poetry and create art to explore the topic further. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Science Café, Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich 19th April 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Science Café at the Maddermarket Theatre entitled "Building with Biology". A presentation and interactive activity for identification of aromatic plant natural products and understanding biosynthetic pathways. This was followed by an extensive discussion on the meaning of the words 'synthetic', 'synthesis' and 'natural' and the relative benefits to the environment and health of synthetic biology approaches for manufacturing. Audience members expressed interest in adult-focussed lab-based workshops and bio-make spaces. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/scicafenorwich |
| Description | Science Communication Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a science communication workshop on the Science Art and Writing (SAW) methodology for third year science undergraduates at the University of East Anglia to show how they can design accessible science activities for non-specialists and can extend into creative writing and arts to provide a rich, memorable experience for participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Science Makers: DIY DNA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a two part workshop at Cambridge Makespace with 20-25 participants listening to talks and then completing practical exercises in i) Plant PCR and gel electrophoresis; ii) programming a NAND gate in synthetic DNA and expressing it in cell-free system; iii) building an open source transilluminator. The event was a success and got a good level of engagement from the attendees, some of whom approached afterwards for advice on adult education courses and part time degrees in biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Science Makers: Electrophysiology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Introduction to electrophysiology and workshop to build a plant electrophysiology board designed as part of an OpenPlant Fund grant to Carlos Lugo and Marco Aita. Successful meeting with almost all boards working and self-reported skills gained by participants e.g. soldering. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Science Makers: Learning physical computing with venus fly traps |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Workshop by Carlos Lugo following on from OpenPlant Fund to show people how to programme microprocessors and obtain results from sensors which can be displayed via a website. Excellent feedback from participants who were interested to apply the skills learned to their own projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Science in Norwich day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Helped Jenni Rant (SAW) to hold a stand describing the scientific research ongoing at JIC, at the Science in Norwich Day at the Forum on the 1st of June 2014 . |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://soin.org.uk/2014/04/science-in-norwich-day-2014/ |
| Description | Science on Saturday, part of SET week in Cambridge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We had a stand in the science tent outside Dept of Plant Sciences. We demonstrated what algae are, what we use for now and how they might be used in the future for energy production. There were activities such as viewing microalgae with microscopes, extracting different light-harvesting pigments, and observing algae phototaxis. Children could handcraft their own algae using pipe cleaners or take part in an interactive algae quiz to win prices. School asked for visit to talk to years 10-13. Established the material to mount a Royal Society Summer Science Exhibit |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2006,2007,2008,2015,2016 |
| Description | Science on Sundays |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Short talk and Q&A on the nature of algae and how their characteristics could be used for sustainable energy, water remediation, or other green tech solutions. Held in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, the audience were interested in plants, and so this was an opportunity to provide information on what algae are, and how they might be used in novel ways. The audience fed back that they felt much better informed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/Botanic/NewsItem.aspx?p=27&ix=196 |
| Description | Science, Art and Writing (SAW) project on plant natural products, Suffolk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A Science, Art and Writing (SAW) project on plant natural products was run for 90 students at St Benedicts Secondary School, Suffolk, UK on 3 July 2015. The students collected plant samples from the school grounds and used them in chromatography experiments to see how many different types of pigments they could extract. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Scientific Advisory Board Centre for Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) Barcelona |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I chaired the Scientific Advisory Board Centre for Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) Barcelona, and compiled the report for the institution. I also set up the twinning program between JIC and CRAG through liaison with the director, Jose-Luis Reichmann |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Scientific Advisory Board Meeting, on Banana Biofortification Gates project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I advised on scientif direction for the Biofortification of Banana project funded by BMGF in Kampala Uganda |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Scientific Advisory Board Plant and Food Research, New Zealand |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | I attended the Scientific Advisory Board Meeting Plant and Food Research, New Zealand, listened to and advised their emerging scientists and advised on scientific policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Scientific Advisory Board for Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), a joint initiative of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), University of Cologne (UoC), Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research Cologne (MPIPZ) and Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Member of the Science Advisory Board for the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), a joint initiative of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), University of Cologne (UoC), Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research Cologne (MPIPZ) and Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.ceplas.eu/en/home/ |
| Description | Seminar at NUIG |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Synthetic virus-like particles and how to make them in plants Seminar at National University of Ireland - Galway (NUIG), Galway, Republic of Ireland. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Seminar, Glasgow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lomonossoff G. P.(2018) Plant-based transient expression of virus-like particles for use in biomedicine and bionanotechology Seminar at University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Seminar: "Finding drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity" in the @IPS2ParisSaclay amphitheater on Tuesday 22nd November at 2 pm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Anne Osbourn gave a seminar about "Finding drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity" in the @IPS2ParisSaclay amphitheater on Tuesday 22nd November at 2 pm |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at SOL Meeting Thessaloniki Greece |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | RSSV presentation as part of JIC Annual Science Meeting |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Seminar to Masters students at Durham university on consumer traits developed using gene editing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | James Hutton Institute Workshop on New Breeding Technologies and the precision breeding bill. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote address International Congress of Nutrition, Tokyo, japan |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Seminar at the German Botanical Society Meeting Bonn Germany |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Seminar: Transcription factors as gateway for metabolic engineering |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant Forum seminar entitled Transcription factors as gateway for metabolic engineering Presenter Ingo Appelhagen |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Sixth Form/College science students visit to site |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We have been supporting schools to run plant science experiments over the last year and ran a science communication competition for participating schools inviting students to create a poster or report about their experiments to win a tour of the John Innes Centre. We hosted a group of winners and showed them a range of things around the site including; a visit to a research lab investigating nitrogen availability, a trip to the Germplasm Resource Unit to hear about the importance of preserving genetic diversity, a tour of the glasshouse facilities and meeting with a scientist investigating new varieties of legumes for better climate resilience, agricultural approaches and nutrition, a lab session on plant chemical diversity and opportunity to infiltrate Nicotiana benthamiana plants to learn about transient expression, a demo in the metabolomics lab to see how GC and LCMS enable discovery of molecules and a tour of the sequencing facility at the Earlham Institute. The students enjoyed seeing the range of topics being investigated, how some of them fitted together and the diversity of career options within a research facility. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Smart Imaging Sandpit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop to introduce the use of AI techniques, image processing and low-cost hardware for real world applications in low resource settings - co-organised by the Synthetic Biology IRC, Sensors SRN and Global Challenges SRI at the University of Cambridge, with support from BITRI Botswana, Royal College of Arts and Mathworks. The workshop led to 5 projects being conceived and funded, and competetive pitches. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.gci.cam.ac.uk/events/cgc-co-creation-events/smart-imaging-development-sandpit-and-seed-f... |
| Description | Speed breeding workshop in Africa: "Speed Breeding for Accelerated Crop Improvement in East Africa" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following on a previous OpenPlant project in which a bench-top controlled environment chamber for speed breeding was developed, the speed-breeding team, led by Dr Oscar Gonzalez, organized a workshop to facilitate the adoption of speed breeding in East Africa. The team carried out a two-day workshop at (KALRO), Njoro, Kenya, targeting researchers and breeders in Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan. The aim was to share knowledge on speed breeding and empower the participants with open-hardware solutions in biological and agricultural research. The event was a great success, received lots of positive feedback from participants and plans for follow-on meetings were made. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/projects/2020/1/27/speed-breeding-for-accelerated-crop-improvement-in-east-... |
| Description | Stapleford Community Primary School SAW workshop 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant teamed up with the Science Art Writing Trust workshop for year 6 pupils at Stapleford Community Primary School exploring excitable media and circuits of plants, linking them to biological systems like the brain, heart and muscle through science practicals, writing and art. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://openplant.org/blog/2016/02/openplant-science-art-and-writing-workshop-a-success/ |
| Description | Submitted scientific images to the Norwich Research Park image library |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The NRP image library consists of images arising from research in life and environmental sciences on the Norwich Research Park . The aim of NRP research is to deliver solutions to the global challenges of healthy ageing, food and energy security, sustainability and environmental change and this is reflected in the images in the library. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/searchresults.aspx?query=leveau |
| Description | Summer Activity Adventure Book |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Using scientific themes from across the research park, we produced an inspiring new summer adventure activity book, that was given out to 5,000 students in years 4 and 5 across Norfolk and Suffolk, to 120 children on the Isle of Skye and to foodbanks across the County. The book, entitled 'Help, there's an alien in my park!' is divided into six sections, each based on a different area of scientific research and includes challenges for young readers to complete. Children worked through the book and completed challenges over the summer holidays, using materials commonly found in and around the home, with little to no parental support. The initiative was developed to lessen the negative impacts of the COVID-19 school closures on science education within the region, where disadvantaged households have been disproportionately affected, widening the attainment gap and leaving many students in need of extra support. Designed to be accessible, the challenges encouraged investigation and creativity that will help the young readers develop as independent learners and nurture an interest in science topics. The feedback from children was excellent and we are working on a book for 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/help-theres-an-alien-in-my-park/ |
| Description | Synbio and bioinformatics workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A lesson plan was developed to cover how bioinformatics is used in research and how this links to synthetic biology and delivered in a secondary school to a group of science sixth form students. Synthetic biology is not well represented in the curriculum and so we worked with a teacher to create a session that enabled students to learn about the processes and to see real examples of how this is being used to create products of use to society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/news/saws-latest-intern/ |
| Description | Synthetic Biology Leadership Council Open Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman gave an invited presentation at the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council open meeting about the OpenPlant Fund model and impacts in November 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Synthetic Biology and Designing Gene Circuits, NRP BIO DTP Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman gave a presentation on Synthetic Biology and OpenPlant for 140 PhD students. Together with PIPS intern Millie Stanton, she ran an interactive activity on designing with biology and responsible research and innovation considerations, which catalysed discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Synthetic Biology and the Senses, Cambridge Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | For the third year in a row, OpenPlant teamed up with the SAW Trust and Cambridge Synthetic Biology SRI to deliver a variety of activities on our interactive stand at the Cambridge Science Festival. The purpose of this event was to engage with the general public and make people aware of OpenPlant activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/blog/2018/4/3/cambridge-science-festival-march-2018 |
| Description | Synthetic Biology and the Senses: Cambridge Science Festival exhibit 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant, SAW, Cambridge SynBio SRI and Imperial College teamed up to deliver and exhibit on Synthetic Biology and the Senses at Cambridge Science Festival. Activities included the newly built DNA Dave to explain how proteins are made using the instructions held in DNA, designing a synthetic flower, and smelling bacteria that were producing different scent chemicals. On display were bioluminescent bacteria, fabric samples dyed using bacteria (from company Colorifix) and information about a project on spicy tomatoes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/news/synthetic-biology-and-the-senses-at-the-cambridge-science-festival |
| Description | Synthetic Biology in Chile |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation in a public workshop to promote Synthetic Biology in Santiago, Chile, with Profs Drew Endy and Tom Knight. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Synthetic biology session and discussion panel at the London Festival of Genomics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Chaired a session on synthetic biology session and participated in a panel discussion at the London Festival of Genomics, 2017. This brought the synthetic biology to a new audience of industry, investors and the general public. There was a lengthy discussion with the general public, investors and industry representatives from diverse fields (e.g. computing and engineering) about the ethics and potential of biological engineering at the panel discussion and also following the workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.festivalofgenomicslondon.com/full-agenda |
| Description | Talk at "Pint of Science" event, Guildhall, Norwich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I delivered a talk entitled "Just eat your greens - a new way of vaccinating?" on 27/10/16 at this event as part of the Norwich Science Festival. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://pintofscience.com/ |
| Description | Talk at Norwich Science Festival 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This talk, entitled "The Green Vaccine Machine" was delivered as part of the Norwich Science Festival on 24/10/16 at The Forum in Norwich. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2016 |
| Description | Talk at Royal Society Club (Zoom) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Informal introductory talk to the Royal Society Club 'Opening the door to science through poetry'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Talk on Cambridge Biomakespace for Norwich BioMakers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jenny Molloy visited Norwich Research Park to present experiences in setting up the Cambridge Biomakespace and participate in a discussion about setting up Norwich BioMakers with representatives from academia, the Norwich Hackspace, knowledge transfer professionals and researchers. The group then went ahead to set up a series of meetings (see other engagement activities) and practical workshops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Talk on Open Source Innovation at The Second World Science and Technology Development Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The 2nd World Forum on Science and Technology Development, jointly organized by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) involved more than 200 prominent participants from the science, business and education communities to exchange ideas. The forum is sponsored by WFEO, UNESCO and the International Science Council (ISC). The theme of the event was "Trust, Cooperation and Development" and I presented alongside business leaders from the software and semiconductor industry and others on Open Source Innovation, focusing on its application to the bioeconomy and drawing on the approaches of OpenPlant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://www.wfeo.org/event/2nd-world-forum-on-science-and-technology-development/ |
| Description | Talk to JIC All by ingo Appelhagen From colourful mysteries to natural blues |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | JIC All presentation on use of Metabolomics by Ingo Appelhagen From colourful mysteries to natural blues |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talking Plants Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a workshop at the Talking Plants Conference at Cambridge Botanic Garden. This conference takes place at a different botanic garden nationally each year and brings together garden staff and other organisations that work with plants and the public. Our workshop showcased some of the best plant-themed outreach projects we have delivered to share ideas and activities that provide a platform to engage people with plants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://bgen.org.uk/conferences/talking-plants-2018-conference-proceedings/ |
| Description | The Colour Institute 'A sense of colour' at Cambridge Festival of Ideas |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This family event 'A sense of colour' on 17 October 2017 was co-organised by a Biomaker Challenge team (Sophie Weeks, Gareth Rees and Praveen Teleti) and Dr Jenny Molloy. It saw parents and children making DIY colour measuring machines designed by Praveen through the Biomaker Challenge funding provided by OpenPlant and questioning how we sense colour. Our eyes tell us that the colour of real and fake grass is very similar but if we augment our eyes with machines and look at the infrared end of the colour spectrum they appear very different. Participants learnt about the chemistry and physics of colour and split white light apart with DIY spectrometers made from cardboard and blank CDs. During the two sessions, participants met some 'colour makers' from the arts and sciences: Nabil Ali is an artist who researches natural pigment and ran a hands-on paint-making workshop using sources like indigo, madder, saffron and plants grown in his own back garden. Dr Edwige Mouyrod (Sainsbury Lab) and Rox Middleton (Department of Chemistry) introduced us the world of structural colour and iridescence. The workshop ran twice in succession reaching over 50 people in total and there was great interest in further opportunities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/news/the-colour-institute-biological-colour-takes-centre-stage-at-the-f... |
| Description | The Colour Institute Art Science Soiree at Cambridge Festival of Ideas |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Colour Institute Art & Science Soiree on 19 October 2017 brought together makers, writers, artists and scientists for talks on the use of colour in synthetic biology, scanning and printing works of art, remote sensing, the history of pigment and the use of colour in art. Activities and colourful surprises were provided, with the aim of inspiring creativity, fostering collaboration and interdisciplinary research. One of the talks by Dr Jenny Molloy featured OpenPlant work regarding use of chromoproteins and other marker genes for biological imaging. There was a great level of excitement and interest in the event from both scientists and artists. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.synbio.cam.ac.uk/news/the-colour-institute-biological-colour-takes-centre-stage-at-the-f... |
| Description | The Essex Synthetic Biology School (ESBS), University of Essex, UK : |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented lectures on "Engineering Plant Genomes for Farming and Pharming" and "Sharing Biology in the Information Age: Perceived Threats of Dematerialisation and Open Data". These were followed by discussions on the use of biotechnologies in agricultures and a debate on access and benefit sharing of genetic resources. Participants reported changes in their views on the common practices used to share information relating to genetic resources as well as physical resources. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://esbs.essex.ac.uk |
| Description | The Global Garden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Prof Anne Osbourn (JIC), Dr Colette Matthewman (JIC), Dr Jenni Rant (SAW Trust) and social scientist Dr Nick Lee (Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre) designed and delivered an interdisciplinary workshop to explore issues around global genetic plant resource sharing. The workshop, which was held at the John Innes Centre, was advertised to the public. Participants took part in a practical science exercise to extract chemicals from plants. They discussed case studies that illustrated the history, sourcing and use of high value products from plants (drugs, sweeteners, flavourings). Following that, they extracted DNA from plants and learned about the genetic code. They then reviewed and responded to the theme creatively by writing poetry and generating artwork. Participants commented that discussions "stretched my thinking about the ethics of biopiracy" and "changed my view of plants". A write-up of this workshop, at which Katie Beckett (Access and Benefit Sharing Project Manager for the UK) was also present, is being prepared for submission to an international science journal, and further workshops with different audiences are being planned in other locations across the UK and internationally for 2018/19. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/global-garden |
| Description | The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili about my scientific career and interest in algae and vitamins. The programme "The Life Scientific" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and was also available on BBC iPlayer and as a podcast. As a result I have had numerous contacts about possible scientific and industrial collaborations, as well as enquiries from the general public about the various topics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bzl8y |
| Description | Training Workshop - Edinburgh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | For the third year we returned to the University of Edinburgh to deliver a Science Art and Writing training workshop for scientists, artists, writers and teachers. Following the workshop, the participants formed SAW teams and partnered with schools to deliver workshops about a variety of synthetic biology topics for children to experience with practical science, poetry and art activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018 |
| Description | Training workshop (Edinburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | OpenPlant is working with the SAW Trust to deliver some of its engagement activities, particularly with schools. The SAW team were invited by the University of Edinburgh SynthSys & UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology to deliver a training workshop for scientists, artists, writers and teachers to enable them to design and deliver SAW projects in schools around Edinburgh. This approach to engaging children in current scientific research in an accessible way provides an excellent tool for scientists who wish to use diverse methods to showcase the potential impacts of their research. Working in teams with professionals from the arts fuels creative thinking and innovation around engagement styles whilst also providing novel science themes for artistic interpretation. Working with teachers helps to inform knowledge on current research to provide new examples for use in the classroom and the whole process enables co-learning from a science starting point in a multi-disciplinary way. Several SAW projects took place in Edinburgh schools in the months following the workshop where they were greatly received. We returned in 2017 to provide training for more people and again in 2018 and so the pool of SAW-trained scientists, artists and writers has grown significantly and the popularity of SAW in schools is providing a constant network for scientists to deliver novel engagement activities with children. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018 |
| Description | Translating Science: Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-translating-science-project-at-norwich-research-park-8643544 Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science'. It aims to engage more people in science through creative writing that has been inspired by some of the research conducted by scientists working at the Park. Translating Science paired several established writers and poets with researchers at the various institutes based at Norwich Research Park. The writers each spent time with a nominated researcher who explained their work and discussed the real-life applications. Following these meetings, the writers used the science as their inspiration to create a literary piece. Broadly speaking, the research that the writers based their pieces on were focused on the themes of Healthy Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet. The initiative is being led by Chris Gribble of the NCW and Prof Anne Osbourn of the John Innes Centre, who has engaged people in science through arts and writing projects delivered by the SAW Trust, which she founded. Scriptwriter Shey Hargreaves wrote three poems that explore the discovery and development of new medicines from plants. Her inspiration was the ground-breaking research that Prof Anne Osbourn has led over many years. During the project Shey visited the Osbourn laboratory and had a tour of the glasshouses. "Writers are always looking for inspiration and to have such a wealth of fascinating research at Norwich Research Park to generate ideas is fantastic," said Shey. "It is only when you speak to someone like Anne that you really realise the seismic difference the researchers' work can have on the future of our planet. "Not only am I truly inspired by it but I also feel compelled to share her knowledge and expertise through my poems. I hope my writing can help articulate what Anne is doing and that I can continue to create further pieces that will be inspired by this sort of research." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-translating-science-project-at-norwich-research-park-8643544 |
| Description | UK Africa Food Security Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The symposium took place at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge on 11 September and brought together participants with diverse backgrounds, from plant biologists to social scientists, to attend talks and discuss approaches that could be taken to address food insecurity in Africa. This event was sponsored through an OpenPlant Fund grant, and Colette Matthewman gave a presentation on the OpenPlant Fund. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.globalfood.cam.ac.uk/news/tackling-food-insecurity-in-africa-2013-uk-africa-food-securit... |
| Description | UKRI/BBSRC UK-Japan Workshop (Virtual) 23.10.20 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plans made for follow up |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | University of Warwick Elizabeth Creek Invited Lecture: Enhancing vitamin content of tomato using gene editing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of Invited Elizabeth Creeke Lecture to comemorate Opening of Elizabeth Creek Crop Improvement Research Facility at the University of Warwick |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Web Article - Spotlight on Synthetic Biology. Yaomin Cao |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Interview with Yaomin Cai of Nicola Patron's DNA Foundry at Earlham Institute, on how he got into synthetic biology, how it can help us to tackle biological questions, and what the future has in store. -SOCIAL MEDIA- Engagement x92, Impressions x70456 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.earlham.ac.uk/articles/spotlight-on-synthetic-biology |
| Description | Webinar at Bristol University: Plant Metabolic Clusters - From Genetics to Genomics (Bristol BioDesign Institute) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre 6 May 2020, 1.00 PM - 2.00 PM Zoom Webinar Plant Metabolic Clusters - From Genetics to Genomics lease email k.sedgley@bristol.ac.uk or agatha.hewitt@bristol.ac.uk - we would also love your feedback post seminar. Plants produce a wealth of natural products. The vast majority of the natural product diversity encoded by plant genomes remains as yet untapped. The explosion in plant genome sequence data, coupled with affordable DNA synthesis and new DNA assembly technologies, now offer unprecedented opportunities to harness the full breadth of plant natural product diversity and generate novel molecules in foreign hosts using synthetic biology approaches. The recent discovery that genes for the synthesis of different kinds of natural products are organised in biosynthetic gene clusters in plant genomes opens up opportunities for mining for new pathways and chemistries. This advance, in combination with powerful new transient plant expression technology, is enabling the development of rational strategies to produce known and new-to-nature chemicals tailored for food, health and industrial applications. This presentation will focus on our work on developing a translational synthetic biology pipeline for rapid preparative access to plant natural products and novel analogs using synthetic biology approaches. It will also highlight recent advances in our understanding of the genomic rearrangements underpinning the formation of new plant biosynthetic gene clusters, and of the functions of plant natural products in nature. https://www.jic.ac.uk/people/anne-osbourn/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biodesign-institute/events/2020/webinar--anne-osbourn.html |
| Description | Wired magazine interview and pictorial articles |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Published interview about Synthetic Biology and article about engineering living systems. "Building new life forms at the iGEM Jamboree", and "At home with the DNA hackers". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Workshop Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participated in Workshop: Production of pharmaceutical and industrial proteins in microalgae and plants, Manchester, UK, 01/05/15. Delivered lecture entitled "Making all kinds of everything: the joy of transient expression". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Workshop for schools (DNA Dave) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We developed a workshop for secondary schools to learn how our DNA Dave robot was built. The workshop first introduces the students to the biological messages DNA Dave tells around DNA transcription and translation, and then teaches them coding using BBC Microbits and LED strings to represent strings of DNA and then amino acids. Finally they learn about the physical build of the robot using a combination of mathematics, materials science and design. Schools are given basic starter kits and then invited to build their own versions of a robot to tell a biological story. This was trialled in March 2020 with the first cohorts of students from schools around Norfolk, with children from ages 14 to 17. The pandemic meant that the robot-building clubs in schools were unable to meet (mixed year groups = mixed bubbles) and so we are developing a video tutorial so that we can restart the programme as a virtual workshop. The teachers who participated in the first workshop are keen to get this project going again once schools are running normally and so have volunteered to try out the video tutorial to assess if the level of instruction given is sufficient for children to participate in the project. In the future we hope to have a real-life event for schools who have built a robot to bring it along to present and share stories. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshop for the "International Partnership in Plant Science" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Online event Harnessing & maintaining biological diversity for plant and crop improvement by UKRI. This invitation-only workshop is part of the "International Partnership in Plant Science" and will enable knowledge-sharing on key themes in plant research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Workshop on Genetic resources in the age of the Nagoya Protocol and gene/genome synthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The ongoing improvement of gene and whole genome sequencing and synthesis technologies presents possibilities of new practices, and demands discussion and debate in light of the long history of global bioresource management. This workshop in November 2016 acted as a venue for collecting information on current developments, sharing views, highlighting potential areas of concern, and establishing grounds upon which to build better understanding of the interactions between and implications of the Nagoya Protocol and gene synthesis for collection, circulation, and use of genetic resources. A report is in preparation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Workshop on UN Sustainable Development Goals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop organised by EPSO on UN SDGs and how Plant Science could contribute |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Workshop on assessing anti-inflammatory effects of plant polyphenolics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | African Summer School on health promoting metabolites from plants |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Workshops and conference presentation in Shanghai |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We visited Shanghai to deliver some training workshops for teachers new to the SAW methodology and also for teachers who have been working with SAW for several years. We introduced the Plant growth and development lesson plan to teachers at our hub school and we also presented SAW at a large international education conference showcasing a plant natural products projects to describe the process, |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/news/saw-returns-to-shanghai/ |
| Description | World Life Science Conference (Sustainable Agriculture Session), Beijing, 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | China National Convention Center presentation: The Plant Vacuole: Roles in Plant and Human Nutrition, and Cellular Signaling 27th - 29th October 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Xalapa Biomaker Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This Biomaker workshop was run at the University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Mexico, and designed to get non-programmers up and running within a day or two. This was due to use of the no-code programming environment XOD, which can be used to introduce biologists to hands-on physical computing. This proves to be a great way of promoting co-creation in interdisciplinary teams - where both the engineers and the biologists can communicate properly! (https://www.hackster.io/jim-haseloff/biomaker-starter-kit-xod-023e8b). In addition, we've doubled down on the use of the 4D Systems touchscreens with XOD and the Biomaker Starter kits, to allow code-free communication between Arduino devices and the touchscreens, with their ViSi-Genie interfaces. We've built better tutorial materials to kick-start this (e.g. https://www.hackster.io/jim-haseloff/biomaker-tutorial-4-programming-the-4ds-touchscreen-3b2006). Details of the 2-day workshops and associated open resources can be found at https://www.biomaker.org |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org/visiting-workshops |
| Description | Year 10 Summer Science Camp SynBio day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A one-day workshop on synthetic biology as part of a week long Science Camp for 13 promising year 10 pupils with an interest in careers in science. We covered activities from gene circuits and understanding important concepts of standardisation and modularisation, cloning and transformation of E.coli, engineering nitrogen symbiosis into crop plants, the design-build-test cycle. We had a lively debate on responsible research and innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Youth STEMM Award Mid-Year Conference OpenPlant Exhibit 26.01.17 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Colette Matthewman, Michael Stephenson, Don Nguyen and Nadiatul Radzman (JIC) developed an interactive exhibit to span engineering, biology and chemistry in the context of synthetic biology for the Youth STEMM Awards mid-term conference for 14-18 year old students. The exhibit included interaction with electronic circuits and an explanation of genetic circuits and the importance of standards, infiltration of Nicotiana benthamiana (with water) and a new SynBio card game developed by Michael Stephenson. The new game served to showcase, in an accessible way, the concept of exploiting transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana towards drug discovery via combinatorial biosynthesis. Scientists and exhibitors explained their science to enthusiastic students the Youth STEMM mid-year conference. Example blog from a year 10 attendee: http://ysawards.co.uk/2017/02/01/madelines-experience-at-the-women-of-the-future-conference/. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://ysawards.co.uk/ |
| Description | Youth STEMM Award mid-year conference 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Exhibited at the Youth STEMM Award mid-year conference. The exhibit provided information on case studies in plants using synthetic biology, an electronics practical explaining gene circuits, and infiltration of tobacco leaves to explain how scientists get DNA into plants for genetic engineering. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/2016/01/-youth-stemm-mid-year/ |