Practical Synthetic Biology: Plants, Agriculture and the Environment
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Plant Sciences
Abstract
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Technical Summary
Recent technical advances in biology have given rise to a different class of cellfree and transient expression systems that are both cheap to deploy and have huge potential benefit for the provision of a wide variety of diagnostics, sensors, vaccines and research materials. We propose to bring together key UK and African scientists and application specialists to explore the development and deployment of these new systems, which (i) avoid the complications, delays and regulatory uncertainty associated with uncontained of GMOs, while (ii) providing high level, low cost training opportunities and capacity building.
Planned Impact
unavailable
Publications
Guzman-Chavez F
(2022)
Constructing Cell-Free Expression Systems for Low-Cost Access.
in ACS synthetic biology
| Description | The grant funded a symposium and knowledge sharing workshop to come up with recommendations for GCRF funding in the area of synthetic biology. Key findings include: 1) The UK and Africa share a common goal with the need to develop improved synthetic biology training in schools, universities, community labs and industry. International efforts to develop open standards and protocols for DNA parts and tools will provide a major impetus for technology transfer to Africa and synthetic biology can provide better solutions for: (i) rapid-response production of vaccines and biologics, (ii) point-of-use diagnostics and field biosensors, (iii) agricultural crop improvement using non-transgenic (genome editing) tools, and (iv) harnessing local biodiversity to build a sustainable bioeconomy. In each of these applications, the development of practical solutions and social impact requires: (i) shared curricula for training and biotechnology education in resource-poor communities and institutes; (ii) building local expertise through exchange and shared knowledge. 2) Cell-free synthetic biology offers an excellent platform for basic and applied research in the African context: These new technologies are relatively low-cost, but their adoption in Africa is limited by deficits in technical training, poor access to new research materials, inadequate laboratory facilities, and lack of strategic partnerships with other African and international research institutions. Since hte workshop, this has led to major research collaborations and a £1.5m EPSRC GCRF grant on low-cost viral diagnostics. 3) We developed recommendations that capacity-building based on open technologies and exchange should be a major component of any funding initiative. This was justified in the workshop report and drew on the increasing availability of legal tools and business models to accompany use of foundational open technologies e.g. the Open Material Transfer Agreement (http://openmta.org). 4) Our priority areas for call topics relating to capacity development include: (i) Teaching and training resources to support fast and frugal innovation in bioengineering in low-resource environments; (ii) Adoption of cell-free expression systems for rapid prototyping; (iii) Transient plant-based expression for production of vaccines and bioeconomy-related biologicals; (iv) Responsible harnessing of plant and microbial biodiversity in synthetic biology; (v) Low-cost and instrument-free diagnostics. |
| Exploitation Route | We anticipate that these finding will inform future research calls from the UK Research Councils and other agencies and that was the intended audience. Our workshop and report led to Cambridge hosting a visit by the Director of Biotechnology at the South African Department of Science and Technology, who was involved in discussions around the ways the South African government could support the recommendations. It has also fed into a report to the UN Global Environment Facility which is under preparation. We continue to distribute the report at meetings such as the OpenPlant Forum and highlight to a range of actors from academia, civil society and industry the opportunities presented in areas such as agriculture, biomanufacturing and diagnostic development. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Education Environment Government Democracy and Justice Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | https://www.openplant.org/global-challenges/ |
| Description | 1) Policy impact: Our workshop and report led to Cambridge hosting a visit by the Director of Biotechnology at the South African Department of Science and Technology, who was involved in discussions around the ways the South African government could support the recommendations. It has also fed into a report to the UN Global Environment Facility which is under preparation. We continue to distribute the report at meetings such as the OpenPlant Forum and highlight to a range of actors from academia, civil society and industry the opportunities presented in areas such as agriculture, biomanufacturing and diagnostic development. The report was distributed to the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology by council member and co-author Dr Jenny Molloy. It informed an upcoming WEF report on changing geographies of innovation in synthetic biology which will in turn inform a planned global meeting for synthetic biology strategy during 2022 which will focus on equitable participation of actors and governments from the global South. The downstream impact of use of our findings is unclear at present but it has played a role in shaping relevant conversations at an international level. 2) Education and capacity building: the findings led to the organisation of a workshop to develop an open curriculum for cell-free synthetic biology which took place in Cambridge in July 2017 with southern African representation. We were then awarded a £1.5m EPSRC GCRF grant for low-cost viral diagnostics which included a major educational and capacity building component focused on early career researchers. We ran a successful workshop in South Africa in 2019 but follow up was disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Instead, effort has shifted to building out open educational resources for engineering biosensors for human, animal and environmental health initially with partners in South Africa and now expanded to include Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Chile and Ethiopia supported by a BBSRC GCRF STARS award. This 20 module course builds on many of the principles distilled during the Practical Synthetic Biology grant activities around adapting practical teaching for low-resource settings and as such will offer a unique resource for education on synthetic biology in a global context. We expect the resources to be published by the end of 2022 and to reach several hundred students by the end of 2023. |
| Sector | Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Diagnostics, prosthetics and orthotics to tackle health challenges in developing countries |
| Amount | £1,500,000 (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 | 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 | Shuttleworth Fellowship |
| Amount | $261,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | Shuttleworth Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | South Africa |
| Start | 03/2018 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| 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 | Reclone Network: open biological reagents for biomedical research |
| Organisation | National University of Cuyo |
| Country | Argentina |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In discussions with the global Reclone Hub leads, our team submitted information for a Request for Information to the Open Science Team at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in Mar-2024, and was subsequently approached to submit a proposal on accelerating the uptake and implementation of open science best practices. As Reclone was established from the Open Bioeconomy Lab at the University of Cambridge, we provide support and guidance to the Regional Hubs in the producing and distributing the Open DNA Collections/toolkits to the Hubs for redistribution. Development of the toolkits will be shared amongst all Hubs (in UK, Argentina, Ghana, and the Philippines), which in turn helps to inform the potential users (startups and SMEs) in the UK biomanufacturing sector. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We partnered up with the Reclone Hub in Latin America - led by Prof María Teresa Damiani - to take the lead on this proposal and she was awarded $300,000 over two years (starting Feb-2025) to strengthen the Reclone Regional Hub in Argentina and establish new nodes in Chile and Peru. This aims to empower local labs with the tools and training to produce lab chemicals autonomously, enabling faster, cheaper, and more reliable research. The funding primarily supports researchers in Latin America to further develop the Open DNA Collections, which will be shared amongst all Hubs (in UK, Argentina, Ghana, and the Philippines) to enable research globally. For more information: https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-latin-america-struggle-get-key-chemicals-and-other-reagents-experiments |
| Impact | Proposal only recently awarded and are in the early stages of sharing resources between UK and Argentina, and formalising plans for developing and subsequently sharing the updated Open DNA Collections. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | OpenPlant Automation Protocols Github Repository |
| Description | The Open Bioeconomy Lab and the Earlham Institute are collaborating to validate and make available a library of protocols and automation scripts for the Opentrons OT2 platform via github. We hope this collection of protocols can inspire more researchers to adapt their workflows for automation, enabling a higher throughput and efficiency in general molecular biology work. The current protocols cover minipreps using magnetic beads and custom labware design files. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Only released in 2023 and will be updated throughout the year, no notable impacts expected yet. |
| URL | https://github.com/openplant/openplant_automation_protocols |
| 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 | 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 |