Facility Manager, Edinburgh Genome Foundry

Are you keen to develop your project and people management skills in one of the most fast moving areas of biomedical research: lab automation and synthetic biology?

We are looking for a molecular biologist, with extensive project and people management skills, to drive forward an automated genome assembly platform – Edinburgh’s Genome Foundry.

The Foundry is a world-leading facility, based within the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, devoted to the design and building of DNA constructs and provision of a wide range of laboratory automation services. The Facility Manager at Edinburgh Genome Foundry will be responsible for the implementation of the Foundry’s business strategy, the effective management of its projects, people, resources and budgets.

This is a unique opportunity to apply and develop your skills within an exciting, challenging and collaborative work environment.

This post is offered on a full time, open ended basis.

Salary: £40,792 - £48,677

For further Information, please contact Dr Liz Fletcher (liz.fletcher@ed.ac.uk)

Closing date is 25 June 2019 at 5 pm.

For the full job description and to apply, visit:

https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=048000

Hive BioLab, the first community/DIYBio lab in Ghana, launches @hivebiolab

Hive BioLab is the first community/DIYBio lab in Ghana dedicated to the rapid prototyping of ideas in biology, research, enterprising bio-startups by helping and providing resources to students and graduates to translate science to businesses.

HiveBioLab is now active on twitter: @hivebiolab

A Biomaker team has made it to the final of the BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2019 Awards

A Biomaker team with participants from Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), the Earlham Institute (EI), the John Innes Centre (JIC) and the University of Oxford, has developed a small scale speed breeding cabinet, which has qualified them for the final of the BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2019 Awards. Read more about this story here:

https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/norwich-research-park-team-in-line-for-early-career-innovator-award/

Biomaker Training in Ghana: Introducing biologists and non-biologists to “Building science hardware for biology”

Participants tinkering with XOD and the Open Smart Rich UNO 3 microcontroller

The Biomaker Africa Programme is an initiative by the Open Plant fund, Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative (Synbio SRI) and University of Cambridge. The programme, which is the first of its kind in Africa, aims to train biologists and non-biologists to design, prototype and share science hardware designs critical to building tools for laboratory use and for environmental sensing.

The Biomaker Africa Programme is geared towards enabling teams to design and build solutions to problems in agriculture, health, research and education specific to Africa. The programme is currently spread across 4 countries, Ghana (Kumasi Hive), South Africa (University of Pretoria), Egypt (Mansoura University) and Ethiopia (Bahir Dar University).

Kumasi Hive, one of the implementing nodes of the Biomaker Africa Programme, designed a two-month intensive training programme for students and graduates with backgrounds in biology and engineering. Ten participants were subsequently selected and began their training from March 2, 2019 to April 13, 2019. The curriculum driving the training was divided into various sections including:

1. Introduction to fundamentals of biology

2. Introduction to electronics and programming with XOD

3. Introduction to 3D printing and laser cutting

4. Design thinking

Participants of the Biomaker Training putting to use their 3D printing skills and 3D modelling skills.

The curriculum was designed with the aim of equipping participants with transdisciplinary knowledge and skills in biology, electronics, programming, 3D printing and design thinking. We believe this will enable the selected participants to build biology solutions to real world challenges specific to the Ghanaian context.

Each training track lasted for two weeks and took place on Saturdays and Sundays. The training sessions were characterized by short presentations by trainers, brainstorming sessions and research presentations by the participants. The training ended with a Biomaker hackathon, where the participants were provided with the Biomaker kits to build working prototypes in a day. After a design thinking session to expose the participants to the design thinking process and a human centred design approach, the participants came out with projects such as:

1. A solar-powered power pack for gel-electrophoresis to be used for field research and indoor laboratory use

2. Colorimeter for urine analysis

3. Water quality sensor for testing mercury and lead levels in water samples in mining areas in Ghana

4. Air quality sensor for environmental monitoring

5. Smart DIY biological safety cabinet for BSL1 work

By Harry Akligoh, Kumasi Hive, Ghana and Open Bioeconomy Lab.

Various job opportunities at Tropic Biosciences in Norwich

Tropic Biosciences:

“Based in Norwich, UK, Tropic Biosciences utilizes advanced genome editing (CRIPSR) and plant breeding technologies in developing new commercial varieties of tropical crops (e.g. coffee, banana, cacao). These multi-billion dollar crops play a critical role in supporting global nutrition and trade income but face intensifying disease and supply-chain challenges. We aim to solve these challenges through non-GMO genetic innovation.”

“CRIPSR technology is already transforming the agricultural industry at the hands of major seed companies like DuPont and Monsanto (‘Big Seed’) who use it to develop their future varieties of corn, soy and cotton. Our goal is to employ and further innovate this proven tool in the massive, largely untapped, tropical crops sector. To achieve this goal, we built a team of successful AgriTech entrepreneurs and world-class researchers with unique expertise in our target markets.”

Tropic Biosciences is currently looking for the following:

• Bioinformatician

• Biotech project manager

• Plant RNA biologist

• Molecular biologist

• Plant-pathogen interactions scientist

• Laboratory technician

For more information about Tropic Biosciences visit https://www.tropicbioscience.com/.