Technology for development and design for co-creation workshops

The Cambridge Global Challenges Initiative is running the following events for post-graduates and early career researchers in the New Year and a Global Challenges Round Table on 8th December. Book now to secure your place!

Global Challenges Round Table - 8th December

GCI will run Round Tables twice a year to give Cambridge researchers the opportunity to talk about research relating to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The programme of the December 2017 edition, which includes data-driven modelling of airborne diseases, digital design for development aid and innovative bacterial testing, has been shared. You are still very welcome to register to participate in the discussions that will follow the short talks and/or to share research projects to be presented in forthcoming editions of the Round Tables. 

Co-creation for Global Challenges

The following events are part of the focus of Global Challenges Initiative in facilitating the dialogue and co-creation between Cambridge researchers and end-users in the developing world. 

• • Workshop on User-Centred Design in Developing World Contexts – 10th January (application deadline: 15th December). This workshop will introduce the principles of user-centred design and explore the specific challenges and opportunities that commonly arise when using this approach to co-create innovative responses to global challenges. The workshop is open to post-graduates and early career researchers, from different research backgrounds, interested in user-centred design for the benefit of the bottom half of the world’s population. To apply please send a CV (max. 2 pages) and a letter of motivation outlining your interest and how you hope to apply learnings from the workshop to Sophie Mower (sophie.mower@centreforglobalequality.org). 

• Masterclass in Design Methods for Global Challenges – 11th January. This Masterclass will explore the similarities and differences between particular disciplinary approaches to co-creation with end-users in developing world contexts. One-to-one discussions between expert practitioners from different disciplinary and practitioner communities and established Cambridge researchers in fields within the EPSRC remit will be organized. To register for the event, please complete the online form.

Please note that a Technology for Development Graduate Sandpit – 15th January (application deadline: 11th December), aimed at Graduate students and Early Career Researchers, will take place after these two co-creation-oriented events. Winning teams of the competition sandpit will be awarded bursaries to undertake field trips to develop and test their ideas in real developing world situations. Please apply by completing the application form and submitting a CV (max. 2 pages) to winton@phy.cam.ac.uk.

[Closes Dec 2017] Eligo Bioscience seeking synthetic biologist and related positions

Eligo Bioscience are recruiting a new cohort of amazing scientists and executives to work with us on one of the most exciting synthetic biology-based drug-development platforms. To build the next generation of targeted drugs, they are looking for the most talented microbiologists, genome architects, bioengineers, and DNA hackers to join one of their R&D teams

Eligo Bioscience are recruiting a new cohort of amazing scientists and executives to work with us on one of the most exciting synthetic biology-based drug-development platforms. To build the next generation of targeted drugs, they are looking for the most talented microbiologists, genome architects, bioengineers, and DNA hackers
to join one of their R&D teams

Synthetic Biologist / Geneticist

To be able to translate our research to the clinic, we need to genetically engineer our producer strains to enable the packaging of synthetic circuits into our eligobiotics, and also to optimize the genetic circuits themselves to perform well in in-vivo models.

We are looking for excellent molecular biologists / synthetic biologists excited to tackle the ambitious challenges of diving into phage genetics and engineering bacterial strains.

The ideal candidate is passionate about genetic engineering. You’ll work hand-in-hand with Eligo microbiologists, phage biologists, and animal model scientists to optimize the engineering and validation of eligobiotics

Microbiologist

Eligo is building a platform technology to produce an arsenal of eligobiotics to target a wide range of bacterial species. With such a capability, Eligo is poised to lead the new generation of precision microbiome engineering companies. To build our library of delivery vectors based on phage capsids, we need to turn wild-type bacterial strains into engineered producer strains.

We are looking for excellent microbiologists excited to tackle the challenge of engineering and optimizing bacterial strains (aerobic/anaerobic, gram pos/gram neg, etc) to enable the production of species-specific eligobiotics. The ideal candidate is passionate about microbiology and molecular biology.

You’ll work hand-in-hand with Eligo phage biologists, synthetic biologists, and animal models scientists to optimize the engineering and validation of eligobiotics candidates for clinical trials.candidates for clinical trials.

Phage Biologist

To build our library of delivery vectors based on phage capsids, we need not only to discover and characterize a large number of phages with unique capabilities, but also validate their in-vivo activity.

We are looking for phage experts excited to tackle the challenge of both screening environmental samples and bacterial collections to discover unknown phages and characterizing them once isolated. Our whole process is now highly automatized thanks to our robotic pipeline.

The ideal candidate is passionate about phage biology and phage therapy. You’ll work hand-in-hand with Eligo microbiologists, genetic engineers, and animal model scientists to optimize the engineering and validation of eligobiotics candidates for clinical trials.

RebelBio opens call for London life-sciences accelerator - deadline 1 Dec 2017

RebelBio, the world’s first early-stage life-sciences accelerator, is seeking applications from ambitious scientists and entrepreneurs for its 2018 programmes. Science graduates, PhDs, postdocs and academics who feel a strong urge to commercialise their research or who need to advance their existing companies are particularly welcome.

More information from RebelBio 

Our investment  is given with the aim to develop a life-sciences product, commercialise research, or accelerate existing companies that can give the world something it needs.

RebelBio will invest up to $250K*, along with extensive business and scientific mentoring during the three-month period of the program, which take place in London from January 8th to April 8th 2018 & Corks programme from May - July.

During this time, RebelBio will provide laboratory space and supplies designed to allow our founders to move forward technically and business development. The program will culminate with a demo day and is part of an ongoing relationship that applicants will have with the world’s premier early-stage venture-capital fund, SOSV.

This relationship will provide many benefits including access to RebelBio’s vast network of investors, corporates and other like-minded entrepreneurs.

Application Information:

• Apply here - https://goo.gl/jXSzx1
• Review overview deck containing additional information on our programme - https://goo.gl/jXSzx1
• More details - https://goo.gl/XaN4yh

Deadlines:

• The closing date for the London programme is December 1st 2017
• The closing date for the Cork programme will be announced in early 2018.

Informal inquiries through contacting steven.oconnell@sosv.com.  

*Subject to performance

Biomaker Fayre showcases 40 open source, low-cost biological instruments

There was a real buzz in the air on Saturday 21 October, as 40 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. They are also important educational tools for those who are interested in developing technical skills and have great potential for improving the quality of science and increasing productivity in the lab for lower costs. With the proliferation of digital designs for 3D-printing and easily available consumer electronics like Arduino which has a huge community of users and lots of online help, designing your instrumentation around your experiment rather than vice versa has never been more possible.

Winners of the 3D-printed awards were:

Best Technology: A low-cost chromatography system for protein purification

Stéphanie Polderdijk (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research) and Wolfgang Schmied (MRC LMB) set out to lower the cost of column chromatography: a routine technique for the separation of components from complex mixtures.

In biochemistry and molecular biology, proteins frequently need to be purified by gravity flow, centrifugation, which are time-consuming or by using expensive automated systems that use pumps to force solutions over a column. They produced a lower cost, modular, open-source alternative to these commercial systems for performing simple, routine purifications.

Best Biology: PiRMA: A low-cost rodent physiology monitoring bed for pre-clinical experiments

Marcel Gehrung, Dominick McIntyre and Lina Hacker (all from CRUK Cambridge Institute) developed a low-cost rodent physiology monitor which is suitable for a wide range of experiments and imaging applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT). Parameters such as Heart Rate (HR), Respiratory Rate (RR), and Temperature can be measured which are important to reduce data artefacts. Existing solutions are in the cost range of several thousand pounds and do not support the holistic workflow required in animal experiments.

Maker Spirit: A DIY focus stacking system for macrophotography of developing ferns 

Jennifer Deegan (Department of Plant Sciences) and team Matthew Couchman (John Innes Centre), Tim Deegan (CohoData) and Richard Mortier (Computer Lab) developed a  very low-budget  focus stacking system for microphotography in order to take a series of photographs showing the development of the fern gametophyte from the very earliest feasible stage to the appearance of the first sporophyte leaf. 

Dr Jenny Molloy, co-organiser of the Biomaker Challenge and Fayre reported that “the judging panel were hugely impressed by the progress the teams made over just four months and we're excited to see where people go next with these open source designs, that are free for anyone to download, replicate and build on in their own labs”.

See more photos from the day here >>

Biomaker Challenge 2017 was jointly funded by OpenPlant, a BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre Grant BB/L014130/1 and the Isaac Newton Trust.

The Biomaker Challenge and Biomaker Fayre were coordinated by University of Cambridge's Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative and the CambridgeSens Network.

Thank you also to our sponsors ARM Ltd and New England Biolabs.

Expressions of interest open for BrisSynBio 4 Day MBA (9 - 13 April 2018)

BrisSynBio will be running their successful 4 day MBA again in April 2018 and are likely to be able to offer significantly discounted (or even free) tickets to postdocs and PhD students from the UK Synthetic Biology Research Centres, including OpenPlant

Details of the 2017 course are available here: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/brissynbio/innovation/innovation-training-and-events/

Early expressions of interest should go to Andy Boyce: Andy.Boyce@bristol.ac.uk  

[Closes 30 Nov 2017] PhD Internship available: BrisSynBio Innovations Officer

BrisSynBio are looking for an enthusiastic individual to support some of BrisSynBio's innovation activities in 2018. They will develop, organise and participate in the BrisSynBio 4-Day More Business Acumen (MBA) course

This hands-on programme provides entrepreneurship and business training to synthetic biologists and culminates in a dragons’ den pitching event with venture capitalists and £10,000 of prizes. They will also support the broader activities of the innovation programme including industrial networking and translational funding as required.

The post will be located in the Life Sciences Building on the University of Bristol campus, but may also include travel within Bristol and the UK. Applicants should have good organisational, communication, and interpersonal skills and be available to start in February 2018.

Deadline: 30 November 2017 

https://pipsadverts.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/bristol-centre-for-synthetic-biology-brissynbio/

[Closes 27 Nov 2017] PhD on plant gene regulation

PhD available with Dr Nicola Patron of the Earlham Institute on design principles for synthetic gene regulation - understanding how cis-regulatory functions are encoded in plant DNA.

Plants are emerging as commercially-relevant production systems for high-value natural products. This requires suites of non-homologous, characterised regulatory elements for applications such as balancing components within a responsive circuit and preventing the build-up of toxic intermediates along a biosynthesis pathway. Plant regulatory sequences are comprised of complex arrangements of protein binding motifs and cis-regulatory elements. Both the primary DNA sequence and secondary DNA structure contribute to regulating gene-expression by recruiting proteins and dictating nucleosome architecture. This project will apply an original synthetic-biology approach to study the relationship between sequence and function utilising comparative genomic approaches to inform the design of synthetic regulatory sequences. This will enable us to understand how cis-regulatory function is encoded in specific DNA sequences. The project will focus on the identification and characterisation of cis-regulatory elements conserved across plants to inform the design of minimal synthetic elements that function across species. Comparative analysis of genome sequences will be used to inform iterative 'design-build-test-learn' cycles in which the function of libraries of designed, synthetic sequences will be analysed. The student will be trained in bioinformatics and comparative genomics analyses, synthetic biology approaches and low and high-throughput plant molecular biology and biotechnology techniques.

More information and application >>

[Closes 12 Jan 2018] Synthetic Biology Centre for Doctoral Training 2018 Cohort is now open for applications

The Synthetic Biology Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is a collaboration between the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Warwick. It offers a four-year training programme leading to a PhD. The programme is designed for students with both physical and life sciences backgrounds.

More information and to apply >>

The first two terms are in Oxford, taught by staff from all three institutions, and devoted to acquiring the necessary theoretical and technical skills, through a combination of intensive lecture courses, practicals, seminars, project work and training in research and communication skills.

Over the third term and summer period at the end of the first year, students will undertake two extended projects, each lasting about 10 weeks. These are similar in scope to a master's-level project and serve as both advanced training and to help students  choose their research topic for the final three years of the course.

After completing these projects, students will undertake substantive PhD research projects in synthetic biology in their home participating university.

The Synthetic Biology CDT will produce internationally excellent researchers with key skills desired by prospective employers in the nascent field of synthetic biology.

[Closes 24 Nov 2107] Apply now to the OpenPlant Fund!

The OpenPlant Fund is now open to proposals for innovative, open and interdisciplinary projects relevant to plant or in vitro Synthetic Biology. Projects run for six months and can include biological research, hardware prototyping, software, outreach, policy work and training.

For this round applications focused on training and knowledge exchange are especially encouraged.

The deadline is 24 Nov 2017 for projects led from University of Cambridge or Norwich Research Park with external collaborators welcome.

Apply now by 24 Nov 2017 >>>

Download: Poster | Info Sheet

Each successful project will receive up to £5k, with £4k up front and an additional £1k for follow-on and outreach after reporting. PhD students and postdocs are particularly encouraged to apply.
 
A wealth of tools, technologies and methodologies have been developed for plant and cell free Synthetic Biology, including those developed through OpenPlant, the OpenPlant Fund, the Biomaker Challenge and complementary efforts. In the current OpenPlant Fund call, we are encouraging applications for projects that will provide training or knowledge exchange to broaden the use of plant and cell-free synthetic biology tools, techniques and technologies. Information about previous OpenPlant Fund projects are available on www.biomaker.org.
 
For more information see https://www.openplant.org/fund/ and join the upcoming mixer event on Thursday 9 Nov 2017. If you are interested in submitting a proposal or have any questions, please email colette.matthewman@jic.ac.uk.
 

Want to learn more and find collaborators?

OpenPlant Fund mixer and a light-hearted look at training!
4pm on Thursday 9 November, The Rec Centre Bar, John Innes Centre, Norwich
RSVP to this event here >>
 
This event provides an introduction to the opportunities and a chance to present your initial proposals and to meet potential collaborators over drinks and pizza. We will also have a light-hearted look at training, including different models and effective communication of technical details. Come along to learn some tips and tricks in this fun and informative training session, and to network and meet potential collaborators. More details to follow.

Cafe Synthetique: Towards engineering circadian rhythms
6pm on Monday 20 November, The Panton Arms, 43 Panton Street, Cambridge
RSVP to this event here >>

Help will be on hand to answer any questions you might have as the deadline for applications approaches and to find last minute partners for your teams!
 

Eligibility

Applicants should be graduate students or postdoctoral workers at the University of Cambridge, the John Innes Centre or The Sainsbury Laboratory. The team must be interdisciplinary, must contain members from both Norwich and Cambridge and may contain external collaborators of any type. Applicants must have agreement from their research supervisor and cost-code sponsor that the proposed project and management of the allocated funding will fit with their existing work. All proposals must lead to tangible, publicly documented and open outcomes, which could include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Design files and prototype for a hardware project
• Software development and documentation
• White paper arising from a workshop
• Educational resource
• Synthesis and sharing of useful DNA parts or vectors.

For more information and to apply see the OpenPlant Fund webpage