SAVI: Yeast Chromosome (Sc2.0) Synthesis and Analysis

这个SAVI的目标是创建一个“虚拟研究所”，将支持整个真核生物基因组的合成。编写完整的真核生物基因组仍然是艰巨的，超出了任何单个实验室已证实的DNA合成能力。与人类基因组计划类似，这些最初的努力将需要许多独立中心的协调活动。该提案将建立研究协调基础设施，以便在5年内在美国、亚洲和欧洲的各个地点，从四年制文理学院到主要研究机构，完成酿酒酵母基因组的完整合成，从而激发全球本科生、研究员、教职员工的想象力。SAVI计划的具体目标是巩固约翰霍普金斯大学、马里兰洛约拉大学的研究人员与中国、印度和欧洲的国际合作伙伴之间目前的合作。单个染色体合成的战略性外包保证了整个酵母基因组在五年内完成，来自美国和国际参与伙伴和资助机构的杠杆资金和资源。更广泛的影响- SAVI项目的更广泛的影响是有史以来第一次能够询问和回答有关染色体基本特性，基因组组织，基因内容，RNA剪接功能，原核生物和真核生物之间的区别以及基因组和进化的许多其他方面的深刻问题。“合成酵母菌”将在实际应用中发挥重要作用，从重点生物学问题的试验台到未来合成生物学项目的基础。值得注意的是，酵母是用于工业发酵的卓越生物，具有各种各样的实际用途，包括从农产品和副产品中生产乙醇。作为行业外唯一的同类项目，该项目通过开放所有试剂和协议的源代码，在没有知识产权限制的情况下，为保持合成生物学领域的知识公开提供了独特而非常重要的服务。SAVI的这项工作在培养基因组规模合成生物学的研究人员方面也是独一无二的。约翰霍普金斯大学开发并实施了一项创新的“构建基因组”课程，随后在马里兰洛约拉大学和中国的两所大学开设了这一课程。SAVI还将为学生、博士后和研究人员提供多学科培训的机会，并将鼓励国际交流。该奖项被指定为跨虚拟研究所（SAVI）科学奖，由NSF生物科学理事会、工程理事会和国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

The objective of this SAVI is to create a "Virtual Institute" that will support the synthesis of an entire eukaryotic genome. Writing a complete eukaryotic genome remains daunting and beyond the proven DNA synthesis capabilities of any individual lab. In analogy to the Human Genome Project, these first efforts will require the coordinated activities of many individual centers. This proposal will put in place the research coordination infrastructure to enable the complete synthesis of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome within 5 years at sites spanning the USA, Asia, and Europe, at institutions ranging from four-year liberal arts colleges to major research institutions, thereby capturing the imagination of undergraduate students, fellows, staff and faculty members worldwide.The specific objectives of this SAVI initiative are to solidify current collaborations between researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University of Maryland, and international partners in China, India and Europe. The strategic outsourcing of the synthesis of individual chromosomes guarantees that the entire yeast genome is completed within a five-year period with leveraged funds and resources from the US and international participating partners and funding agencies. Broader Impacts - The broader impacts of this SAVI project are the first-ever ability to ask and answer deep questions about fundamental properties of chromosomes, genome organization, gene content, the function of RNA splicing, the distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and numerous other aspects of genomes and evolution. The "synthetic yeast" will play an important role in practical applications, ranging from a test-bed for focused biological problems to a chassis for future synthetic biology projects. Notably, yeast is the preeminent organism used for industrial fermentations, with a wide variety of practical uses, including ethanol production from agricultural products and by-products. As the only effort of its kind outside industry, this project provides a unique and very important service in keeping the knowledge in the Synthetic Biology field public through open source availability of all reagents and protocols without intellectual property restrictions. This SAVI effort is unique also in training researchers in genome-scale synthetic Biology. An innovative "Build A Genome" course was developed and implemented at Johns Hopkins University, which has since been offered at Loyola Univ. of Maryland, and two universities in China. The SAVI imitative will also offer opportunities for multi-disciplinary training of students, postdocs, and researchers, and will encourage international exchange.This award is designated as a Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) award and is being co-funded by NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences, Directorate for Engineering, and Office of International Science and Engineering.