Bioreactor capability for the Plant and Microbe DNA Foundry

合成生物学是工程范式在生物系统中的应用。研究人员正在使用这种模式来设计、构建和测试可以包含来自多个基因或系统的功能的生物“电路”。使用这种方法，我们能够优化生产生物活性物质的系统——高价值的化学物质，在活细胞中合成，可以比常规化学工程方法更经济有效或更环保的方式生产。最大的挑战之一是当我们需要测试系统的多个方面时。例如，启动子（DNA的一个单位，可以开启或关闭基因）可能在植物的根中工作得很好，但在叶子中就不好了。如果我们想对启动子进行系统修改，使其能够以可预测的方式使用，我们可能希望制造或合成许多版本的启动子。Earlham研究所的高通量合成生物学实验室旨在使用自动化来解决这个问题，这样我们就可以比手动完成这个过程更快、更经济地完成这个任务。然而，在我们制造了所有这些版本的启动子之后，我们将需要通过在一个活系统中进行测量来测试它的活性。我们面临的挑战是如何以自动化和高吞吐量的方式做到这一点。自动微生物反应器是用于培养细胞的小型生长室，并在细胞生长时对其进行测量。他们可以控制生长环境，通过增加或减少氧气或二氧化碳，他们可以控制生长室中的营养物质，他们可以测量细胞生长的各个方面——包括它们使用了多少氧气，它们生长的速度有多快，但关键的是，他们还可以测量荧光。有时，研究细胞活动的一小部分表现的最好方法是用荧光标记物“标记”它。通常是GFP或“绿色荧光蛋白”。这是一种无毒的方法来标记细胞活动的元素。能够评估系统中的荧光是进行这些高通量测量的关键部分。厄勒姆研究所是研究生命系统遗传学的领先研究机构，拥有英国最先进的一些研究实验室。这个项目将扩展我们的能力，使我们能够与整个英国研究界分享它。7年来，厄勒姆研究所一直通过BBSRC的“基因组学国家能力”为英国研究界提供先进的生物科学设备，并以透明和开放的方式分享我们的设备、数据和知识而自豪。

Synthetic biology is the application of engineering paradigms to biological systems. Researchers are using this paradigm to design, build and test biological 'circuits' which can contain functionality taken from multiple genes or systems.Using this methodology we are able to optimise systems for the production of bioactives - chemicals of high value, synthesised in living cells, that can be made more cost-effectively or in a more environmentally friendly fashion than with normal chemical engineering approaches.One of the biggest challenges is when we need to test multiple aspects of a system. For instance a promoter, a unit of DNA which turns genes on or off, may work well in the root of a plant, but not well in the leaf. If we wanted to make systematic modifications to a promoter so that it can be used in a predictable fashion, we may wish to make, or synthesise, many versions of it. The high-throughput synthetic biology laboratories at the Earlham Institute are designed to tackle this problem using automation, so that we can complete this task more quickly and more cost-effectively than if we were doing the process manually.However, after we have made all these versions of a promoter, we will need to test its activity by taking measurements in a living system. The challenge is how we can do this in an automated and high-throughput manner. Automated micro-bioreactors are small scale growth chambers for growing cells, and taking measurements of those cells as they grow. They can control the growing environment, by raising or reducing oxygen or carbon dioxide, they can control the nutrients in the growth chambers, and they can measure aspects of the cells as they grow - including how much oxygen they are using, how fast they grow, but critically they can also take measurements of fluorescence.Sometimes the best way to study the performance of a small part of a cells activity is to 'tag' it with a fluorescent marker. Commonly this is GFP or 'green fluorescent protein'. This is a non-toxic way of marking the element of a cells activity. Being able to assess fluorescence in a system is a critical part of taking these high-throughput measurements.The Earlham Institute is a leading research institute in the study of the genetics of living systems, and houses some of the UK's most advanced laboratories for these kind of studies. This project will extend our capacity and capability, in a way that enables us to share it with the entire UK research community. The Earlham Institute has been providing access to advanced biological sciences equipment for over 7 years to the UK research community through the BBSRC 'National Capability in Genomics' and prides itself on how we share our equipment, data and knowledge in transparent and open ways.