An infrastructure for platform technology in synthetic biology

该项目的目标是开发合成生物学的集成平台技术和基础设施。在合成生物学领域处于国际领先地位的五所英国大学（帝国理工学院、剑桥大学、爱丁堡大学、伦敦政治经济学院/国王学院和纽卡斯尔大学）已经成立了一个联盟来解决这个问题。这些大学在合成生物学方面已经有了非常重要的研究项目（例如帝国理工学院有EPSRC国家合成生物学和创新中心- CSynBI）。该联盟将提供必要的临界质量和协同作用，以解决一系列合成生物学研究及其转化为工业。合成生物学可以被定义为一个领域，“旨在设计和工程基于生物学的部件，新设备和系统，以及重新设计现有的自然生物系统”（皇家工程学院合成生物学调查报告）。2009年5月)。这是一个快速发展的领域，现在人们认识到，这将对加强英国的工业基础具有重大意义。英国和欧洲其他大部分国家一样，自然资源有限。唯一的例外是高质量的人力资源——这使得英国在科学研究基础方面仅次于美国。合成生物学是一个自然适合创造新的知识产业的领域，也是一个增强现有产业的领域。那么为什么是现在呢？就像最初的工业革命一样，我们不可能挑出一个时间点，让一切都从这个时间点开始。然而，一个基准点是詹姆斯·瓦特在18世纪末发明的蒸汽机。同样，沃森和克里克1953年发表的DNA结构和2001年人类基因组的初步测序可以被认为是催生合成生物学的生物学革命的基点。合成生物学是许多领域的融合，主要是生物学和工程学，但也包括数学、物理和化学。快速测序和化学合成DNA的能力，加上信息和通信技术（ICT），是合成生物学的技术驱动力。科学驱动因素是过去60年来生物知识的积累，以及工程方法和概念的应用——例如，重要的是，模块化、标准化和特征化。工业化是合成生物学的一个重要目标。这将包括利用英国在合成生物学方面的研究基地来创造新的产业，振兴现有的产业，支持中小企业，吸引外来投资和创造新的就业机会。为了实现这一目标，有必要创建平台技术，包括工具、流程等，这些技术可以应用于一系列领域。该平台技术将作为系统设计过程的一部分，涉及合成生物学的设计周期（规格、设计、建模、实施、测试和验证），以生产基于生物学的部件、设备和系统——在不同领域有一系列应用。该方法的一个重要方面是将道德、社会和环境因素纳入设计过程。一些详细的范例应用项目将与工业界密切合作，以测试基础设施和平台技术作为将大学研究转化为工业应用的工具的有效性。该联盟旨在提供知识中心，使该领域的公司能够共享信息并建立强大的网络和集群。目标是使平台技术：(a)与国际社会的工作和愿望相兼容，(b)便于广泛的用户（学术和工业）使用。

SummaryThe aim of the project is to develop integrated platform technology and an infrastructure for synthetic biology. Five British universities (Imperial College, Cambridge, Edinburgh, LSE/Kings and Newcastle), who are amongst the international leaders in synthetic biology, have formed a Consortium to address the issue. These universities already have very significant research programmes in synthetic biology (e.g. Imperial College has the EPSRC National Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation - CSynBI.)The consortium will provide the critical mass and synergy necessary to address a range of synthetic biology research and its translation to industry. Synthetic Biology can be defined as a field that "aims to design and engineer biologically based parts, novel devices and systems, as well as redesigning existing natural biological systems" (The Royal Academy of Engineering Synthetic Biology Inquiry Report. May 2009). It is a rapidly developing field which, it is now recognised, will have major relevance to enhancing the UK's industrial base. Britain, like much of the rest of Europe, has limited natural resources. The exception to this is high quality human resources - which have resulted in the UK being second only to the US in terms of our scientific research base. Synthetic biology is a field which naturally lends itself to the creation of new knowledge industries - and to enhancement of existing industries.So why now? As with the original industrial revolution, it is not possible to single out a point in time from which everything flowed. However, a fiducial point was the invention of the steam engine by James Watt towards the end of the 18th century. Similarly, the publication of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 and the initial sequencing of the human genome in 2001 can be considered as fiducial points in the biological revolution which has spawned synthetic biology. Synthetic biology is the confluence of a number of fields, principally biology and engineering - but, also, mathematics, physics and chemistry. The ability to rapidly sequence and chemically synthesise DNA, coupled to information and communication technology (ICT), is the technological driver for Synthetic Biology. The scientific drivers are the accumulation of bio-knowledge over the last sixty years and the application of methods and concepts from engineering - for example, and importantly, modularisation, standardisation and characterisation.Industrialisation is an important aim of synthetic biology. This will involve leveraging the UK's research base in synthetic biology to create new industries, to rejuvenate existing industries, to support SMEs, attract inward investment and create new jobs. To achieve this it will be necessary to create platform technology, comprising tools, processes etc, which can be applied across a range of fields. The platform technology will be used as part of a systematic design process involving the design cycle for synthetic biology (specifications, design, modelling, implementation, testing and validation) to produce biologically based parts, devices and systems - with a range of applications in different fields. An important aspect of the approach is the incorporation of ethical, societal and environmental considerations into the design process. A number of detailed exemplar applications projects will be carried out in close collaboration with industry to test the effectiveness of the infrastructure and platform technology as a vehicle for translating university-based research into industrial applications. The Consortium aims to provide knowledge hubs where firms in the field can share information and build strong networks and clusters. The objective is for the platform technology to be: (a) compatible with the work and aspirations of the international community and (b) readily accessible by a wide range of users (both academic and industrial).