Liverpool GeneMill

合成生物学是一个新兴的领域，被描述为人工生物设备，途径或网络的构建或现有的重新设计。这个工程过程的关键是构建部分或组件，这些部分或组件在DNA中编码。合成生物学的一个限制因素是获得廉价、高保真的DNA结构编码组件。这项提议是为了资助利物浦基因工厂，该工厂将以DNA块和长寡核苷酸（Ultramers）的形式吸收原材料，并与生物材料中预先存在的块和DNA片段一起，将它们编织成高保真的DNA结构。这反过来将用于基因组规模的工程和蛋白质表达原型。这将通过手动管道的机器人自动化来实现。除了制造结构，还将有一个DNA计算机辅助设计工具，它是为了适应我们的管道而开发的。我们将与一家软件开发公司（Genome Mill）合作开发，将用户与组件数据库联系起来，并将设计转换为GeneMill的制造蓝图。这将反过来链接到一个实验室管理系统，允许个人跟踪，每个项目的质量控制，因为它通过GeneMill移动。最终，GeneMill将提供一个快速，具有成本效益和访问的DNA部件制造设施。通过为用户消除制造的复杂性，GeneMill将使研究人员能够专注于部件，设备，路径和网络的设计和测试。

Synthetic biology is an emerging field that has been described as the construction of artificial biological devices, pathways or networks or the re-engineering of existing ones. Key to this engineering process is the construction of parts or components, which are encoded in DNA. A limiting factor in synthetic biology is access to cheap, high-fidelity DNA constructs encoding the components. This proposal is to fund the Liverpool GeneMill, which will take in raw materials in the form of DNA blocks and long oligonucleotides (Ultramers) and together with pre-existing blocks and DNA stretches from biological material, weave these into high fidelity DNA constructs. This in turn will be used for genome-scale engineering and protein expression prototyping. This will be achieved through robotic automation of a manual pipeline. Alongside the fabrication of constructs will sit a DNA computer-aided design tool, developed to fit with our pipeline. We will develop this in collaboration with a software development company (Genome Compiler), linking users with a components database and taking designs and converting this into manufacturing blueprints for the GeneMill. This will in turn link into a laboratory management system, allowing individual tracking, quality control of each project as it moves through the GeneMill.Ultimately the GeneMill will provide a rapid, cost-effective and accessible fabrication facility for DNA parts. By removing the complexity of manufacture for the user, GeneMill will allow researchers to focus on the design and testing of the parts, devices, pathways and networks.