Synthetic Biology: Technical Challenges in Synthetic Biology - Vivek Mutalik

https://www.ibiology.org/bioengineeri... In this talk, Dr. Vivek Mutalik highlights current difficulties in the field of synthetic biology, and explains some of the approaches that are underway to improve the state-of-the-art in the field. Dr. Mutalik discusses some of the elements that make current approaches to synthetic biology unpredictable and expensive, and reviews possible ways to move the field forward, including standardized parts with predictable behaviors, robust methods of biocontainment and software that allows data sharing and visualization. Speaker Biography: Vivek Mutalik is a Staff scientist at the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division and Biological Systems and Engineering Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; previously Dr. Mutalik was a team leader at the BIOFAB, the first biological design-build-test facility, which focuses on developing extensively tested standard biological parts to facilitate easier engineering of biology. Currently, his work focuses on developing a standardized genetic tools for industrially important microorganisms, a robust functional genomics platform and study of regulatory design principles in microbial stress responses.