“Biological” industrial revolution gets a kick-start in the UK, thanks to £5 million project

EPSRC funds new 5-year project to develop tools for mass producing biological devices - News

Thursday 31 May 2012
by Colin Smith

Developing the tools that will enable “biological” devices to be produced on an industrial scale will be the focus of a £5 million consortium it was announced this month.

Researchers from Imperial College London are leading a consortium to take the next step in industrialising synthetic biology, so that researchers can create microscopic biological devices in a safe and controlled way on a grand scale, using bioparts from DNA and host cells like bacteria or yeast. Working at an industrial scale will help unlock the commercial potential of these minute devices, which can be used for a range of applications including the production of chemicals, materials, biosensors and biofuels.

Professor Richard Kitney is co-leading the consortium and co-director of the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial. He says:

“This project will create a new kind of industrial revolution in the UK taking synthetic biology from the lab bench to the factory floor, where industries of the future can create microscopic devices in a safe and controlled way to create new sources of energy or new kinds of medical devices.”

Professor Paul Freemont is also co-leading the consortium and co-director of the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial. He adds:

“Mass producing these biological devices and systems could create a range of new industries for the UK. Already, start-ups on the drawing board include a company that will produce microscopic biosensors in hospitals for detecting MRSA and urinary infections. In the long term, we hope to create bio-factories that use engineered biological systems to turn landfill into carbon negative energy sources. We believe this project could unleash the potential of synthetic biology and turn it into a real success story for UK Plc.”

The vision for the project is to create a factory assembly-line process where an engineer can select from a vast virtual catalogue of bioparts to design devices and assemble these devices using robots.

Researchers currently do not have one central database that catalogues the range and methods for constructing bioparts, so the project team have started the first stage of the project developing a “virtual catalogue” to help synthetic biologists around the world to share information about the design and construction of bioparts. Sharing information more widely will mean that the construction of bioparts will become more robust and reliable. The database is part of a web-based information system, called SynBIS that is expected to be completed this summer.

Professors Freemont and Kitney will co-lead the consortium

There is not a system available for researchers that allows them to design and model biological devices before they are constructed, and to detect flaws in their designs early on - making the process more efficient. The researchers in the consortium are developing and incorporating from other sources computer-based modelling tools, called BioCAD tools, to help them to design, model and test biological devices virtually – similar to the way that Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools help engineers to design and model conventional devices.

Scientists currently have to create individual bioparts by hand in the lab, which is time consuming, inefficient and prone to error. The final stage of the project will see the researchers creating an automated process for assembling these bioparts into biological devices - similar to the way that robots in factories are used to mass produce pharmaceutical products. The team will link the BioCAD computer program that they are developing to an assembly process, where automated robots take a design, create the bioparts from bacteria and DNA and assemble them into devices. This would reduce errors in the construction phase, speed up the assembly process and enable biological devices to be mass produced.

The five-year project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Other universities involved in the consortium are the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Newcastle and King’s College London.

Mr David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science, announced the EPSRC grant at the University of East Anglia on 24 May 2012. He said:

"Synthetic biology could provide solutions to many of humanity's most pressing issues and at the same time presents significant growth opportunities. This investment will lay the groundwork for the commercialisation of research, ensuring academics and industry can realise the full potential of this exciting area of science."