Synthetic Biology Australasia (SBA)
Established to create a community of collaboration and communication between scientists, industry and the community at large.
The University of Queensland and CSIRO are building a new world-class $4.5 million initiative to boost Australia’s synthetic biology capabilities.
Continue reading → UQ and CSIRO announce a new synbio initiative to boost bio-economy
The Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) released a report about the present and future of synbio in Australia. The full report can be freely downloaded here.
Colin Scott is a Principal Research Scientist working at CSIRO, Canberra. He also runs the CSIRO Biocatalysis and Synthetic Biology Team and he’s a Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Domain Leader (Chemicals & Fibres).
The ACOLA’s Horizon Scanning report on Synthetic Biology launch will take place on Wednesday, 4 September at 10:30am, at Customs House, The Long Room, 399 Queen St, Brisbane City QLD.
Continue reading → Synthetic Biology in Australia: An outlook to 2030
Two job openings for postdoctoral researchers at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, University of Queensland. Applications deadline 21 Sptember 2018.
A Macquarie PhD student believes he’s come up with a way to turn coffee waste into biodegradable plastic coffee cups. He’s developed a method to turn coffee grounds into lactic acid, which can then be used to produce biodegradable plastics, and is now refining the process as he finishes his PhD. Continue reading → Turning coffee waste into coffee cups
Monica Espinosa Gomez is a PhD Candidate in the Paulsen SynBio Group at Macquarie University. Earlier this year she was awarded a CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform PhD Scholarship. While undertaking her Bachelors of Biotechnology (Hons), Molecular Biotechnology, at UQ she worked in numerous labs as a research assistant. In 2016, she worked under synthetic biologist, Dr Claudia Vickers, at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology before embarking on her PhD journey in 2017. Twitter handle: @monicaespgom Continue reading → Synbio profile interview – Monica Espinosa
Synthetic biology underpins an international market worth $355 billion a year, climbing to $1.1 trillion in five years. The market is in pharmaceuticals, engine fuels, plastics and more, all made using genetically engineered microbes. Macquarie University’s Distinguished Professor Ian Paulsen wants Australia to have a slice of this high-tech, job-creating, transformational industry.
Read the full story at The Lighthouse, Macquarie University
by Jestin George
Even though plans to colonise Mars are progressing rapidly, it is very hard to actually comprehend what a permanent life out there would be like. One can’t help but imagine it to be pretty Earth-centric; we will need to design spaces and resource solutions that provide what we need and use down here, out there. Food will definitely be an issue; Continue reading → Synthetic biology solutions for Mars colonization
Dr Michele Fabris is a CSIRO Synthetic Biology FPS Fellow, working on a diverse group of microalgae called diatoms. He is a core member of the Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology group led by Prof. Peter Ralph in Climate Change Cluster, of the University of Technology Sydney (C3:UTS), and a CSIRO Visiting Scientist in the group of A/Prof. Claudia Vickers. Michele completed his Ph.D. in 2013, where he worked on the reconstruction of diatom metabolic networks, and characterised novel aspects of diatom metabolism. Twitter handle: @fabrismichele
Continue reading → Synbio profile interview – Michele Fabris