Transforming Frontiers in Biological Engineering – with Professor Ellis
public in-person lecture
Designing and Writing Synthetic Genomes to Advance Biology
Tom Ellis - Professor of Synthetic Genome Engineering, Department of Bioengineering; Co-Director of the Centre for Engineering Biology, Imperial College London.
The ability to design and construct entire synthetic genomes from chemically synthesised DNA is a transformative frontier in biological engineering, offering new opportunities to understand fundamental life processes and develop novel biotechnologies.
This lecture explored the methodologies and challenges involved in creating synthetic chromosomes and complete genomes, drawing from successful implementations in bacteria systems and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, and extending to emerging work in human cells.
It examined key technical advances in DNA synthesis, assembly methods, and AI design tools that enable rational genome construction, highlighting how synthetic genome projects serve as both powerful tools for testing our understanding of genomes, and as platforms for engineering organisms with desired properties such as for future applications in medicine, manufacturing, and environmental biotechnology.
Professor Tom Ellis has a degree in Molecular Biology from Oxford University and a PhD from Cambridge University. After university Tom worked in a biotech company in London, then spent 2 years as a postdoc at Boston University before starting his own research group in 2010 at Imperial College London.
He leads a team that works on synthetic biology with their research treating DNA as the programming language for life. By editing and rewriting the DNA programs in cells his team directs cells to do new tasks useful for modern biotechnology. The Ellis Lab specialises in developing synthetic biology and genome engineering tools for yeasts and bacteria and they apply these tools in projects to make synthetic cells and recoded organisms that can make and release therapeutic molecules, sense and respond as living sensors and can autonomously grow new functional materials.
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