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SUMMARY:Understanding and engineering biological networks using timelapse 
 microfluidic microscopy - Somenath Bakshi\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20201029T140000Z
DTEND:20201029T150000Z
UID:TALK153349@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Thiago Burghi
DESCRIPTION:Synthetic biology is enabling us to harness the manufacturing 
 power of biology. For\nexample\, we can engineer friendly microbes as fact
 ories for producing drugs\, biofuels\, etc.\, or\nuse them for diagnostics
  or bioremediation. In this talk I will give a few examples of our attempt
 s\ntowards engineering reliable genetic circuits with reliable parts\, suc
 h that they can be reliably \ndeployed in natural settings for their opera
 tion. At a fundamental level\, synthetic biology also \nenables us to trul
 y “understand” biological systems in the Feynman standard (“What I c
 annot \ncreate\, I do not understand”). The fundamental and applied side
  of synthetic biology are \nconnected through this “understanding”. If
  we don’t understand biological systems enough\, such\nthat we could cre
 ate it from its basic parts\, then we cannot really claim to have “under
 stood” the \nsystem. And until we have developed a detailed understandin
 g of biological systems in nature\,\nin terms of their operational princip
 les\, we cannot really make reliable synthetic biological \nsystems with p
 redictable operation. Towards this goal\, we are developing different expe
 rimental\nand computational frameworks to characterize and analyze differe
 nt parts of the natural \ngene-regulatory systems\, and synthetic genetic 
 circuits. This is enabling us to apply this \nreverse-engineering and forw
 ard engineering approach in several different problems\, including \nthe m
 ysterious aging of symmetrically dividing bacteria\, and how a drug tolera
 nt microbe can \nbecome a drug resistant one. I will present a short summa
 ry of our progress in setting up these\npipelines and platforms in the dep
 artment\, and their use in uncovering these mysteries. 
LOCATION:Online (Zoom)
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