Following a MoU (memorandum of understanding) earlier this year, the University of Edinburgh and the BGI in Shenzhen have now started a collaborative project on synthetic biology.
This emerging discipline combines techniques in the sequencing and DNA synthesis fields to re-create and re-model entire chromosomes, that can replace the original chromosomes in host organisms such as yeast. As such, new platforms are created with a wide scope of applications, such as the production of proteins, nutrients, drugs and fuels, or fermentation processes.
In the Sino-Anglo collaborative project, researchers will focus on the re-creation of yeast chromosome VII as part of the Sc2.0 project, initiated by Johns Hopkins University and the first synthetic eukaryotic genome project.
The construction project is initially worth 1M pound and is largely supported by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences research council.
For further reading, please see here for the collaboration and here for the Sc2.0 project.
