SynBioNL
Since December 2021, SynBioNL has been active in encouraging the discourse on Synthetic Biology in the Netherlands. Our mission is to advance relationships between key stakeholders (academia, industry, government, artists to general public) within the synthetic biology community.
Check out our overview below on the current scenario of SynBio in the Netherlands and listen to our podcast #BenchTalks where we communicate with everyone related to SynBio!
A SynBio community comes of age: Political, academical, industrial, and societal developments in the Netherlands.
Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a rapidly growing scientific discipline. In the Netherlands, various universities and companies are tackling a variety of opportunities and challenges within this field. In this perspective article, we review the current synthetic biology landscape in the Netherlands across academia, industry, politics, and society. Mostly supported by governmental funding, academic research is focusing on top-down synthetic biology. The recently founded Dutch synthetic biology association SynBioNL aims to contribute to realizing a positive impact on society by stimulating advances of the field in the Netherlands and beyond. Do you want to know more? Read the full article in the link!
D. Bhatt, et al. Published in Biotech.Notes. (2022),
doi: 10.1016/j.biotno.2022.07.004
BenchTalks: a podcast from SynBioNL
A podcast on the current landscape of Synthetic Biology in the Netherlands.
Delve into the fascinating world of microbial communities with our latest podcast featuring Professor Ákos T. Kovács and engage 🦠 in our dialogue on the secrets of bacterial interactions, and community behavior on biofilm development. 🌱🔬 This episode brings on an interesting perspective of engineering synthetic communities to understand the complex behavior of microbes in their native environment.
If you are curious and want to follow and read more about Akos's work, check out the links below: Dr. Ákos T. Kovács, professor at the Leiden University: university profile, twitter, Linkedin
And follow these links to find out more about our hosts Marjolein and Darshak and 🌷 SynBioNL, the association of Synthetic Biology in Netherlands.
iGEM Projects
Initiated in 2004, the iGEM competition is an annual, worldwide SynBio event where student teams work to design, build and test their own biological systems during a project of several months. Originally focused on university teams that made contributions to society using SynBio approaches, iGEM has grown into a large community of over 300 teams of university students, high school students, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders. Here you can find the projects that I have been involved in over the years as a student or mentor.
Bye-o-film is an interdisciplinary project about an E. coli-based biosensor for early detection of biofilm formation on medical implants. Read more on the website of iGEM Groningen!
Nanobuddy is an interdisciplinary project about protecting chickens from avian influenza. Read more on the website of iGEM Groningen!
SynDerma is the pursuit of Synthetic Dermatology. Read more on the website of iGEM Paris Bettencourt!
PyoMancer are novel antibacterial protein complexes. Read more on the website of iGEM IIT Roorkee!
Star Cores are novel, biologically-synthesized, star-shaped Antimicrobial Peptide (AMP). Star Cores are designed in response to the specific needs of veterinarians, farmers, and policymakers in France. Read more on our website of iGEM Paris Bettencourt!
Publications related to SynBio
- A SynBio community comes of age: Political, academical, industrial, and societal developments in the Netherlands. D.K. Bhatt, M.E.Crooijmans, J.Coenradij, A. M. Valero, M.Lubbers, E.Asin-Garcia, N. A.Yewdall, S.D’Adamo, N.J.Claassens, S.Billerbeck (2022), Biotech.Notes. doi: 10.1016/j.biotno.2022.07.004
- Comparative analysis of three studies measuring fluorescence from engineered bacterial genetic constructs. Beal J, Baldwin GS, Farny NG, Gershater M, Haddock-Angelli T, et al. and iGEM Interlab Study Contributors (2021), PLOS ONE 16(6): e0252263.
- Robust Estimation of Bacterial Cell Count from Optical Density. Beal J, Farny NG, Haddock-Angelli T, Selvarajah V, et al. and iGEM Interlab Study Contributors. 2020, Nat.Comm.Bio.