NSF Award
2207222
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Synthetic Biology summer course is a two-week long immersion course designed to introduce scientists to the field of synthetic biology. It provides intensive instruction in synthetic biology methods by combining practical lectures, open-ended research projects, and seminars from leaders in the field. The course attracts early career scientists working at academic institutions, national labs and in industry. It serves scientists that are looking to transition into synthetic biology research and disseminate synthetic biology ideas and skillsets at their home institutions. In the first week of the course, students participate in practical training modules, which combine lectures and hands-on experiments. In the second week, students participate in cutting-edge research projects that are brought by the course instructors from their own labs. Throughout both weeks of the course, leading experts in synthetic biology are brought in to talk about their research and provide their perspective on the field in a seminar series. This year, the course includes modules on cell-free transcription-translation systems, modern cloning techniques, computational modeling of biological processes, and CRISPR-based genome editing and gene regulation. Through practical lectures, research projects, and seminars, participants will be exposed to cutting-edge synthetic biology methods to provide them with a solid understanding of the challenges and opportunities available in the field of synthetic biology.<br/><br/><br/>The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory summer course on Synthetic Biology is the only program in the world that offers an immersive lecture plus experimental wet lab experience for teams of advanced trainees (post undergraduate and beyond) to collaboratively learn new methods and approaches in synthetic biology. The highly interactive course format allows an unprecedented level of direct integration of research with training, as students work on innovative research projects while interacting with field leaders in an informal setting. Each year, the course instructors bring novel research projects and training modules to expose students to the latest breakthroughs and challenges in synthetic biology. This year’s research and training modules include: (1) Enabling synthetic biology technologies that accelerate the design and construction of genetic circuits. Students will learn about complementary techniques including in vitro cell-free transcription-translation (TX-TL) methods and computational methods for predicting synthetic circuit function. (2) Experiencing the design-test-build cycle through the five-primer challenge. (3) Harnessing CRISPR-based tools for advanced genome editing approaches in bacteria. In summary, the course provides an intensive two-week immersion into cutting-edge synthetic biology methods, helping prepare the next generation of synthetic biologists to work at the interface of biological, computational, and physical sciences. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Synthetic Biology course trains an emerging generation of scientists and engineers on scientific topics that are at the leading edge of synthetic biology.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
