SBWGLunches

About SBWG Lunches
Synthetic Biology Working Group (SBWG) Lunches are an opportunity to meet faculty, students, research staff and others interested in the field of synthetic biology. These meetings usually feature one or more research presentations, with a focus on group discussion during and after. Areas of interest include:
 * Characterization and standardization of biological parts and systems
 * Metabolic engineering
 * Implementing logic in biological systems
 * Biosensors
 * New research tools
 * Nucleic acid synthesis and sequencing
 * Minimal organisms and genomes
 * Social and political impacts

Archived information from old lunches is at SynBERC:SBWGLunchesArchive.

We are grateful for funding from SynBERC and the MIT Graduate Student Council.

Spring 2011
For Spring 2011, SBWG lunches will be held on Mondays from 1-2pm in 56-614 (note the room change from last semester). Lunch will be served.

February 14: Barry Canton (Ginkgo Bioworks): Wetware, Hardware, and Smartware at Ginkgo Bioworks

February 28: Randy Rettberg (iGEM/Registry of Standard Biological Parts): What's new at the Registry

March 14: David Hagen (MIT BE): Vast uncertainty in biological models and how to deal with it

March 28: Evan Thompson (MIT Biology): SYNZIP interaction domains: Well-characterized interaction modules for biological engineering

April 25: Himanshu Dhamankar (MIT ChE): De novo pathway engineering for value added products from biomass: Biosynthesis of 3-hydroxybutyrolactone (3-HBL) from glucose

May 9: Kevin Esvelt (Wyss Institute at Harvard): A system for the continuous directed evolution of biomolecules

Fall 2010
During Fall 2010, SBWG lunches will be held every two weeks on Mondays, 1-2pm, in room 56-154. Lunch will be served. The first meeting of the 2010 academic year will be held on September 13.

September 13: Initial meeting. Discuss areas of interest for future seminars.

September 27:
 * Shawn Finney-Manchester (MIT ChemE): A Method for In Vivo Targeted Mutagenesis
 * Saurabh Gupta (MIT CSAIL/BE): Genetically Programmed Pathogen Sense & Destroy

October 11: NO MEETING. Columbus Day.

October 25:
 * MIT 2010 iGEM Team: Presentation of this year's project and results

November 22: Peter Carr (MIT Media Lab)

November 29: Jake Beal (BBN Technologies): High Level Languages for Synthetic Biology

December 6: Asst. Prof. Tim Lu (MIT EECS)

Coordinators
Steve Goldfless [sjg at mit] (PhD Candidate, MIT Dept. of Biological Engineering)

Brian Belmont [bbelmont at mit] (PhD Candidate, MIT Dept. of Biological Engineering)

Dr. Peter Carr [carr at media dot mit] (Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab)