VCU/Courses/Synthetic Biology Fundamentals

Course Overview

This course aims to provide an introduction to synthetic biology for motivated undergraduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University. The main goal of this course is to introduce the engineering principles and tools necessary to design, model and build a functional biological system and, in doing so, program novel cellular function and behavior to solve engineering problems and test biological hypotheses.

Synthetic biology is emerging as a new engineering discipline, applying engineering principles such as the standardization of modular components, the hierarchical abstraction of complex systems, and the characterization of both components and systems to biology, allowing the decoupling of construction from design. Novel biological systems may be engineered to solve industrial, medical and environmental engineering problems such as the bioremediation of toxic waste, the microbial production of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin, and the biosynthesis of hydrogen or butanol as an alternative fuel source.

Course designer: George McArthur
Faculty administrator: Dr. Stephen Fong
Meeting times: TBA
Questions? Contact George McArthur

Expectations

News

• Under construction!