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Bios 313: Experimental Synthetic Biology

Instructors:

Time and location: Classes will meet for 4 weeks on Monday and Wednesday from 1 - 6 p.m. in Biology Basement Teaching Labs; lab begins the week after spring midterm recess.

Prerequisites: Bios 211: Experimental Biosciences or equivalent lab AND permission of instructor.

Registration: You must obtain the instructor's signature on a Special Registration form (available from the Registrar).
Enrollment is limited to 12 students. Dr. Beason's office hours during registration will be posted on her door (Biology 211C); she will be available during those times to sign the special registration form from the Registrar.

General Course Description: This course is intended to introduce students to the emerging field of synthetic biology. Students will present current literature that focuses on genetic parts that are currently used to program bacteria (sensors, logic functions, and actuators) and bacteria that have been successfully programmed to exhibit novel functions. The laboratory will expose students to molecular biological procedures that are routinely used in building and characterizing synthetic genetic circuits.

Preparation: You must come to lab prepared--this requires you to READ the experimental protocols on the course web site BEFORE coming to lab, not just print a copy of them and bring it with you. Bring only the information you need to perform the experiments. The procedures for each day are available from the Course Schedule page, and you will be given any additional information in the pre-lab lectures. Everyone is expected to read appropriate background material (Ptashne text and review articles) and the assigned paper(s). See How to Read a Scientific Article for tips on reading research papers.

Article Presentation: Each student will be assigned a scientific article in synthetic biology to present; you will give a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation in the style of a journal club. You should meet with the graduate student(s) on your team in advance of your presentation to ask questions and get input on your talk.

Project Proposals: Small groups of 2-3 undergraduate students will propose an idea that promotes the development of tools for engineering biological technology; each team will have a graduate student(s) in bioengineering or biosciences as an advisor. These projects should focus on using standardized biological parts and simple mathematical models to design and optimize novel genetic circuits. Although additional biological parts can be used in these projects, the core idea of the project cannot depend solely on the function of these non-standardized parts. Each team will prepare a document that summarizes their idea and contains a clear justification for building this circuit (in the context of previously published work), an outline of the biological parts required for the project, and a description of the models that will be required to build the circuit.

Grade: Your final grade will be based on your lab notebook, homework assignments, lab performance, article presentation, and genetic circuit proposal. Go to Assignments & Grading for details.

The Rice Synthetic BiOWLogists: See this brochure for more information about Rice's iGEM team and how you can participate.

Copyright, Acknowledgements, and Intended Use
Created by B. Beason (bbeason@rice.edu), Rice University, 10 January 2008
Updated 8 February 2008