Brand new projects launched this week in Paris address global challenges as food security and healthy ageing, and tackle diseases including cancer, TB and liver disease. The projects involve partner organisations across Europe and funded under the ERASysBio+ scheme, which includes Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funding for 12 of the 16 projects, which all include at least one UK partner.

BBSRC’s investment is €7.7M out of a total investment of €24M.

 All 16 projects use a systems biology approach – studying biological systems so that processes are observed and modelled in an integrated manner – to answer questions about a range of globally important topics.

The 16 consortia involve a total of 85 research groups from 14 different countries. There are 18 UK based groups involved in 12 projects that are all receiving funding from BBSRC.

UK partnered projects tackling food security include FRIM (University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University) and iSAM (Cardiff University); LINCONET (University of Birmingham) looks at an aspect of healthy ageing. Ten projects with UK partners explore the bioscience underpinning health – SYNERGY (University of Manchester), SynProt (University of Southampton and University of Edinburgh), LymphoSys (MRC National Institute for Medical Research), SHIPREC (Royal Holloway University of London and St George’s University of London), GRAPPLE (University of Liverpool and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge), EpiGenSys (University of Oxford), C5Sys (UCL and Warwick Systems Biology), ApoNET (Imperial College London), livSYSiPS (Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre) and TB-HOST-NET (University of Surrey).



Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC  CEO said: “Systems biology is a fantastically powerful approach and very versatile – as demonstrated by the range of projects funded through ERASysBio+. These projects not only bring together disciplines, but also countries and this is the sort of collaborative working that is becoming increasingly important. If we are to make the best use of our bioscience knowledge, expertise and facilities in the UK then we absolutely must share them with colleagues outside the UK and in other fields such as mathematics, computing, chemistry and physics.”



An earlier funding tranche
Less than a week ago, four new projects are to develop biological methods that offer a new approach to antibiotic production, power generation for extremely small mechanical components, new classes of medicines and innovative techniques to study cell biology.

These projects are funded through grants totalling £1.5m by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under EuroSYNBIO Programme, part of European Science Foundation's Collaborative Research Scheme (EUROCORES). The EuroSYNBIO Programme is also funding a collaboration that is led by SINTEF in Norway and funded by five European funding agencies.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts (left) said: "Synthetic biology is an exciting new area of research. Through sharing the UK's cutting edge bioscience knowledge and expertise with European partners, we can develop innovations which benefit the health and well-being of millions of people at home and abroad."



Professor Janet Allen, BBSRC (right) director of Research said: "Our understanding of biological systems is increasing all the time...These four projects open up some exciting possibilities using a synthetic biology approach to answer important questions in biological sciences and its applications.

"Synthetic biology requires specialised approaches so it is extremely valuable for researchers funded by the UK Research Councils to have the chance to collaborate outside of the UK in this field. The opportunity for European partnerships that has been created by the EuroSYNBIO Programme will certainly help to advance this area of research."



In a project led by University of Technology in Dresden, Dr Richard Berry's team at the University of Oxford will also partner with teams from, University of Basel, University of Berne, ETH Zurich and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid as the NANOCELL consortium. It aims to develop components for bio-nanotechnology, such as microscopic propellers driven by biological rotary motors that allow components of tiny biochemical factories to move under their own power.

 

Dr Philip Holliger will lead a project based at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Cambridge with partners from Catholic University of Leuven, University of Bonn and Genoscope in France. The project is to develop synthetic biology methods for producing medicines known as aptamers that are based on nucleic acids (such as RNA and DNA) that have characteristics that are not found naturally. These medicines can be developed such that they target specific RNA, DNA or protein molecules in the body for therapeutic applications. Aptamer technology is already used as a medicine for treating macular degeneration - one of the leading causes of blindness in older people.



In a project led by University of Technology Dresden, Professor David Sherratt's team at the University of Oxford will also partner with a team from Delf University of technology. The three groups of researchers will use an engineering approach to understand how proteins that control cell division behave inside a living cell, and in particular where exactly they are found and how they interact with other cell components.



In a project led by the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, Dr Nicolas Szita's team at University College London will also partner with teams from ETH Zurich, Eberhard Karls University Tubingen, University of Regensburg and the Organisation for International Dialogue and Conflict Management in Vienna. The researchers will work together to identify and then produce new antibiotics by integrating synthetic biology techniques with bioprocess engineering.

Professor Allen continued: "Synthetic biology is a fairly new discipline and represents some of the most forward-looking research in biological sciences at the moment. Together with EPSRC,  Sciencewise ERC, BBSRC has recently been exploring the range of perspectives of the UK public on synthetic biology to ensure that cutting edge research carried out in this field is supported by policies that reflect the views, concerns and aspirations of the people who fund it - the UK taxpayers.

Synthetic biology in Scotland
In a fairly low key fashion back in August 2009 Scottish Enterprise launched the £2.4m Genome Segment Assembly (GSA) research programme at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University. Scheduled to complete in 2011, the GSA programme aims to solve this problem and at a stroke shift synthetic biology up several gears.

Professor Joyce Tait (left) from the University of Edinburgh, a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and  director of ESRC Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics, described Scotland’s potential in the field as “an open goal” to the Herald.

“Talk of a new industrial revolution is not hyperbole. But it won’t just be Scotland’s next industrial revolution … it will be the world’s. And if we want to have a place in it we have to make the investment and make sure we stay at the forefront and capitalise on the opportunity.”

Scotland has some really powerful players for the new biosynthete. Last week, The Royal Society announced Professor Jon Cooper as holder of one of its prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Awards. Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), this aims to support respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.

(Right) Professor Cooper's  research has developed a range of technologies associated with Lab-on-a-Chip in disciplines of bionanotechnology, microfluidics, surface analysis, biochip fabrication and development, instrumentation, modelling and cell based assays. Specifically it was Professor Cooper's work in the application of Lab-on-a-Chip in bio-engineering including Lab-on-a-Pill, which was recognised through the merit award.

Awesome biosynthetes
A quick look at Professor Cooper's award funding shows him to be running a fairly hectic schedule. He is working on the Molecular Nose (a £4.5m from RCUK  in collaboration with Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde, of which £1.0m is in the Cooper Lab, (ends 2011). Then there is  the Holographic Flow Meter for Biological Sensing from BBSRC, £808,789 (ends 2010). Lab-on-a-Pill wireless: microfluidic for in vivo immuno diagnostics. BBSRC, £708,865 (ends 2010). Droplet based microfluidics for single cell-omics. BBSRC, £497,000 (ends 2011). DTC in cell and protein technologies (with Strathclyde, Dundee and Edinburgh). EPSRC, £4.2m (2008-2016). Listening to the Micro-World £1.5m (ends 2011).

The SynProt link for Edinburgh arrives at the site of J Douglas Armstrong, (left) deputy director for The Edinburgh Centre for Bioinformatics. He wears another hat as Chief Scientific and Operating officer for Brainwave Discovery Ltd a spin off that provides services to enable central nervous system (CNS) drug R&D divisions of pharmaceutical companies make faster, cheaper and better informed decisions earlier in the drug discovery pathway.

BWD is based on science from the University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow where development work was supported by a Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Award in 2005.

The CEO for Brainwave is Dr Wayne Davies (above right). He has six years of direct experience as CEO of two biotech companies, Neuropa Ltd, and UmanGenomics AB of Umeå, Sweden so had hands-on experience of biotechnology company management, board membership, multi-round fundraising from venture capital and local Angel sources and interaction with major pharmaceutical companies. An expert in genetics, molecular biology and neuroscience, he is Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Glasgow since 1989.
 
From June to October's ultimate in synbiomeet
Opening on 10 June is the SULSA symposium in St Andrews speakers from EMBL, and Yale, Oxford, Texas and Gronigen  Universities.

Then  comes the Annual  BioDundee International conference from 16-18 June. It will focus on partnerships and collaborations within the life science sector. Over four key sessions  speakers will explore the various stages of forming a partnership, taking a close look at potential issues that may arise when forming a partnership with multiple organisations.

At the end of June (28 - 30th) in London, biosynthetes will flock to The Physical Cell - in search of the design principles of life (number one could be keep on changing!)  which is hosted at University College London and will be considering evolution, space and time, chance and control.

Finally in October is the 11th International Conference on Systems Biology ICSB in Edinburgh from 11-14 October, and hedged around by 10 October the tutorials and 15 October the workshops. Definitely not one to miss for synthetic bio players and watchers.