Symposium 2014
November 20-21

Scope of the Symposium

Although there are many efforts to define Synthetic Biology, the one proposed by the European project ERASynBio is as good as any one: "Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology: the deliberate (re)design and construction of novel biological and biologically based parts, devices and systems to perform new functions for useful purposes, that draws on principles elucidated from biology and engineering".

Synthetic biology (SB) is a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together experts from biology, engineering, chemistry, physics and computer science. The emergence of SB has been associated with industrial success stories such as the successful biosynthesis of artemisinin and of 1-3 propanediol which are now in industrial development. SB is viewed as a second biotechnological revolution with the promises of creating a whole new industry with potential applications in many sectors including industrial biotechnology and bioenergy, chemicals, medicine, agriculture and environmental remediation, and research and development tools. At the academic level, the tools developed by SB offer the possibility, together with the global approaches of systems biology, to obtain a much better understanding of living cells.

At the European level, the project ERASynBio has recently published a strategic vision (pdf document) with a number of recommendations for keeping, together with the USA, the leadership in SB. One of ERASynBio's primary objectives is to map existing activities in SB and to promote the development of excellence SB centers. Bordeaux has been identified as one of French sites where there is a significant activity in SB. The University of Bordeaux is supported the emergence of Synthetic Biology in Bordeaux, or SB2.

A first meeting was organized in collaboration with the agency ADI from the Aquitaine Regional Council which gathered more than 200 participants from the industry and from academia.

In November 2014, we organize a second meeting "SB2-2014" with the aim of gathering the main actors of SB2 together with international experts with three major themes listed in the Topics section.
A preliminary program is shown and will be regularly updated. Please do not hesitate to join us for this exciting event in Bordeaux!

Topics

The Symposium is organized in three sessions covering the topics of the SB2 research programs:

1. Genomes, minimal cells and organisms, genomic engineering
2. Biodiversity, metabolic engineering
3. Biomimetism, orthogonal biosystems, bionanoscience for synthetic biology