Numbers don’t lie, they say. And the numbers show that, as with other life sciences and biotech fields, the number of women in leadership positions in the synthetic biology space is disappointingly low. Last year, I...
Author - Embriette Hyde
Can synthetic biology help Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers develop therapeutic antibodies in only 90 days?
It seems as though every year there is another story of a virus rampaging through Africa, Asia, or even the Americas. And each time another Ebola outbreak occurs or the flu virus mutates in surprising ways, the...
The Four Key Elements to Scaling Health IT Startups
In the United States, we spend roughly double the dollars that other high-income nations do on healthcare, yet we have the lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rate. Something needs to be done, and the...
The ethics of democratizing diagnostics with next-gen CRISPR
“What if you could directly and accurately test for the flu at home? What if you receive the prescription and treatment plan without having to step foot into a clinic? And what if the same principle could be applied to...
Jugaad epitomized: a deep dive into India’s synthetic biology scene
Google the word “jugaad,” and you’ll find a plethora of results, from simple dictionary definitions to advice that Western companies should adopt it as part of their practices. Jugaad — a colloquial Hindi...
Why China is primed to be the ultimate synbio market
The most populous country and the second biggest economy in the world, China also contributes about ten percent of papers published on synthetic biology globally each year. This work is sourced from multiple...
Why the future of protein design rests on cloud computing and machine learning
Imagine the most beautiful string of pearls you’ve ever seen. Long and elegant, it is comprised of pearls painted with 20 different colors, each with its own unique characteristics — some metallic, some shiny...
British defense tech, meet synthetic spider silk
It was developed by the British Ministry of Defense as a functional and fail-safe piece of apparel for military personnel. It was propelled to star status by Daniel Craig (sorry, folks, it wasn’t Sean Connery’s James...
From fruit flies to Boy Scouts: A brief history of science in space
The first living organisms sent into space — some bacteria and the humble fruit fly – returned from their trip to little fanfare and under less than comfortable circumstances. Instead of a relatively nice trip...
Why automated liquid handling is a key technology for any synthetic biology company: A Q&A with Labcyte’s Chris Grimley
One of the biggest frustrations synthetic biologists and other life scientists face is time lost due to menial, manual wet lab processes such as pipetting or interval plate readings. These processes can now be easily...
