This webinar will give participants a general overview of synthetic
biology (Synbio). Synbio is an evolving interdisciplinary field
that applies principles from engineering, biology, math and other
fields to design and re-design biological components and systems
that do not already exist in the natural world. Synthetic
Biologists, or biobuilders, create or engineer living cells to do
something useful, for example, cure or treat diseases, make a
medicine, etc. Generally, synthetic biologists design a portion of
DNA and merge it with an existing cell or organism. This allows the
new modified cell or organism to behave a certain way according to
design specifications. The webinar will cover terminology,
synthetic biology methods, current applications and ethical and
social challenges of synthetic biology. Lastly, biosafety and
biosecurity considerations of synthetic biology projects will be
discussed.