Here is our selection of the best August SynBio stories from BactToTheFuture!*

  1. A new way to stop ice sheets from melting found right beneath them: Antarctic #bacteria vs. greenhouse gasses!

Climate change keeps increasing global temperatures that are melting the ice sheets. And it is precisely beneath the Antarctic ice that methane-eating bacteria have been discovered. The ability of these bacteria to consume this greenhouse gas could have a big impact on preventing global warming. Read more >

  1. Lower bitterness & more flavour. Coffee fermented by #bacteria to become the new Kopi Luwak? #CulturedCoffee

If you are a coffee lover you may be interested in this! Coffee innovations keep popping up in the market like the cold brew bars or the famous Kopi Luwak partially digested by the Asian palm civet and fermented inside its gut. But that fermentation can also be done in a lab and this is how bacteria entered the coffee business, reducing the bitterness and increasing the flavor. Ready to try it? Read more >

  1. Less pollution. Less water and energy waste. A sustainable textile dyeing revolution using #SynBio by @colorifix

The textile industry is very pollutant as a result of the numerous chemicals and dyes used to process the materials. Synthetic biology offers a green alternative to chemical dyes with these colorants produced by engineered organisms. Read more >

  1. Milking the potential of #SynBio: animal-free dairy products are here @PerfectDayFoods

Oat. Soy. Almond. There are lots of milk alternatives in the market but none like these synbio  line of animal-free dairy products. Without having to milk cows, milk proteins are produced in yeast to make vegan milk, yogurt or cheese. Read more >

  1. Water, sunlight and CO2 to produce new fragrances for your home with this fragrant moss. #SynBio for the daily life

Another original way to bring SynBio to your home, with this engineered moss that is able to synthesise different fragrances and become a natural air freshener. Read more >

  1. Check out how these 15 #SynBio startups are building the future at the @RebelBio accelerator!

RebelBio is a hotspot for European SynBio innovation. This article reviews how the 15 startups supported by the accelerator are shaping the future with their revolutionary inventions. Read more >

  1. #Microorganisms are brewing a new generation of vegan products: animal-free gelatin, milk and even meat! #SynBio

No one is surprised when hearing that yeast can brew beer. But the reactions are different when they hear that these microorganisms can brew proteins to produce vegan alternatives of gelatin, milk or meat. Here you can get to know some of the pioneering startups that are working to bring these products to the market.  Read more >

  1. Nature is an expert chemist that can help us produce many complex molecules even at industrial scale thanks to #SynBio

Traditional chemistry has given us a lot! But when it comes to complex molecules nature is still the master. Exploiting all the years of experience of our chemists and the innate capacity of nature to design efficient reactions SynBio is becoming a sustainable and efficient alternative for many reaction of the chemical industry. Read more >

  1. Bacteria carrying tiny solar panels turn solar energy into useful compounds more efficiently than plants!

Plants convert CO2, sunlight and water into chemical energy thanks to chlorophyll in a process photosynthesis. However this pigment is relatively inefficient and thus, scientists at the Berkeley College of Chemistry  have equipped bacteria with cadmium sulfide molecules that work as miniature solar panels to harvest the power of the sun and transform it into useful chemical compounds. Read more >

  1. #SynBio students and experts are gathering today in Madrid for the #eusynbio17 conference. Are you there too?

The European Association of Students and Post-docs in Synthetic Biology (EUSynBioS) is a student-led initiative that was founded in late 2014. They aim at fostering a community of young synbio researchers by providing resources for interaction and career development both in industry and academia. This month the EUSynBio team hosted a synthetic biology symposium at CNB-CSIC in Madrid  gathering experts from the field to share results and discuss about the role of SynBio for environmental engineering. You can follow this initiative on their website and social media channels Read more >

*At Rafts4Biotech we want to make everyone familiar with Synthetic Biology and that is why we started BactToTheFuture, our initiative to raise awareness about the potential of SynBio applied to microorganisms. You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook and learn all about the latest SynBio applications, trends, conferences and biotechs!