To make the way back to work easier after the Easter break here you have our monthly selection of BactToTheFuture Synbio stories. Enjoy!

1 #Biorefineries, the way towards a greener future! #SynBio
Self-replicating, waste-recycling and pollution-reducing! These are some of the fascinating features of biological refineries that will make a sustainable future possible. synbio expands these opportunities Read more>

2 #SynBio can pause evolution and boost #Biotechnology ⏯ Here is how!
Microorganisms have not evolved to grow inside a biorreactor and thus, biotechnology has faced many limitation because the microbes don’t perform well under the harsh industrial conditions. But Synthetic biology can help us pause and revert this process enabling us to engineer microorganisms that can meet our demands and serve as efficient cell factories! Read more>  

3 These students from @igemBarcelona want to fight #metastasis with engineered #bacteria! #SynBio
Palmitic acid and its cellular receptor CD36 were recently shown to be involved in metastasis. Based on this discovery, these students from Barcelona have come up with an idea to stop this process! Engineering microorganisms to express these receptors, they aim at transforming them in living therapeutics that uptake diet lipids and reduce metastasis! Read more >

4 Living in Mars? May be possible in the future thanks to these #SynBio innovations 🚀
From synthetic rubber to self-healing materials or biological batteries, students from the 2017 Stanford-Brown iGEM team explore the endless possibilities of engineering microbes to make space missions more self-sufficient and economical. Read more >

5 These “whiskey-drinking” #algae are boosting Scotland’s #circulareconomy #SynBio
We love bacteria, but there are many other organisms that can help us boost a circular economy! This company, started by a young entrepreneur, is transforming Scotland’s whiskey byproducts to grow algae and produce livestock feeds rich in fatty acids and proteins! Read more >

6 Do you want to explore #SynBio? Now you can in Cambridge’s first community biolab! Apply until the end of the month!
Because science is for everyone, get the chance to work at the interface of biology and engineering in Cambridge’s first community lab! Send your application and start exploring Synthetic Biology! Read more >

7 These two #biotech companies joined forces to boost the future of #biofuels using #algae and #Synbio! By @SynBioBeta @SynGenomeInc  @exxonmobil ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics Inc. announced a new phase in their joint research programme that could revolutionise the future of biofuels. Using engineered algae, these companies aim at producing up to 10,000 barrels of algae biofuel per day by 2025! Boosting sustainable energy alternatives with Synbio! Read more >

8 This #SynBio breakthrough will be useful to engineer more efficient drug-producing #bacteria
Engineering microbes with new features to produce compounds of industrial interest results in a competition for cellular resources between the synthetic circuits and the bacterial genes. In this scenario, ribosomes often become a bottleneck in this process as they are required for the synthesis of both the microbial and the newly introduced proteins. To overcome this limitation, researchers from the University of Warwick and the University of Surrey have developed a system to dynamically distribute the ribosomes and allocate them to the process of interest.  Read more >

9 Meet Timothy Lu, the @MIT student that is reprogramming biological systems to fight disease. #SynBio
He started programing computers and moved on to programming cells. This student from MIT aims at using synthetic biology to engineer new microbial systems able to fight diseases as different as cancer or infections.  Read more >  

10 Engineering #viruses to fight resistant #bacteria with #CRISPR! New strategies to fight antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance is becoming a public health issue worldwide. Thus, researchers have  to come up with new strategies to fight the resistant microbes. Using the power of CRISPR and viruses as therapeutic tools, these can be engineered to specifically attack resistant bacteria and fight infections. Read more >