Is it possible to make plastics without petroleum products? Can we use microorganisms to clean pollutants from our water, soil and air? Can we remove carbon from the atmosphere with the help of bacteria cells. Is it possible to make medical treatments like therapeutic antibodies using microorganisms as factories or produce blood clotting factors without blood donations?
With the introduction of automated high throughput testing in a BioFoundry these questions can be answered. The CSIRO BioFoundry is a purpose-built lab that utilises robotics and automation with hardware and software solutions to rapidly design, build and test new biotechnologies. The field of science driving the work within the lab is the application of engineering principles to biology, called synthetic biology.
The research designs biological systems to provide more sustainable and effective solutions to environmental, health and industry challenges. Our BioFoundry offers a full suite of specialist equipment to meet the needs of high-volume projects in synthetic biology.
Technology
The CSIRO BioFoundry is a key piece of infrastructure to support bioengineering research groups across Australia and the world. The BioFoundry offers a suite of specialist equipment to meet the needs of high-volume projects in synthetic biology:
- design DNA for construction
- microorganism bioengineering
- high-throughput strain screening
- development of methodologies and protocols to use new organisms
- enzyme engineering.
Specialising in high-volume design and build services, the BioFoundry’s equipment allows us to perform full workflows including combinatorial genetic design and high-throughput genetic strain build. This is made possible by our suite of robotics for DNA assembly and transformation. Our testing capacity extends to basic phenotyping, and we can link in access to metabolomics, protein production, and other facilities in CSIRO.
Applications
Our equipment and software allow us to perform high-throughput workflows including, combinatorial genetic design, DNA assembly, high-throughput strain build, phenotypic assays and data analysis.Intellectual property
Fee-for–service or collaborative arrangements to be negotiated.The team
A team of scientists with diverse and complementary skills and experience in:
- synthetic biology
- bioengineering microorganisms, insect and mammalian cells
- metabolic pathway engineering and biocatalysis
- high-throughput process development, automation, and machine learning algorithm development.