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Research

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology.

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Crone:2020:10.1101/2020.05.02.20088344,
author = {Crone, MA and Priestman, M and Ciechonska, M and Jensen, K and Sharp, D and Randell, P and Storch, M and Freemont, P},
doi = {10.1101/2020.05.02.20088344},
title = {A new role for Biofoundries in rapid prototyping, development, and validation of automated clinical diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.02.20088344},
year = {2020}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has shown how the rapid rise in demand for patient and community sample testing, required for tracing and containing a highly infectious disease, has quickly overwhelmed testing capability globally. With most diagnostic infrastructure dependent on specialised instruments, their exclusive reagent supplies quickly become bottlenecks in times of peak demand, creating an urgent need for novel approaches to boost testing capacity. We address this challenge by refocusing the full synthetic biology stack available at the London Biofoundry onto the development of alternative patient sample testing pipelines. We present a reagent-agnostic automated SARS-CoV-2 testing platform that can be quickly deployed and scaled, and that accepts a diverse range of reagents. Using an in-house-generated, open-source, MS2-virus-like-particle-SARS-CoV-2 standard, we validate RNA extraction and RT-qPCR workflows as well as two novel detection assays based on CRISPR-Cas and Loop-mediated isothermal Amplification (LAMP) approaches. In collaboration with an NHS diagnostic testing lab, we report the performance of the overall workflow and benchmark SARS-CoV-2 detection in patient samples via RT-qPCR, CRISPR-Cas, and LAMP against clinical test sets. The validated RNA extraction and RT-qPCR platform has been installed in NHS diagnostic labs and now contributes to increased patient sample processing in the UK while we continue to refine and develop novel high-throughput diagnostic methods. Finally, our workflows and protocols can be quickly implemented and adapted by members of the Global Biofoundry Alliance and the wider scientific and medical diagnostics community.</jats:p>
AU  - Crone,MA
AU  - Priestman,M
AU  - Ciechonska,M
AU  - Jensen,K
AU  - Sharp,D
AU  - Randell,P
AU  - Storch,M
AU  - Freemont,P
DO  - 10.1101/2020.05.02.20088344
PY  - 2020///
TI  - A new role for Biofoundries in rapid prototyping, development, and validation of automated clinical diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.02.20088344
ER  -

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