Journal Club: De novo DNA synthesis using polymerase-nucleotide conjugates

This paper describes an exciting a new way to synthesize DNA that promises to be easier and faster, does not require the use of toxic chemicals and is potentially more accurate. This method uses the template-independent polymerase terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT). Should be fun to learn about this exciting new method!

The paper overview:
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-faster-cheaper-dna.html

The paper that we are going to discuss:
De novo DNA synthesis using polymerase-nucleotide conjugates
https://www.nature.com/articles/Nbt.4173

The agenda for the journal club:

• A short overview of the paper to understand the scope of this work.
• Go over the paper figure by figure. So everyone understands what exactly was done and how it was done.
• Freeform discussion.

The previous reading of the paper is not required but much advised. It will help you to follow along. As well some prior knowledge of basic biological concepts will be very useful.