Building circuits with DNA

Biological engineers use pieces of DNA as their building blocks or components to build circuits that can solve a variety of challenges.

"Building Circuits with DNA" is a workshop that will give you a chance to discuss and figure out how you might solve a problem using DNA and a dose of logic, explaining some of the basics of DNA and genetic engineering as we go. We'll have talks from scientists Nicola Patron (Earlham Institute) and Millie Stanton (John Innes Centre) introducing the relatively new scientific/engineering field of synthetic biology, and explaining some of the basics of DNA. Following this will be a workshop on planning and building your own DNA circuit. The activities will be paper-based at this session, but we hope in future to be able to follow up with a lab-based practical. What problem will you solve with DNA?

Non-biologists - Come along to learn about DNA and how we can use it to build logic circuits and solve real problems in the world.

Biologists - Come along to share your knowledge, experiences and projects and work with others to come up with novel ideas.

In addition to the organised introductions, we hope this will be a co-learning exercise where you can teach each other about the challenges and tools you use in your own professions.