• Name

      DNA Factory 

• What is the item

      Synthetic biologists in California are starting a production facility to "provide free, standardized DNA parts for scientists around the world." http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57090/

• What Horizon is it on

     The BIOFAB project has been given a two-year grant, placing it in the Second Horizon. 

• Explanation of the item 

     The aim of the project is create a registry "to boost the ease of bioengineering with 'biological parts' that are shared resources, standardized and reliable enough that they can be switched in and out of a genome like electronic parts in a radio." http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57090/  The idea is to "produce thousands of free standardized DNA parts to short the development time and lower the cost of synthetic biology for academic or biotech laboratories." http://www.biofab.org/  This should enable production of all types of synthetically engineered biological projects to be faster and less expensive.

• Photos (if available)

• Issues

     Is there sufficient grant money to conduct the necessary research to build an adequate database of biological parts?

     Is two years a sufficient amount of time to conduct the research?

• Sources

     http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57090/

     http://www.biofab.org/

This is a stub article.  Please make it better by adding to it!