Mar 11, 2013 |
Synthetic biology project takes flight
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(Nanowerk News) The Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, has awarded over £240,000 to a consortium including two Edinburgh-based companies - Synpromics Ltd and Genabler Ltd - and the University of edinburgh.
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The grant will fund a collaborative project that will seek to use synthetic biology - the design and construction of biological devices and systems - to more effectively create proteins, such as those used in drug manufacture.
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The project, which will begin in May 2013, could help increase production yields in fields such as the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals.
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Drug advances
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The University has a long history of developing groundbreaking new treatments.
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In the early 1980s, Professor Ken Murray developed the first genetically engineered vaccine against Hepatitis B, saving countless lives across the world.
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Joseph Lister, the father of antisepsis, was Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University. While at Edinburgh, he developed methods to reduce infection in patients.
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