| Mar 11, 2013 |
Synthetic biology project takes flight |
| (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. |
| 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. |
| The project, which will begin in May 2013, could help increase production yields in fields such as the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals. |
| Drug advances |
| The University has a long history of developing groundbreaking new treatments. |
| In the early 1980s, Professor Ken Murray developed the first genetically engineered vaccine against Hepatitis B, saving countless lives across the world. |
| 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. |
| Source: University of Edinburgh |
