The University of Washington and the University of Utah are awarded collaborative grants to develop and encourage the use of standards in the new engineering field of synthetic biology where biological systems are engineered to help manufacture drugs, biofuels, novel materials or more advanced applications such as new approaches to processing information. All engineering benefits from the use of standards. Examples include the standardization of screw and bolt sizes, standard voltages in computer electronic circuits, or internet standards that drive the World Wide Web. In each of these cases the use of standards has made many new industries economically viable which in turn has yielded enormous dividends to society. A nascent and growing community of synthetic biology researchers across industry and academia has come to recognize the value of standards, and worked together to develop the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), a standard that can describe biological designs constructed from DNA. This project will build from this starting place to (a) strengthen and extend SBOL so that it can serve a wider range of uses, (b) develop validation suites and services, so that systems can verify correct use of the standard, and (c) perform outreach and education to further grow and build our community of users and developers in both academia and industry. The key driving force for the development these standards will be the synthetic biology community. Our essential role is to put in place the means by which the whole community can benefit from a single standard that all can all agree to.
The project also has in place a number of outreach efforts that will benefit society directly. At the educational level, a special relationship with a community driven effort called HiveBio (http://hivebio.org/) will help high school students and laypeople understand modern biotechnology and molecular biology through hands-on classes. Every year the project will help fund up to 30 individuals to learn about genetic engineering, the techniques that scientists use in the lab and the ethical issues that we potentially face in biotechnology. Two of the researchers on the project also publish undergraduate textbooks on synthetic biology and cellular modeling and will publish second editions of the books during the lifetime of the project. The project will hold biannual meetings where researchers from academia and industry will be able to discuss future developments for the standard and to further build the community. In addition to developing an active community website, the communities' work will be presented at workshops and cross-disciplinary groups engaged in work such as systems biology, and e-science. Project staff will also present at the Seattle science clubs where the general public can learn more about synthetic biology in general. The Synthetic Biology Open Language can be accessed at www.sbolstandard.org.
