iBioFab

Many of the drugs we utilize in modern medicine are naturally produced by microbes. Penicillin, an antibiotic derived from certain molds, is one of the most notable natural products due to its recognition as one of the biggest advances in medicine and human health. As DNA sequencing has become cheaper and faster, scientists now have access to hundreds of thousands of microbial genomes and the natural products they produce.

One of the biggest challenges in traditional laboratory settings is performing countless hours of error-prone lab work: handling reagents, incubating reactions or living cells, synthesizing products, applying treatments, and monitoring outcomes. The Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing was established in 2014 to bypass these cumbersome procedures and support a broad array of research goals.

On February 25^th 2022, the Illinois General Assembly adopted House Resolution 0690, commending the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology on its 15^th year of societal, scientific, and scholarly contributions at the intersection of science and society.

Plasmids have extensive use in basic and applied biology. These small, circular DNA molecules are used by scientists to introduce new genes into a target organism. Well known for their applications in the production of therapeutic proteins like insulin, plasmids are broadly used in the large-scale production of many bioproducts.

However, designing and constructing plasmids remains one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive steps in biology research.

A team of scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a bioprocess using engineered yeast that completely and efficiently converted plant matter consisting of acetate and xylose into high-value bioproducts.

Lignocellulose, the woody material that gives plant cells their structure, is the most abundant raw material on Earth and has long been viewed as a source of renewable energy. It  contains primarily acetate and the sugars glucose and xylose, all of which are released during decomposition.

A new proof-of-concept study details how an automated system driven by artificial intelligence can design, build, test and learn complex biochemical pathways to efficiently produce lycopene, a red pigment found in tomatoes and commonly used as a food coloring, opening the door to a wide range of biosynthetic applications, researchers report.  

A novel method developed by a group of IGB researchers could change the way metabolic engineering is done.

Researchers from the IGB’s Biosystems Design theme, including Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Huimin Zhao, recently published a paper in Nature Communications outlining their new method, which could make the metabolic engineering process more efficient.

In the concourse research lab of IGB, a robotic system is changing the face of synthetic biology.

Described as a one-of-a-kind “living foundry,” the system is a platform for automatic production and analysis of synthetic biological systems.

It’s called iBioFAB, which stands for Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing, and it lies at the heart of IGB’s Biosystems Design research theme.