DNA factory launches
01/21/10 TheScientist.com — California synthetic biologists are launching a production facility that will provide free, standardized DNA parts for scientists around the world. BIOFAB aims 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. Adam Arkin, BIOFAB's codirector and a professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley, says the group has already hired scientists who are in the lab, making constructs.