Creating synthetic life could be easily within our grasp soon based on a comparison with the evolution of computer chips. 

Computer programming and gene synthesis appear to share little in common. But according to University of Cincinnati professor Andrew Steckl, an Ohio Eminent Scholar leaps forward in technology in the former make him optimistic that wide-scale gene manufacture is achievable.

Steckl and his student, Joseph Riolo, used the history of microchip development and large-scale computer software platforms as a predictive model to understand another complex system, synthetic biology. Steckl said the project was inspired by comments by another student in his group, Eliot Gomez.

“No analogy is perfect. DNA doesn’t meet certain definitions of digital code,” Riolo said, “but there are a lot of ways the genome and software code are comparable.”

According to the UC study, synthetic biology has the potential to be “the next epochal technological human advancement following microelectronics and the internet.” Its applications are boundless, from creating new biofuels to developing new medical treatments.

Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute created the first synthetic organism in 2010 when they transplanted an artificial genome of Mycoplasma mycoides into another bacterial cell. This relatively simple artificial genome took 15 years to develop at a cost of more than $40 million.

But by using computer chip development as a guide, Steckl said we can infer the speed and costs of producing similar synthetic life might follow a similar trajectory as the performance and cost of electronics over time.

The study highlights the comparison and similarities between biological and digital coding languages in terms of alphabet, words, and sentences. However, the authors underline that DNA coding — the combinations of the adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine that make up a genome — only tells part of the complex story of genes and omits things like epigenetics.

“There are all kinds of caveats, but we need a zero-order comparison to start down this road,” said Steckl, a distinguished research professor who holds joint appointments in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and materials engineering in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.

“Can we compare the complexity of programming a fighter plane or Mars rover to the complexity associated with creating a genome of a bacterium?” Steckl asked. “Are they of the same order or are they significantly more complicated?

“Either biological organisms are way more complicated and represent the most complicated ‘programming’ that has ever been done — so there’s no way you can duplicate it artificially — or perhaps they’re of the same order as creating the coding for an F-35 fighter plane or a luxury car, so maybe it is possible.”

Moore’s Law is a predictive model for the advancement of computer chips. Named for computer scientist Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, it suggests that advances in technology allow for the exponential growth of transistors on a single computer chip.

And 55 years since Moore drafted his theory, we’re still seeing it at work in three-dimensional microchips, even if the advances provide smaller benefits in performance and power reduction than previous leaps forward.

Since 2010, the study said, the price of editing genes and synthesizing genomes has roughly halved every two years in much the way Moore’s Law suggests.

“This would mean that synthesizing an artificial human genome could cost approximately $1 million and simpler applications like a custom bacterium could be synthesized for as little as $4,000,” the authors said in the study.

“This combination of surmountable complexity and moderate cost justifies the academic enthusiasm for synthetic biology and will continue to inspire interest in the rules of life,” the study concluded.

Likewise, Steckl said bio-engineering could become integral to virtually every industry and science in much the same way computer science evolved from a niche discipline to a critical component of almost every science.

“I see a correlation between how computing has evolved as a discipline. Now you see heavy-duty computing in every scientific discipline,” Steckl said. “I see something similar happening in the world of biology and bio-engineering. Biology is everywhere. It will be interesting to see how these things evolve.”

Both Steckl and Riolo agree that the ability to create artificial life does not necessarily carry the burden or moral authority to do so.

“It’s not something to be taken lightly,” Steckl said. “It’s not as simple as we should do it because we can do it. One should also consider the philosophical or even religious implications.”

Air pollution increases in South East Asia, combined with pollution cuts in Europe, may have had an important influence on European and Asian weather patterns in recent decades, new research has found.

Analysis of weather records and climate models by scientists at the University of Reading revealed that changes in air pollution levels in the two regions were likely the primary driving force behind changing atmospheric conditions that favored prolonged summer extremes in Europe, as well as causing dry spells in Central Asia.

New research shows that the air pollution changes during 1979-2019 reduced the temperature gradient between the two regions, significantly weakening the jet stream over Asia.

These high-altitude winds have a strong influence on atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere, and shape weather across Europe and other mid-latitude areas.

Dr. Buwen Dong, an NCAS scientist at the University of Reading, said: “Our findings suggest changes to air pollution had a greater influence on Northern Hemisphere summer weather than we thought.

“The research counters previous suggestions that the weakening of the summer jet stream was the result of rapid warming in the Arctic due to greenhouse gas emissions. It highlights another significant role human activity plays in driving extreme weather over vast regions.”

Air pollution is known to have a direct impact on surface temperatures since the pollution particles prevent heat from the sun from penetrating the ground.

Increases in pollution in China and other areas of South and East Asia during the past 40 years, therefore, resulted in lower surface temperatures, while cuts in Europe led to clearer skies and hotter temperatures.

Temperature changes in different latitudes reduced vertical wind shear and therefore weakened the summertime Eurasian subtropical westerly jet - the ribbon of wind which extends east over Central Asia and northern China from the North Atlantic Jet Stream – by 7% over the period.

The researchers looked at the effect of greenhouse gases and pollution particles separately and found that the former causes a strengthening of the jet stream, but was overpowered by the impacts of air pollution.

Dr. Dong said: “As Southeast Asian countries fulfill commitments to cut their air pollution levels over the coming decades, we would expect to see the jet stream strengthen over Eurasia once again, potentially reducing the likelihood of prolonged heatwaves but increasing the likelihood of strong cyclones in mid-latitudes.”

With a $2 million recruitment grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), a University of Houston researcher is setting up a lab to develop drugs that will work on traditionally undruggable targets in cancer. Gül Zerze, assistant professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, is one of 12 cancer researchers recruited to Texas by CPRIT last November.  

Zerze’s initial target is breast cancer. 

"One out of nearly six Texas women diagnosed with breast cancer will die of the disease. Importantly, Texan women of color are disproportionately impacted by the high mortality rate compared to white Texan women (41% higher mortality rate reported for Black Texan women in 2016). This high mortality rate, despite the substantial efforts made for early diagnosis, calls for better therapeutics urgently,” said Zerze, whose research will also be expanded more broadly to address other cancers. 

The CPRIT recruitment grants for the latest class, totaling $38 million, are meant to “form a critical ecosystem of distinguished cancer-fighting talent” in Texas. Zerze was persuaded to come to UH from Princeton University where she was a postdoctoral researcher specializing in computational modeling and simulations of a special class of proteins called intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs).  

The vast majority (approximately 70%) of proteins implicated in human cancers are either IDPs or have large intrinsically disordered regions, and many of these targets are considered ‘undruggable’ due to the scarcity of high-resolution methods that can offer a fundamental understanding of them. 

“Computational and data science methodologies offer a promising avenue to fill in this gap to enable developing drugs against these traditionally undruggable targets,” said Zerze, whose methodology will include rapid screening.  

Despite the significant progress made in cancer treatment options in the last 20 years, many cancer targets have still yet to be drugged. Among those holding promise are transcription factors (TFs), which are proteins involved in converting (or transcribing) DNA into RNA. TFs contain large amounts of disordered proteins which participate in transcriptional condensates that form via liquid-like phase separation (LLPS).  

“Transcriptional condensates are shown to be aberrant in tumor cells, but the progress to develop drugs against TFs that participate in LLPS has been limited by the extremely dynamic nature of activation domains of TFs. We are developing a computational platform that will enable discovering drugs against these aberrant condensates by systematically interrogating the way transcription factors form, through the liquid-like phase separation of intrinsically disordered regions,” said Zerze. 

Through collaborations within the University and the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the drug candidates will be rapidly tested.  

“The ideas proposed here will save lives and the products that will come out of this project have a great potential for commercialization and founding companies to contribute to the Texas economy,” said Zerze. 

The international AEG firm’s sixth Florida office will support the collaborative advancement of research, education, and economic development, and will support Woolpert’s expansion throughout the state. 

Woolpert has opened an office in St. Petersburg, Fla., that will focus on maritime, defense technology, and geospatial intelligence. The office is located in the St. Pete Innovation District (SPID) and is part of its new St. Petersburg Maritime and Defense Technology Hub, which is holding its ribbon-cutting event today. SPID is a public-private partnership that aims to foster job growth, economic development, learning, and inspiration by bringing innovative people and organizations together.

SPID has established the largest collection of marine science, oceanographic and environmental research agencies and institutions in the Southeast. Its Maritime and Defense Technology Hub assembles innovators from industry, government, and academic organizations that can utilize state and federal funding to advance critical marine science and defense technology solutions.

Woolpert is a global leader in the collection and processing of high-resolution topographic and bathymetric lidar and imagery, acoustic hydrographic services, and marine surveys. The international architecture, engineering, and geospatial (AEG) firm specializes in delivering geospatial data and innovative hybrid technologies to defense and federal intelligence communities. In 2021, Woolpert augmented its capabilities by acquiring two geospatial firms, AAM and Optimal GEO, and earning a patent for developing revolutionary new topo-bathy lidar technologies. Last month, the firm acquired eTrac Inc., a vessel-based hydrographic survey and marine technology firm.

In Florida, Woolpert has supported state, local, and federal government projects for decades, helping agencies solve their most important infrastructure, maritime and hydrographic challenges. Woolpert President and CEO Scott Cattran said the Hub, which is Woolpert’s sixth Florida office, will serve as his new office and that of several senior vice presidents to support the firm’s expansion in the region and the state. Woolpert’s work at the Hub also will contribute to SPID’s Grow Smarter strategy to elevate education, equity, and entrepreneurship.

“This kind of diverse collaboration is key to the nation’s short- and long-term advancement of progressive ideas and real-world solutions,” Cattran said. “Woolpert has worked with several SPID partners and has found success within this type of setting, from joint ventures to research and development teams to public-private-academic partnerships, and we are looking forward to what we can all accomplish within this dynamic ecosystem.”