David Kwan | Photo by David Ward
Both the Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology and the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics — where Kwan also works — will gain new infrastructure, and the funding will support the integrated research of their respective teams.
“Synthetic biology focuses on creating technologies for designing and building biological systems using engineered organisms,” Kwan explains.
“It calls for biologists, chemists, engineers and computer scientists to find collaborative ways to understand how genetically encoded parts work together, and then to combine them to produce useful applications that are beneficial to society.”
Shih, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, adds that he and Kwan can now establish a common framework to create, assemble and test DNA parts in a more efficient way.
Steve Shih | Photo by David Ward
