====== Darwin on steroids: Bio design, diversity & selection ======
**30 September [[http://connectmedia.waag.org/AcadeMany/bio-2015/09/30/|videos]] ([[https://vimeo.com/140940181|review5 on vimeo]], [[https://vimeo.com/140941754|lesson6 on vimeo]]) - George Church (Harvard/MIT)**

  * [[http://bio.academany.org/slides/15Sep30-HTGAA.pdf|class slides here]]

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From goals to practical choices. Design tools. Classes of genetic/protein modules. Assignment: Build a library from DNA chips.
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=====Readings===== 

Wang HH, Kim H, Cong L, Jeong J, Bang D, Church GM (2012) [[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3428217/ | Genome-scale Promoter Engineering by Coselection MAGE]]. Nature Methods.

Goodman DB, Church GM, Kosuri S (2013) [[http://arep.med.harvard.edu/pdf/Goodman_Sci_13.pdf | Causes and effects of N-terminal codon bias in bacterial genes]]. Science 342:475-9. PMID: 24072823

=====Homework===== 

In class we discussed the idea of a "Human Genome Project 2.0", but instead of reading DNA, writing DNA. For your homework, please answer each of the following questions:

(1) If humanity were to undertake such a project, what would be the benefits? What types of new science and engineering would be enabled if we had such a synthetic human genome? Please provide specific examples. 

(2) Conversely, why might we not want to proceed with such an endeavor? What are the risks?

(3) Map out a technical strategy for synthesizing a human genome. What technologies would be required? What are existing tools we could leverage? For certain tools that do not exist, what should their capabilities be?