The Biology Laboratory of the Scuola Normale - Bio@SNS - directed by Professor Antonino Cattaneo, together with Professor Giuseppe Nicosia (Cambridge University), is to hold a Summer School in July dedicated to a cutting-edge sector of research: synthetic biology.

For 5 days, from Monday 22nd to Friday 26th July, the world's leading experts in synthetic biology and systems biology will meet in Pisa, at the Scuola Normale Superiore, for a series of lectures and workshops with the aim of discussing the goals and the challenges of a science that promises to rewrite the genetic code itself. Doctoral graduates, graduates who have attended a “Master” course, academics and researchers, bioengineers and experts in this sector are admitted to the summer school.

The Summer School on "Synthetic and Systems Biology" was the first international summer school on synthetic biology, now in its sixth year. The lecturers of the school are all of high international repute and the participants come from all over the world.

These include Adam Arkin, Director of the Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space – NASA, and Jason Chin, of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who recently succeeded for the first time in reconstructing in a lab the entire genetic material of Escherichia coli, a bacterium that is an integral part of the normal intestinal flora of humans and other animals (the study was published in Nature).

The study of Prof. Chin, who computationally redesigned the bacterium genome, shows that there are new possibilities in the development of life. Prof. Chin's  synthetic genome has a compressed genetic code, which facilitates the synthesis of proteins containing non-natural amino acids, broadening the chemical diversity of proteins that can be genetically encoded.

The SSBSS Summer School will entail a total of 36-40 hours of lessons. All those who register will also have the opportunity to show their own research project concerning synthetic biology. Registration on: https://ssbss2019.icas.xyz/