Café Synthetique is the monthly meetup for the Cambridge synthetic biology community with informal talks, discussion and pub snacks. This month's theme is Biology as Technology.
This month's theme will focus on how biology is used as technology, with a particular focus on how we have and will continue to shape plant crop species. We have two excellent speakers whose work focuses on how technology has been and will be used to modify genes both for use as research tools in genetics and evolutionary biology, and also as a means of plant breeding. Free bar snacks and good conversation provided!
Talks and speakers
"Biology as Technology: An Unexpected History of Innovation in
Living Things"
Dr Helen Anne-Curry
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Helen's current research considers the history of global conservation, in particular efforts made to preserve the genetic diversity of agricultural crop species through the practice of seed banking.
"Breeding technology for better crops"
Dr Alison Bentley
NIAB
Alison has worked on a range of projects within NIAB’s flagship wheat pre-breeding programme, including research on characterising flowering time response and the exploitation of novel genetic diversity and genomics tools for wheat improvement. She has a strong interest in the genotype x environment interactions controlling complex traits and in the application of genomics in the breeding of high yielding, climate resilient cereals.