PSW 2457 Living Measurement Systems and Minimal Cells | Elizabeth Strychalski

Lecture Starts at 4:58
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PSW #2457
Living Measurement Systems and Minimal Cells: Engineering Cellular Life for Understanding and Applications
Elizabeth Strychalski, NIST
April 22, 2022
Measurement tools made from biological parts-living measurement systems-offer a compelling opportunity to better control and engineer biological systems in a way that takes full advantage of naturally-evolved biology and human capabilities for engineering living systems.
This lecture will begin by summarizing efforts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to build living measurement systems. The efforts include directed evolution for engineering protein sensors, cellular computation using continuously transcribed RNA strand displacement circuits, and measurement assurance for engineering biology chassis.
The lecture will then turn to a deeper consideration of genomically minimal cells, whose creation represents a tour de force of modern biology. A review of the underlying capabilities leading to the minimal cell offers suggestions for further optimization and future possibilities for other minimized cells. Despite its well-understood genome, the minimal cell retains genes of unknown function. Absent a comprehensive understanding of the role of every gene in the minimal cell, opportunities remain to bridge genotype and phenotype using physical models for insight into gene function and to inform engineering of cellular function.
Elizabeth Strychalski is Group Leader of the Cellular Engineering Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”). Before joining NIST she was Program Manager in the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA.
Elizabeth founded the Cellular Engineering Group and works to provide a foundation of measurements to support the design and control of engineered function in living systems. In her previous work at DARPA, Elizabeth managed a portfolio to aggressively advance experimental and theoretical research at the interface of synthetic biology, control engineering, nanobiotechnology, and fluidic devices.
Among other honors and awards, Elizabeth is the recipient of the University of Rochester’s Harry W. Fullbright Prize and its Janet Howell Clark Award, and she received the Maryland Academy of Sciences Young Scientist Award.
Elizabeth earned a BS in Physics and Astronomy and a BA in Religious Studies at the University of Rochester, and an MA and PhD in Physics at Cornell University
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