HPCwire

Imagine being able to turn bacteria into molecular factories, capable of producing everything from earth-friendly biofuels to personalized medicines? This is the promise of synthetic biology, which has made remarkable advances over the last decade, taking tools and concepts from physics, engineering and computer science to design new biological systems. One of the foremost researchers in the field is Professor Howard Salis. An assistant professor at Penn State University, Salis developed a cloud-based software platform, called DNA Compiler, to support the efforts of synthetic biology researchers around the world. In an interview with HPCwire, Salis explains that even the simplest bacterium has more moving parts than an automobile, but nature did not provide exact design specifications for how those living organisms function. Read more at http://www.hpcwire.com/2014/08/05/cloud-gives-dna-compiler-wings/.