Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/J004111/1
Title:	Towards a Universal Biological-Cell Operating System (AUdACiOuS)
Principal Investigator:	Krasnogor, Professor N
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Arizona State University Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michigan State University New York University University of California San Francisco University of California Santa Barbara University of Edinburgh Weizmann Institute of Science
Department:	School of Computer Science
Organisation:	University of Nottingham
Scheme:	Leadership Fellowships
Starts:	01 January 2012	Ends:	31 December 2013	Value (£):	1,026,408
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Research approaches Synthetic biology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 28 Jun 2011 Fellowships 2011 Interviews Panel G Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
A living cell, e.g. a bacterium, is an information-processing machine. It is composed of a series of sub-systems that work in concert by sensing external stimuli, assessing its own internal states and making decisions through a network of complex and interlinked biological regulatory networks (BRN) motifs that act as the bacterium neural network. A bacterium's decision making processes often result in a variety of outputs, e.g. the creation of more cells, chemotaxis, bio-film formation, etc. It was recently shown that cells not only react to their environment but that they can even predict environmental changes. The emerging discipline of Synthetic Biology (SB), considers the cell to be a machine that can be built -from parts- in a manner similar to, e.g., electronic circuits, airplanes, etc. SB has sought to co-opt cells for nano-computation and nano-manufacturing purposes. During this leadership fellowship programme of research I will aim at making E.coli bacteria much more easily to program and hence harness for useful purposes. In order to achieve this, I plan to use the tools, methodologies and resources that computer science created for writing computer programs and find ways of making them useful in the microbiology laboratory.
Key Findings
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Project URL:
Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.nottingham.ac.uk