A global lab for teaching and practicing synthetic biology

How do you keep a hands-on synthetic biology lab class going during a pandemic? The goal has always been to share the tools and knowledge of synthetic biology with the widest possible audience, moving beyond molecular biology researchers to artists, engineers, and social justice advocates, among others. In its first editions, HTGAA was taught to both the Fab Lab network along with the global community biology network, which Kong helps organize via the Global Community Bio Summit. He said the focus on coding and simulation of experiments gave students a shared language that is unusual in lab bench biology. In Taiwan, for instance, a HTGAA participant has already set up an active node for students, Kong says.