Here to know!

My answer is Germany. Here are the reasons -

1. Synthetic biology is at its preliminary stage as a scientific field and needs time to mature up. As the research budget all over the world is shrinking, people are losing patience and they are expecting the research outcomes to come sooner than it is expected. This case is not entirely true for Germany (especially the Max Planck Society), as they really respect and understand that "good research takes time".

2. Most of the Germany institutes promote interdisciplinary science (those involving chemistry, mathematics, physics and biology), and synthetic biology is just that!

3. German institutes are foreigner friendly, where people have a really good quality of life.

3. German institutes pay well.

I hope this answers.

Sukant Garg These are all great reasons to work in a german lab or university or study as a graduate student in germany. but how about my level of study (undergraduate) wouldnt learning the terms and such in german language rather than english cripple my ability to partake in the international scientific community?

Ekin, a German lab (especially the MPI) does not usually allow any compromises in studies or in the science per se on the basis of language. English has always been and will always be the language in all scientific activities. Yes, there is administrative work that requires German as a language, but for that, your German friends could be very helpful. Since you are an undergraduate, you will have a good amount of time to learn the language too.

Harvard University (USA) is the best option in my opinion. They have achieved incredible feats over there. They have created artificial ribosomes, photosynthetic engine for artificial cells and are currently working on artificial cells.

You can read more about them here:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/412471/creating-cell-parts-from-scratch/

https://manoharan.seas.harvard.edu/artificial-cells

https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2018/05/photosynthetic-engine-artificial-cells

I don't think they teach in German though.

You can take suggestion or contact:

Dr. Pawan K. Dhar.

Professor, School of Biotechnology.

JNU, New Delhi, India

Email: [email protected]

His area of Research is Synthetic Biology and Sir is very Helpful.

Dear Ekin Ören,

Please find the list of Best country/university for studying synthetic biology.

Synthetic Biology Graduate Programs:

• Rice University (PHD)
• University of Edinburgh (MSc and PGDip)
• Imperial College of London (MRes)
• University of Warwick (PHD program that covers Master’s work.)
  • Note there are some serious limitations to this one. It’s basically only available to UK residents)
• Oxford/Bristol/Warwick (PHD)
  • This is a joint effort between three universities at what is called the Synthetic Biology Centre for Doctoral Training (SynBioCDT). Each university has a page about the program.

Graduate Degrees that Allow for a Focus in Synthetic Biology:

• Northwestern University (PHD in Life and Biomedical Sciences)
  • This degree has 9 areas of emphasis you can choose from, including one called Biotechnology, Systems and Synthetic Biology
• Boston University
  • BU says “The Biomedical Engineering Department has world-class faculty whose research and expertise span Molecular Bioengineering, Neural Engineering, Biomedical Optics, Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering, Biomedical Applications of Nanotechnology, Subcellular, Cellular & Systems Biomechanics, Synthetic Biology and Systems Biology.”
• University of Utah
  • This is a MS or PHD in Biomedical Engineering, but there is explicitly a track you can choose called “Computational Systems and Synthetic Biology.” Also of note, the University of Utah allows for dual masters degrees, if you’re wanting to add in an MBA to your bioengineering degree.
• AIRE/AIV (Masters program that doesn’t require a ton of previous biology knowledge)
• University of Washington (the program is applied bioengineering, but they highlight their professors work in synthetic and quantitative biology)
• UC Berkley: The degree is bioengineering (MS or PHD), but they specifically have
  • A list advisors for synthetic biology
  • A list of professors who work in/with synthetic biology.
  • The appropriately named Synthetic Biology Institute at UC Berkly

Institutions Offering Courses in Synthetic Biology

• Caltech
• Northwestern University: on top of having a PhD option, there are several courses you could take that span undergraduate and graduate levels.

I hope the information will help you.

With Best Wishes,

Samir G. Pandya

For the UK there are dedicated Synthetic Biology Research institutes at Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester, Warwick, Cambridge, Imperial and Edinborough all specialising in different things, protein engineering, speciality chemicals, C1 carbon recycling, mammalian cells etc.

UCL also has an Exceptionally good MRes Course in Syntheic Biology attached to the Biochemical Engineering department I highly recommend.

Personally I would recommend a broad undergraduate in Biochemistry or general biology then specialise. If you do this at an institution with SynBio research in the area your interested in then you will have contact and lectures with the right people and can take your end of degree project with them to specialise.