The Synthetic Yeast Genome Project (Sc2.0) is the world’s first synthetic eukaryotic genome project that aims to create a novel, rationalized version of the genome of the yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In a truly global collaborative effort, research teams across the world have embarked on the challenging but exciting task of building 16 designer synthetic chromosomes encompassing ~ 12 million base pairs of DNA. From 13-16 June 2017, international synthetic biology communities will convene in Singapore for SB7.

Synthetic Biology is widely believed to have the potential to make the most profound impact on the way we solve the many grand challenges facing humanity over the next 50 years. Conferences, such as this one, which bring together individuals involved in this field from around the world, are crucial to supercharge the intellectual horsepower required to ‘join the dots’. The 7th Yeast 2.0 and Synthetic Genomes conference, to be held in the spectacular city of Sydney in November 2018, will provide delegates the opportunity to hear speakers who have made or have the potential to make significant impacts in the synthetic biology world.

What are the expected outcomes of this project? Since this type of experiment has never been done it is very difficult to predict the outcomes indeed! However, our work thus far shows that the strategy we have developed, taking into consideration both the designer alternations, all of which have been proven to be consistent with viability, as well as the assembly strategy, which allows regular fitness assessments of small segments of synthetic DNA, produces high fitness yeast.

Registration is now open for the 2019 GP-WRITE & 8TH ANNUAL SC2.0 MEETING Hosted by the Institute for Systems Genetics at NYU Langone Health November 11-14 REGISTER Synthetic genomics is an emerging field driven by the rapidly decreasing cost of gene synthesis, scalable DNA assembly technologies, and the ever-increasing amount of genome sequence data. To date, convergence of these technologies has enabled total genome synthesis projects targeting viral, bacterial and yeast genomes.

Researchers complete 8 additional synthetic yeast chromosomes, plus a bonus tRNA neochromosome! An international team of researchers led by Prof. Jef Boeke at NYU Langone Health has built eight new synthetic yeast chromosomes, swapping out a key organism’s genetic material for engineered replacements, and an bonus tRNA neochromosome. Synthetic chromosomes were constructed by groups spanning the globe (alphabetical order by country and organization, the sun never sets on Sc2.0!): Australia: Australian Wine Research Institute, Macquarie University China: BGI, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Tianjin University, Tsinghua University Japan: Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITech) Singapore: National University of Singapore (NUS) United Kingdom: Imperial College, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester United States: GenScript, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), New York University (NYU) For an overview of the global collaboration, see this commentary in Cell Genomics (2023).

The global Sc2.0 team has built five new synthetic yeast chromosomes, meaning that 30 percent of S.cerevisiae’s genetic material has now been swapped out for engineered replacements. This is one of several findings of a package of seven papers published March 10 as the cover story for Science. An international team of more than 200 authors produced the latest work from the Synthetic Yeast Project (Sc2.0). By the end of this year, this international consortium hopes to have designed and built synthetic versions all 16 chromosomes – the structures that contain DNA – for S.