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Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution


The last half century of medical research has placed chemical structures behind much of biology, including human disease, the human genome, and the origin of life. Scientists at the Foundation have contributed broadly to these activities through innovative and polydisciplinary research in fields as diverse as chemistry, informatics, biology, geology, and astronomy. We are now taking the next steps, to place biological chemistry within its larger "systems" context, from the cell to the organism, and from there to the ecosystem and the planet. Emerging from this are new tools for systems biology and personalized medicine, as well as answers to some "big" questions: Where did we come from? What is our future? Are we alone?

Latest News and Events

May 1, 2012. The Sceptical Chymist this month profiled Dr. Steven Benner, Director of the Westheimer Institute at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution.

April 30, 2012. New kinds of DNA were first created in the Benner laboratory 20 years ago. Today, these are used in diagnostics, medicine, and nanotechnology. The next phase in synthetic biology was published in Science last week, in a paper coauthored by Philipp Holliger, a former Benner coworker, and John Chaput, who studied with Christopher Switzer, also a former Benner coworker. Their work is covered, in the Los Angeles Times, Popular Mechanics, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Nature magazine.

March 7, 2012. Steven Benner will be giving the Capstone Lecture at Pittcon in Orlando on March 14, 2012. Here, he will describe how innovative nucleic acid reagents can help instruments detect DNA sequences in diagnostics tools targeted against infectious diseases, inherited diseases, cancers, and geriatric diseases.

January 12, 2012. New Scholarship Announced to Honor Frank H. Westheimer. January 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Frank H. Westheimer, a founder of the field of biological chemistry. Today, scientists at The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology (TWIST) at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME) follow his vision to apply chemistry to medicine, genomics, and biotechnology. Accordingly, in honor of Prof. Westheimer's centennial birthday, the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, is announcing the first year of a scholarship program to support the advanced education of children of students who have trained with TWIST and FfAME scientists. For more information, contact ljackson@ffame.org.

August 23, 2011. The Royal Society of Chemistry describes a major new advance made at the FfAME in the area of synthetic biology (see Expanded genetic alphabet could spell out new genes). This advance comes from DTRA-funded work that studies the fundamental science that stands behind the DNA double helix.

August 12, 2011. Steven Benner will join Arthur Caplan, Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss artificial life with Patt Morrison, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist of the NPR affiliate KPCC in Los Angeles. The broadcast will be live on Friday, August 12, 1:30 - 2:00 PM Pacific / 4:30 - 5:00 PM Eastern, and will take listener calls.

June 17, 2011. Steven Benner gave a plenary talk at the BioBricks meeting in Palo Alto on Friday. The master of the 18 minute talk, Dr. Benner's presentation will be available online in a few weeks. In addition to outlining the current status of synthetic biology at the FfAME, his talk produced the number one tweet among conference attendees who rebroadcasted Benner's aphorism: "Culture is what you think when you are not thinking."

Press Coverage

LiveScience: LiveScience and arsenic-based life
February 1, 2012

Chemical and Engineering News: More on arsenic-based life
January 23, 2012

BBC News: Searching for the origins of life... and our future
November 7, 2011

Odyssey Magazine: The Alien Discovery that Wasn't
June 27, 2011

Chemical & Engineering News: Arsenic Bacterium Debate Continues
June 6, 2011

New Scientist: Arsenic-based bacteria: Fact or fiction?
May 27, 2011

New York Times: A Romp Into Theories of the Cradle of Life
February 21, 2011

Tech News World: Weird Earthly Life-Form Means Rethinking the Hunt for ET
February 21, 2011

MSNBC: Definition of life: Arsenic debate just won't die
February 18, 2011

Yahoo! News: Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life
November 10, 2009

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