About This Project

Much of Africa's plants have not been studied. As a non-profit, SynBio4ALL aims to study plant biodiversity in combination with emerging technology to educate and inspire future African scientists. We will craft a Plant Synthetic Biology curriculum and, together with students, will explore African native plants based on their biodiversity importance. Finally, we will conduct whole-genome sequencing of native plants to identify beneficial traits.

Website: SynBio4ALL Africa

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Despite the vast and diverse biological resources in the African continent, the frontier biotechnological education remains challenging due to lack of relevant curriculum and research facility. SynBio4ALL Africa is a non-profit initiative aimed to advance synthetic biology literacy across the African continent. From student final projects in our Microbial SynBio Course in 2024, our students were highly interested in plant-related research. However, we struggle to support them since plant SynBio education material is scarce globally.

Thus, we gathered enthusiastic volunteers in Plant SynBio to craft this new curriculum. We want to explore the rich biodiversity landscape of native African plants during the course and identify candidates for whole-genome sequencing. Our volunteers in Africa will collect materials and conduct necessary sample preparation for the whole class to further work on data analysis.

What is the significance of this project?

Building on our network among African students and universities and prior experience offering online courses and open-sourcing the educational materials (e.g. homework and lectures), we will create new educational resources for plant synthetic biology. We will also create a new dataset, the full genome sequence of a native plant, that can benefit the scientific community, provide hands-on experience to students, and highlights the biodiversity of the African continent, where limited resources leave much of the region under-explored.

In addition to the educational materials, in-class student interactions, and hands-on experience handling data, this provides a cutting-edge research opportunity for undergraduates at African universities. Such opportunities, especially in engineering biology and plant biology, are extremely lacking in the African continent. Moreover, the rich biodiversity of the continent and the economic importance of agriculture, make this a key area of investment.

What are the goals of the project?

The goal of this project is to showcase the scientific research through lectureship, experimental design, and hands-on execution.

We will plan a virtual 6- to 10-week course focusing on plant synthetic biology with emphasis on native African plants. During the course, students and instructors will work together to navigate the diversity of plants in Africa, particularly on biodiversity characteristics, industry relevance, and challenges for whole genome sequencing.

On the selected plant, our in-person volunteer will acquire the raw materials and prepare the samples appropriate plant whole-genome sequencing service and ship to international service provider. The bioinformatic tasks will be carried out together as a partnership between students and instructors.

Finally, the novel genomic data will be analyzed according to the plan curated during the class and open-sourced as world-wide resources.