Felipe Buson represented Open Bioeconomy Lab at the SynBio UK meeting in Bristol on 7-8 Nov with a poster on “Improving FAIR Access to Open DNA Collections” describing our work developing a platform to host DNA constructs that better adhere to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).
To make our collections Findable and Interoperable with existing software, we are making a curated pilot collection using the suite of open SBOL tools developed by the community, such as SynBioHub, PySBOL, Excel2SBOL, and SeqImprove. To make our platform (Re)Usable and Accessible to researchers, we attach the high-quality data generated by this workflow to expertise in web design and user experience11 to ensure that our collections are delivered in a user-friendly package, bespoke to the needs of synthetic biology users.
With our pilot collection of well-curated parts as a model, and a user-friendly, standardised workflow for researchers to use, improve, and add to the collections, we hope to welcome and encourage further adoption of this system to produce a better place for the free sharing and collaboration of this FAIR DNA Data Repository.
It was a fantastic opportunity to network with the UK synthetic biology community, to see the excellent science happening nationwide and beyond and to connect with the UK SBOL community as we move forward with applying better documentation standards to our open source DNA collection.