BioCoder #4

Leukippos: A Synthetic Biology Lab in the Cloud

Pablo Cárdenas, Maaruthy Yelleswarapu, Sayane Shome, Jitendra Kumar Gupta, Eugenio Maria Battaglia, Pedro Fernandes, Alioune Ngom, and Gerd Moe-Behrens

Abstract

As we move deeper into the digital age, the social praxis of science undergoes fundamental changes, driven by new tools provided by information and communication technologies. Specifically, social networks and computing resources such as online cloud-based infrastructures and applications provide the necessary context for unprecedented innovations in modern science. These tools are leading to a planetary-scale connectivity among researchers and enable the organization of in silico research activities entirely through the cloud.

Research collaboration and management via the cloud will result in a drastic expansion of our problem-solving capacity, since groups of people with different backgrounds and expertise that openly gather around common interests are more likely to succeed at solving complex problems. Another advantage is that collaboration between individuals becomes possible regardless of their geographic location and background.

Here we present a novel, open-web application called Leukippos, which aims to apply these information and communication technologies to in silico synthetic biology projects. We describe both the underlying technology and organizational structure necessary for the platform’s operation. The synthetic biology software search engine, SynBioAppSelector, ...