Essential Research Program TRANSFORME Sprint 2020: Developing an Organism Onboarding Pipeline and Establishing Standardization for Army Synthetic Biology

Author(s):

Randi M. Pullen, Jimmy Gollihar, Madelyn Szilagyi, Katherine Akingbade, and Dimitra Stratis-Cullum

Abstract:

Delivering biotechnology to the Warfighter is a DoD priority. The Army needs the agility to rapidly pivot to address its emerging operational needs. Under the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), ARL invested in building physical/digital infrastructure and a workforce competent in synthetic biology and biotechnology. The ARL Essential Research Program (ERP) Transformational Synthetic Biology for Military Environments (TRANSFORME) was designed to meet the following objectives: 1) harness biology’s capacity for custom material production and modification of material properties; 2) develop an agile, modular foundry for key military environments and specialty materials critical to the future operating environment, allowing the United States to out-innovate and counter any adversary; and 3) identify factors that will inform and shape policy, ethics, and approval for the use of synthetic biology products. In 2020, the TRANSFORME ERP designed and conducted a sprint to quickly pivot employee priorities and enhance capabilities while delivering 1) a methodology to rapidly onboard microbial organisms of interest for biotechnology applications and 2) a standard synthetic biology framework enabling the agility to pivot biotechnology capabilities to address emerging operational needs. This report summarizes and analyzes that effort.