Grant To Fund DNA Factory.

Grant To Fund DNA Factory.

The New York Times (2/9, Gross) reports, "With a new $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation, scientists from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley are now designing, making and testing thousands of pieces of DNA in an Emeryville facility which hopes to standardize these parts for the first time." The goal is to give researchers "a base to engineer more complex biology that could advance fields like medicine." While the researchers at BIOFAB will likely encounter a variety of difficulties, "if they are successful, their work will be a huge boon to bioengineers." The lab seeks to make the pieces of DNA "widely accessible, and free. "