Location
Magdalen College Auditorium
Event type
Alumni, College, Public, staff, University
Date
24 October 2025
Time
5pm
Generative Biology – Creating new function from living matter.
Biology performs an amazing array of functions which are often impossible to achieve in any other way. The information for building living organisms is encoded in their DNA and, over millions of years, evolution (mutation and selection of these DNA sequences) has generated biological functions that are useful for extant life. Experimental methods to write the complete DNA sequences of living organisms, and to accelerate evolution millions of fold, provide the opportunity to: 1) learn the rules that relate DNA sequence to organism function and to 2) generate and compose organisms with new functions that benefit humanity. These approaches also raise important questions for society about what should and should not be done.
Professor Jason Chin is a Fellow of Magdalen College, and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Chemistry. As a world-leading researcher in synthetic and engineering biology, Jason is Founding Director of the newly established Generative Biology Institute (BDI) at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), based at the Oxford Science Park in Oxford. Alongside this, he is also a non-executive director at the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology.
The lecture includes a Q&A and is due to finish at 6.10pm, followed by a drinks reception in the Auditorium foyer. Please use the form below to register.
This event is not available via Livestream.
