Drew Endy

Drew Endy in 2009. Photograph by Steve Jurvetson

Drew Endy (born 1970) is a synthetic biologist.

He was a junior fellow for 3 years and later an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. In September 2008, he moved to Palo Alto to become an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Silicon Valley's concentration of computer scientists and engineers, in addition to Stanford's broad focus on engineering as well as ethics and the humanities, are believed to be the main reason for his move according to press reports.^[1] His wife Christina Smolke moved from the California Institute of Technology to Stanford in January 2009.

With Thomas Knight, Gerald Jay Sussman, and other researchers at MIT, Endy is working on synthetic biology and the engineering of standardized biological components, devices, and parts, collectively known as BioBricks.^[2] Endy is one of several founders of the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, and invented an abstraction hierarchy for integrated genetic systems.

Endy is also known for his opposition to limited ownership and support of free access to genetic information. He has been one of the early promoters of open source biology, and helped start the Biobricks Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that will work to support open-source biology. He was also a co-founder of the now defunct Codon Devices, a biotechnology startup company that aimed to commercialize synthetic biology.

References

1. ^ Tansey, Bernadette. Faces of 2007: Drew Endy, leader in synthetic biology. San Francisco Chronicle. 26 Dec. 2007.
2. ^ From the cells up, The Guardian, 10 March 2005

External links

• Lab webpage
• Personal page on OpenWetWare for Drew Endy
• Abstraction hierarchy for integrated genetic systems
• Steal This Genome
• Biology Yearns to be Free
• Codon Devices, Inc.
• Article on the commercialization of DNA synthesis
• Registry of Standard Biological Parts
• Interview with Drew Endy in Edge - the third culture
• Northwestern Silverstein Lecture

Persondata
Name	Endy, Drew
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1970
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death