Creating Platforms for Data Sharing and Training

LEAP Alumnus Karmella Haynes’s Strategic Action Plan described the development of platforms to stimulate and sustain data sharing to support the characterization of biological components and to enable the field and its trainees. Karmella received an award from Women and Philanthropy to support this work via the SB.ASU project at Arizona State University, where Karmella is an assistant professor. In collaboration with investigators of DNASU, a world-class repository for shared DNA materials, she launched the SB.ASU parts collection in 2017. Karmella has also led important efforts to support training in the field. She was a faculty co-founder of the Cold Spring Harbor Synthetic Biology Course, which is now entering its fifth year, and served as head judge of the iGEM competition. She has been recognized as a leader in the field, including being named a “Scientist to Watch” by The Scientist magazine and serving on the board of directors for the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC).