A new synthetic-biology research lab in Emeryville, California, is recruiting its first seven scientists and engineers to design and build sets of standard DNA parts for programming cells. BIOFAB, a combined effort of the biotech non-profit BioBricks Foundation; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Stanford University, Palo Alto; and the University of California, Berkeley, will hire another 22 researchers in the next few months. The lab aims to develop open-source genetic parts that will comprise an 'operating system' for gene expression. “We need to learn how to build a production line that can make many useful parts,” says founding director Drew Endy. The facility has US$1.4 million in funding from the US National Science Foundation and matching funds from its partners.