September 3rd, 2025

[ERIK-KE]

Participants

Prashant Vaidyanathan
David Ross
Goksel Misirli
Chris Myers
Yan Kay Ho
Gonzalo Vidal Pena
Georgie Hau Sørensen
Lukas Buecherl
Carolus Vitalis
Erik Kubaczka

Topics

• SBOL Visual Paper
• SBOL Website Update
• Python SBOL Converter
• Fund Raising for SBOL
• IWBDA and Combine

SBOL Visual Paper

The SBOL Visual Paper is accepted and we currently review the paper proof. We will submit the edits to it soon.

We should continue the efforts on reviewing current issues of ACS SynBio, especially 2024 and 2025, as part of a Session at Combine and Harmony.

Website Update

We currently work on updating the SBOL website to make it more streamlined and straightforward to up date.

The steering committee provided feedback on the website and its content.

Python SBOL Converter

The developer team resolved issues regarding the compatibility of SBOL2 and SBOL3 to make the reverse translation work seamlessly and to not drop any information.

As we have the Java Converter as well, we have to make sure that both converters behave as one. So roundtrip conversion needs to be successful when both converters are part of it.

Goksel shared the test folder from GitHub and reported that they could convert the majority of the files. Further efforts for synchronizing both SBOL converters will be coordinated by the respective development groups.

Future Steps

Integration of converters into the online validator system as an easy access for new users.

Repositories are essential for the availability of data and designs. As such, SBOL repositories, like SynBioHub, should be available and provide reliable part libraries. Providing a robust and reliable part library is also beneficial for further usage of SBOL.

Another issue is, that in many publications, the sequences are not available in machine readable form. We should aim for collaborating with publishers like ACS SynBio to provide a guideline on how to deposit sequences in machine readable form like SBOL. This could be very simplistic to provide a low step entry.

The IGEM SBOL registry is not compatible to SBOL anymore and that does not seem to change in the future. Registries like AddGene contain very extensive datasets and also include information on recent publications.

Fund Raising

SBOL financials will be moved into BDAC funding so we have a joint fund raising. We identified key goals for fund raising to ensure continuing or extending our efforts. Prashant will provide a facts paper why people should fund SBOL and what the benefits of SBOL funding are. Steering committee members are asked to provide metrics on the use of SBOL. SBOL Editors will support this.

IWBDA and Combine

Combine registration deadline is coming up in the end of this month.

At IWBDA, we will give a smaller Workshop (1h) for both, SBOL and SBOLvisual. Both of them will be virtual and Carolus is on location to support setup.