I covered the Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution & Design (SEED) conference earlier this month in Boston for Digital Journal.
My interest stems from my novel SynBio, published last year.

Two reports have appeared so far and I will post a few more in the coming week.

Scientists are now investigating the possibility of turning bacteria into 'computers' to use as therapeutics and diagnostics:
Why Scientists are Trying to Reboot the Gut

A second report focused on Monsanto's efforts to use synthetic biology (which combines biology with engineering techniques) to replace natural soybean oil with a substitute for omega-3 oil, which is essential for health and mainly available from seafood. The idea is to find a sustainable, land-based alternative especially since stocks of fish are already being depleted. Of course, with anything having to do with Monsanto, the experimental work has already come under fire from critics -- and there are a lot of them. You can read about it here:
Soybeans Seen as a New Source of Omega-3, Sparing Fish