Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: scientists are combining non-living chemicals to create materials with the properties of living organisms, says the creator of a self-repairing shoe made from protocells. More about Synthetic materials can "behave like living cells"
News: New York studio The Living has won this year's MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program competition with plans to cultivate bio-bricks from corn stalks and mushrooms, and use them to build a tower in the courtyard of the New York gallery (+ slideshow). More about Organic tower grown from agricultural waste wins MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program 2014
News: American biotechnology company Bioglow has applied synthetic biology processes to create plants that glow, which its founder claims are "truly the first of their kind." More about World's first glow-in-the-dark plant genetically engineered
Wearable Futures: London designer and researcher Shamees Aden is developing a concept for running shoes that would be 3D-printed from synthetic biological material and could repair themselves overnight. More about Self-repairing trainers 3D-printed from biological cells by Shamees Aden
Plants could be genetically engineered to produce textiles at the same time as food, according to this synthetic biology project by designer and researcher Carole Collet. More about Genetically engineered crops could grow lace amongst their roots
Dutch designer Lieske Schreuder fed coloured paper to snails and then collected their vibrant-hued poo to make floor tiles (+ slideshow). More about Floor tiles made of coloured snail poo by Lieske Schreuder
Bacteria from personalities including artist Olafur Eliasson, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and chef Michael Pollan have been used to make human cheese as part of an exhibition about synthetic biology in Dublin. More about Olafur Eliasson's tears used to make human cheese
This synthetic biology project by designer Ai Hasegawa imagines that a woman could gestate and give birth to a baby from another species, in this case a dolphin, before eating it (+ movie). More about I Wanna Deliver A Dolphin... concept for humans giving birth to their food by Ai Hasegawa
This synthetic biology project by design graduate Agatha Haines proposes using animal cells to print new types of organs, which could be implanted into humans to prevent heart attacks or strokes (+ movie) More about Animal cells could be used to make "Frankenstein-esque hybrid organs"
Buildings in the future could feature floors embedded with synthetic bacteria that eat dirt and clean your feet, according to this project by design student Tashia Tucker (+ slideshow). More about Bio-surfaces containing "hacked" bacteria could clean your feet as you walk on them
Synthetic living creatures would be released into the wild to save endangered species and clean up pollution under this futuristic proposal by designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. More about Rewilding with synthetic creatures could "save nature" says Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Lisbon Architecture Triennale: these prototypical structures by London studio Cohen Van Balen are designed to sustain genetically modified plants that could prevent wolves from contracting rabies (+ movie). More about And Nowhere a Shadow by Cohen Van Balen at Future Perfect
This conceptual food by Royal College of Art graduate Minsu Kim would wriggle around on the plate and in your mouth (+ movie). More about Living Food by Minsu Kim
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in our next movie from Design Indaba in Cape Town, designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg discusses synthetic biology - a new field of science that could see designers creating artificial lifeforms. More about "We've been designing biology for 10,000 years"