Welcome to the first issue of the second volume of Engineering Biology. While we have now published papers from leading researchers in the field, including fascinating opinion pieces concerning the very nature of research in the blossoming topic of synthetic/engineering biology, we would like to introduce the latest innovation from the journal: Biopart Datasheets. 1. Title, Authors and their Affiliations 2. Abstract The aim is to make this a short paragraph similar to the abstract in a research paper. The abstract is a basic description of the BioPart and any other essential information. 3. Introduction This part of the datasheet is divided into a number of subsections: (i) Basic description of the components comprising the following information: name, known aliases; complexity (BioPart), type – e.g. bacterial constitutive promoter; known inputs (e.g., none); known outputs (polymerase per second, POPS); known crosstalk issues. (ii) A brief functional description of the component and, where appropriate, its context in relation to other BioParts. (iii) Genetic Information, including the SBOL graphical representation and the component sequence. (iv) An overview of the characterisation context – a section of text that normally addresses the genetic context and the experimental protocol. 4. Results Taking the example of a constitutive promoter, a typical datasheet would present the following information: (i) Transcriptional Strength – Plate Reader. Typically this will comprise a diagrammatic representation of the data, together with text description covering the key aspects of the parts of the results diagram. (ii) Transcriptional Strength – Flow Cytometry. Again this section will contain diagrammatic representation of the data, together with a text description covering the key aspects of the parts of the results diagram. 5. Methods. This section would provide an overall description of the characterisation assay that takes place in relation to the characterisation experiments, together with context. Typically, this would be composed of: (a) a section on the biological context of the main experiment, including the transformation protocol; (b) the experimental protocol for the main experiments – a protocol on the lines of Step 1 (overnight culture), Step 2 (outgrowth), Step 3 (assay); (c) controls and references – for example, three variants of the main experiment (e.g. negative experiment, blank experiment, and reference experiment). 6. Discussion. This section consists of a general discussion relating to the BioPart, its context and relevant information relating to the characterisation experiments. 7. Acknowledgements. Similar to acknowledgements in a standard research paper. 8. Data Statement - e.g., a link to where much more detail of the BioPart described in the datasheet can be found. 9. References. Richard I Kitney is Professor of Biomedical Systems Engineering; Chairman of the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology; Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, and Co-Director of SynbiCITE, the UK's National Centre for the Commercialisation of Synthetic Biology. He has published over 300 papers in the fields of synthetic biology, mathematical modelling, biomedical information systems, and medical imaging and has worked extensively in and with industry. Chueh Loo Poh is an Associate Professor with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. He is also a Principal Investigator of NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI), a Synthetic Biology programme at NUS. His current research interests in Synthetic Biology include development of synthetic genetic circuits for biocomputing, development of model-driven BioCAD tools, and engineering of microbes for medical and industrial applications.