Team:University of Chicago

>>> Intro & Interpretation
{|align="justify"| Our approach to the iGEM 2008 challenge is typical of the University of Chicago: heavily theoretical. We interpret the fundamental goal of synthetic biology to be the organization of genetic information into standardized regions of code, that will create the functional equivalent of an open-source biological programming language. Synthetic biology is a novel approach to engineering biology, focusing on organizing genetic information into “standard parts,” comparable to interchangeable parts in manufacturing industries such as automobiles or electronics. As opposed to ad hoc genetic engineering methods, that do not necessarily emphasize the organization of genetic data, synthetic biology aims to move towards a scalable engineering framework. This framework is built upon the principles of standards of abstraction. Abstraction, the process of generalization to reduce information content, allows us to hide the complexity of the genetic code, and utilize a greater amount of information in a simpler design.
 * Hello! We're Jata, Nora, Dan, Ioana, Rob, Damon, Thomas, and Laura. We're undergrads at the University of Chicago, and together we study biology, physics, math, chemistry, computer science, computational neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. We like hanging out in library basements and around dining halls. When we're not in ur labz, hacking ur genomes, we're building shrines to our Fearless Leader, Steve.
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