Team:Minnesota/HomeComparator

From 2008.igem.org

(Difference between revisions)

Revision as of 15:33, 30 June 2008

Minnesota's 2008 iGEM Teams

The University of Minnesota is sending their first team to the iGEM competition this year. Our group is composed of two subgroups: Team Comparator and Team Timebomb, each of which is working on an individual project. Team Time Bomb is working to engineer a bacterial time bomb, based on which bacterial cells will 'commit suicide' after a predetermined number of divisions has been reached. Team Comparator is engineering a bacterial comparator, which is one element of a feedback controller.

Team Comparator

Minnesota BSI Team Comparator

University of Minnesota undergraduate students and undergraduate interns of the Bioinformatics Summer Institute are participating.

Left to Right: Ellen Martin, Sarah Hendrickson, Kat Volzing (Graduate Advisor), Bennet Swiniarski, Kristen Lindblad, Jeremiah Riesberg, and Yiannis Kaznessis (Faculty Advisor)

HomeComparator	The Team	The Project	Parts Submitted to the Registry	Modeling	Notebook

(Or you can choose different headings. But you must have a team page, a project page, and a notebook page.)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{|align="justify"
+{|align="center" cellpadding="25"
-|The Minnesota iGEM '08 team consists  of groups working on two different projects. One team is located primarily in Minneapolis and is designing a comparator for their project. The other team is based in St. Paul and is working on a time bomb.
+|[[Image:TeamComparatorLogo1.gif|300px|center|frame]]
-|[[Image:Minnesota.gif|200px|right|frame]]
+|}
-|-
-|
+== Minnesota's 2008 iGEM Teams ==
-'''Team Comparator'''
+{|
-|-
+|The University of Minnesota is sending their first team to the iGEM competition this year. Our group is composed of two subgroups: Team Comparator and Team Timebomb, each of which is working on an individual project. Team Time Bomb is working to engineer a bacterial time bomb, based on which bacterial cells will 'commit suicide' after a predetermined number of divisions has been reached. Team Comparator is engineering a bacterial comparator, which is one element of a feedback controller.
-|Control systems are an integral component of almost all aspects of life. Whether it is in industrial, biological, or chemical applications, controllers provide a way to keep systems functioning properly. A vital part of any control system is the comparator. This component compares a set point value and a measured value, and determines which is larger. It then sends the appropriate signal to the controller, which reacts to bring the system back to the set point. In typical applications, the controller equipment is electronic. However, our team set out to create a comparator using only genetic components. This comparator could potentially be used as part of a new, solely biological control system that could be used to treat many diseases afflicting humans, for example diabetes. This comparator could compare the blood sugar of a patient to what it should be, and send this result to a control system that could compensate, for example by changing the levels of insulin.
+|}
-In order to undertake this task, a system involving six genes was designed. For our system, the two inputs (one representing the set point and one representing the measured value) are IPTG and ATC. These inputs will activate the transcription of the LacI and TetR proteins, and set in motion the rest of the system to produce the outputs. Depending on the amounts of the two inducer molecules added to the system, either green fluorescent protein (GFP) or red fluorescent protein(RFP) will be produced. The actual design of the system can be seen below. In order to complete this project, a total of six genes will have to be cloned into plasmids, and two new BioBrick parts will be produced. One will be a TetR and p22-MNT dual-repressed promoter, and the other will be a LacI and lambdaphage cI dual-repressed promoter. We will also build mathematical models and conduct computer simulations that will help with the designs. This project will pave the way for other parts of a true genetic PID controller to be produced, which could be an exciting scientific development in the near future.
+== Team Comparator ==
-|[[Image:Team_Pic_Minnesota.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Team Comparator]]
+{|
+|[[Image:Team_Pic_Minnesota.jpg|center|thumb|500px|<div align="center">Minnesota BSI Team Comparator</div>]]
 |-
-|
+|''University of Minnesota undergraduate students and undergraduate interns of the Bioinformatics Summer Institute are participating.''
-|
+|}
+{|
+|''Left to Right: Ellen Martin, Sarah Hendrickson, Kat Volzing (Graduate Advisor), Bennet Swiniarski, Kristen Lindblad, Jeremiah Riesberg, and Yiannis Kaznessis (Faculty Advisor)''
 |}
 <!--- The Mission, Experiments --->
 {| style="color:#1b2c8a;background-color:#0c6;" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" border="1" bordercolor="#fff" width="62%" align="center"
-!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota|Home]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/HomeComparator|HomeComparator]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/Team|The Team]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/TeamComparator|The Team]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/Project|The Project]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/ProjectComparator|The Project]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/Parts|Parts Submitted to the Registry]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/PartsComparator|Parts Submitted to the Registry]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/Modeling|Modeling]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/ModelingComparator|Modeling]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/Notebook|Notebook]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:Minnesota/NotebookComparator|Notebook]]
 |}
+(''Or you can choose different headings.  But you must have a team page, a project page, and a notebook page.'')
-==Notebook==
-{|align="center" cellpadding="25"
-|{{ #calendar: title=Minnesota |year=2008 | month=06 }}
-|{{ #calendar: title=Minnesota |year=2008 | month=07 }}
-|{{ #calendar: title=Minnesota |year=2008 | month=08 }}
-|}