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| - | |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 (as well as computational tools) for their project. The other team is based in St. Paul and is working on a time bomb.
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| - | |[[Image:Minnesota.gif|200px|right|frame]]
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| - | '''Team Comparator'''
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| - | |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.
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| - | 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.
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| - | '''Computational Tools'''
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| - | Team Comparator is also developing two tools named the "SynBioSS Designer" and "SynBioSS Wiki". SynBioSS stands for '''Syn'''thetic '''Bio'''logy '''S'''oftware '''S'''uite. As with any engineering problem, modeling the behavior of a putative synthetic biological system is a key step in the design process. To date, many of these simulations of synthetic systems have used coarse-grained models and deterministic kinetic equations. Our team, however, strives to use stochastic models spanning multiple time scales. One major bottleneck is that the detailed molecular-level reaction networks required for such simulations are time consuming to construct. Moreover, while many of the promoters, operators, repressors, etc. used in synthetic biology have been well studied, the necessary quantitative information is scattered throughout the literature. The SynBioSS Designer facilitates the construction of detailed and accurate models, while the SynBioSS Wiki addresses the challenges of data collection and curation.
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| - | |[[Image:Team_Pic_Minnesota.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Team Comparator]]
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| - | <!--- The Mission, Experiments --->
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| | {| style="color:gold;background-color:#800000;" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" border="1" bordercolor="#fff" width="90%" align="center" | | {| style="color:gold;background-color:#800000;" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" border="1" bordercolor="#fff" width="90%" align="center" |
| Ben Swiniarski: Papillion, Nebraska
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| Sarah Hendrickson: Lafayette, Colorado
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| Kristen Lindblad: Cottage Grove, Minnesota
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| Ellen Martin: Milford, Michigan
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| Jeremy Riesberg: Papillion, Nebraska
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| Emma Weeding: Richfield, Minnesota
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