Team:IIT Madras

From 2008.igem.org

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|rowspan=2| ''Engineering Biology''. The next quantum leap in understanding biological systems will be driven by attempts to engineer living organisms. This effort brings with it it's own fresh set of challenges and problems. iGem serves as the perfect testbed for these class of problems, often termed as synthetic biology.
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|rowspan=2| ''Engineering Biology''. The next quantum leap in understanding biological systems will be driven by attempts to engineer living organisms. This effort brings with it it's own fresh set of challenges and problems. iGem serves as the perfect testbed for this class of problems, often termed as synthetic biology.
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After a few months of brainstorming, team IIT Madras puts forward this question, ''Is it possible to make bacteria respond to physical changes in a customized way?''
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After a few months of brainstorming, team IIT Madras puts forward this question, <blockquote>''Is it possible to make bacteria respond to physical changes in a customized way?''</blockquote>
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First, ''...physical changes''. Why do we stress on physical changes? For the most part, we've seen synthetic circuits designed to be chemically induced via a limited bag of reagents. These chemical induction techniques form the basis for almost all biological engineering but we aim to expand the horizon by bringing in an almost untapped method of induction, ''physical changes''. This change would imply a departure from the ideal environmental conditions for a bacteria. In microbiology, this sort of altered environment is defined as a ''stress''. So in effect, our physical changes are equivalent to subjecting bacteria to ''stress''.
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First, ''"physical changes"''. Why stress on physical changes? For the most part, we've seen synthetic circuits designed to be chemically induced via a limited bag of reagents. These chemical induction techniques form the basis for almost all biological engineering but we aim to expand the horizon by bringing in an almost untapped method of induction, ''physical changes''. This induction technique would, in effect, imply a departure from the ideal environmental conditions conducive for bacterial growth. In microbiology, this sort of altered environment is defined as a ''stress''. So, our physical changes are equivalent to subjecting bacteria to a ''stress''.
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Second, ''...respond in a customizable way''. We should be able to tap into this response that the bacteria may produce. In the context of genetic engineering, this implies the ability to express a gene based on these stresses as input signals. This entry-point into the response circuits of bacteria open a crucial window into the nature of environmental adaptation and allow us to launch our own genetic programs as appropriate.
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Second, ''"respond in a customized way"''. We should be able to tap into the response that bacteria may produce under stress. In the context of genetic engineering, this is the ability to express a gene based on these stresses as an input signal. This entry point into the response circuitry of bacteria opens a crucial window into the nature of environmental adaptation. Customization would allow us to launch our own genetic programs as appropriate for the problem at hand.
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Having an environmentally switchable response can take genetic circuits to a much more intelligent and smart design stage where we don't need to externally monitor and induce genes based on our judgement/measurements of the entire ensemble's properties. This lets the genes to ''take care of themselves'' in a certain sense. They switch on and off on their own when appropriate. A smart response. Neither constitutive nor blindly induction based.
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An environmentally induce-able response has the potential to take genetic circuits to a much more intelligent phase. It opens up the door for a smart design strategy for genetic circuits wherein we don't need to externally monitor and induce genes based on our judgement/measurements. This feature, in some sense, lets the gene ''take care of itself''. They switch on and switch off on their own as required. ''A smart response''. Neither constitutive ''(always on)'' nor blind induction based.
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With the problem statement defined as above, the team of 6 undergraduate students set out to provide a solution. The additional constraints to the problem were that to be conformant with the BioBrick standards and to maximize the regulation of such designed constructs to be of maximum utility to the end user.
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With the problem statement defined as above, our team of 6 undergraduate students set out to provide a solution. The additional constraints to the problem were that to be conformant with the BioBrick standards and to maximize the regulation of such designed constructs to be of maximum utility to the end user.
Take a look into our detailed design documents to know more about the project, the bacterial [[Team:IIT_Madras/Project|''StressKit'']].
Take a look into our detailed design documents to know more about the project, the bacterial [[Team:IIT_Madras/Project|''StressKit'']].

Revision as of 04:16, 16 September 2008

IITMstresskit.png


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Overview

Engineering Biology. The next quantum leap in understanding biological systems will be driven by attempts to engineer living organisms. This effort brings with it it's own fresh set of challenges and problems. iGem serves as the perfect testbed for this class of problems, often termed as synthetic biology. After a few months of brainstorming, team IIT Madras puts forward this question,
Is it possible to make bacteria respond to physical changes in a customized way?

First, "physical changes". Why stress on physical changes? For the most part, we've seen synthetic circuits designed to be chemically induced via a limited bag of reagents. These chemical induction techniques form the basis for almost all biological engineering but we aim to expand the horizon by bringing in an almost untapped method of induction, physical changes. This induction technique would, in effect, imply a departure from the ideal environmental conditions conducive for bacterial growth. In microbiology, this sort of altered environment is defined as a stress. So, our physical changes are equivalent to subjecting bacteria to a stress.

Second, "respond in a customized way". We should be able to tap into the response that bacteria may produce under stress. In the context of genetic engineering, this is the ability to express a gene based on these stresses as an input signal. This entry point into the response circuitry of bacteria opens a crucial window into the nature of environmental adaptation. Customization would allow us to launch our own genetic programs as appropriate for the problem at hand.

An environmentally induce-able response has the potential to take genetic circuits to a much more intelligent phase. It opens up the door for a smart design strategy for genetic circuits wherein we don't need to externally monitor and induce genes based on our judgement/measurements. This feature, in some sense, lets the gene take care of itself. They switch on and switch off on their own as required. A smart response. Neither constitutive (always on) nor blind induction based.

With the problem statement defined as above, our team of 6 undergraduate students set out to provide a solution. The additional constraints to the problem were that to be conformant with the BioBrick standards and to maximize the regulation of such designed constructs to be of maximum utility to the end user.

Take a look into our detailed design documents to know more about the project, the bacterial StressKit.

How successful was the approach? Browse through the experiments notebook to find out.

To know more about IIT Madras and who exactly we are,click here!

Dept. of Biotechnology
IIT Madras
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