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Team:BrownTwo/Limiter/intro
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==''The Utility of Threshold Regulation''== | ==''The Utility of Threshold Regulation''== | ||
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| - | :<p>In the early days of radio, AM transmitters were vulnerable to overload by an input signal of too great a magnitude. To protect the transmitter from damage, a limiter circuit was employed to attenuate signal peaks while allowing all subthreshold signal to pass through unchanged. We have designed a genetic circuit that behaves similarly. Our gene network reacts to the level of transcription of a gene of interest, limiting it to levels above or below a user-defined threshold. In our proof-of-concept, we use synthetic transcription factors to limit the expression of an inducible reporter. In practice, these modular transcription factors can be used to regulate any endogenous gene with a known promoter and transcription factor DNA-binding domain. Extremes of gene expression can damage living systems, while normal expression is healthy. Our limiter could react to the level of a gene's expression within individual cells, correcting problems only where and when they occur.</p> | + | [[Image:thresh.png|center|thumb|500px|An Electronic Limiter]] |
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| + | <p>In the early days of radio, AM transmitters were vulnerable to overload by an input signal of too great a magnitude. To protect the transmitter from damage, a limiter circuit was employed to attenuate signal peaks while allowing all subthreshold signal to pass through unchanged. We have designed a genetic circuit that behaves similarly. Our gene network reacts to the level of transcription of a gene of interest, limiting it to levels above or below a user-defined threshold. In our proof-of-concept, we use synthetic transcription factors to limit the expression of an inducible reporter. In practice, these modular transcription factors can be used to regulate any endogenous gene with a known promoter and transcription factor DNA-binding domain. Extremes of gene expression can damage living systems, while normal expression is healthy. Our limiter could react to the level of a gene's expression within individual cells, correcting problems only where and when they occur.</p> | ||
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[[Image:Limiter_history.jpg|center|thumb|500px|An Electronic Limiter]] | [[Image:Limiter_history.jpg|center|thumb|500px|An Electronic Limiter]] | ||
Revision as of 12:58, 29 October 2008
The Utility of Threshold Regulation
In the early days of radio, AM transmitters were vulnerable to overload by an input signal of too great a magnitude. To protect the transmitter from damage, a limiter circuit was employed to attenuate signal peaks while allowing all subthreshold signal to pass through unchanged. We have designed a genetic circuit that behaves similarly. Our gene network reacts to the level of transcription of a gene of interest, limiting it to levels above or below a user-defined threshold. In our proof-of-concept, we use synthetic transcription factors to limit the expression of an inducible reporter. In practice, these modular transcription factors can be used to regulate any endogenous gene with a known promoter and transcription factor DNA-binding domain. Extremes of gene expression can damage living systems, while normal expression is healthy. Our limiter could react to the level of a gene's expression within individual cells, correcting problems only where and when they occur.
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