Team:Prairie View/Project

Prairie View Team is currently developing a molecular biosensor that will detect bivalent metals at different concetrations. The data collected from testing our biosensor will be incorporated with an Electronic-Nose(E-Nose)in attempt to gain specificity within the sensor.

Overall project

Theobjective of the project is to assemble different parts for the construction of a molecular DNA device to specifically detect different metal ions as well as their concentrations. The metals being tested include but are not limited to vanadium, nickel, and iron. Our approach to gain specificity is to use various computational models to design a predictable biological system. This biological system will be used to specify the particular metal, as well as its concentration. This can be applied to plant and animal systems.

Project Details

=== Assembly ===

We have designed our own primers to replicate and amplify parts that were previously used along with some new proteins that have been synthesized. Our primer design includes compatible restriction sites flanking each part which will enable our team to modularly assemble the parts.

The primer design seemed to have worked better with some parts more than others and multiple PCR attempts have been carried out in order to amplify each part as specified. Our RBS was synthesized separately as a Forward and Reverse oligos surrounded by compatible flanking restriction sites. The complimentary strands were annealed together, digested and gel purified.

Ligations were complicated by this two step reaction of connecting an RBS to each part. New primers have been designed with RBS incorporated into each part.

The Experiments

Part 3