"
Team:Montreal
From 2008.igem.org
| Home | The Team | The Project | Parts Submitted to the Registry | Modeling | Notebook |
|---|
|
Project Overview: Elucidating an Experimentally Viable Repressilator
Although typically used to describe physical phenoma, oscillations are also observed in a range of biological processes such as the circadian rhythm, neuronal communication and nephron function. [Example or description of how this is typically accomplished with references] In 2000, Elowitz and Liebler described a theoretically viable bacterial system known as the ‘repressilator’ composed of three genes that repress one another circularly to generate oscillations in protein expression. Building on a previously established two gene system described by Macmillen et.al. that demonstrated instability over extended periods of time, the repressilator was posed as the solution to establish greater long-term fidelity in the oscillation patterns. Despite the potential advantages to reproducing such a system, the repressilator has yet to be rendered experimentally. Building on previous years of research, we intend to construct a viable set of bio-bricks that will maintain synchronous oscillations in a large population of cells. Once accomplished, our theorists and experimentalists will co-operate to refine this system using various modifications to further our understanding of biological clocks and their functioning.
