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Team:Montreal
From 2008.igem.org
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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. 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.
