Team:IBB Pune/project/systems together

Master Plan Constructing multi-strain computational modules using Nucleotide and Protein mediated cell-cell signaling

Building complex genetic circuits in a single cell becomes difficult due to the formidable task of co-transforming large nucleotide sequences in addition to the imposed metabolic burden on the cell. Can a complex system be divided into independent modules that reside in different cells and interact with each other using nucleotide and protein mediated cell-cell signalling to act as a single unit? We seek to address this problem using a three pronged approach.

Firstly, we are trying to introduce natural competance genes into the biobrick framework which will act as nucleotide importers.

Secondly, we are building a protein export system using the TAT dependent export pathway.

Finally, we are attempting to construct a multi-state turing machine which is a compound, modular computational system that has independent, interacting states which applies the above principle. We hope that this approach overcomes the obstacles in building more complex and composite circuits.