Team:British Columbia

From 2009.igem.org

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(The Bacterial Traffic Light)
(E.coli Traffic Light: A flexible, modular, and transparent system for multi-level assessment of variable inputs.')
 
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{{Template:UBCiGEM2009_menu_home}}
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=<font color="#00CC66">E.coli</font> <font color="#FFCC66">Traffic</font> <font color="#FF0000">Light</font>: <br> A ''flexible'', ''modular'', and ''transparent'' system for multi-level assessment of variable inputs.'=
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Biosensors have a diverse variety of real-world functions, ranging from measuring blood glucose levels in diabetes patients to assessing environmental contamination of trace toxins. The majority of these sensors are highly specific for a single input, and their outputs often require specialized equipment such as surface plasmon resonance chips.
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Our project aims to create a biosensor that recognizes a specific target and alters its output fluorescence from green, to yellow, to red as a function of concentration up to critical levels (hence, a biological "traffic light").
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==The Bacterial Traffic Light==
 
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The goal of our project is to construct an ''Eschericia coli'' bacterial "traffic light", that responds to increasing concentration levels of a given input (in our case, arabinose) with green, yellow, and red fluorescent outputs. Our project is unique because it is an analog biosensor, capable of responding to a continuous variable signal, rather than a binary biosensor that only signals on/off.
 
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Click the colours of the traffic light to learn about its different subparts!
<!-- [[Image:BritishColumbia-Trafficlight.png|center|400px]] -->
<!-- [[Image:BritishColumbia-Trafficlight.png|center|400px]] -->
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<html>
<html>
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<img src="/wiki/images/thumb/f/fc/E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png/950px-E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png" width=950 usemap="trafficlight">
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<img src="/wiki/images/thumb/f/fc/E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png/950px-E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png" width=950 usemap="#trafficlight">
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<map name="trafficlight">
<map name="trafficlight">
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<area shape="circle" coords="774,121,54" alt="Sensors: This links to the pBAD promoters that sense the arabinose." href="/Team:British_Columbia/pBAD" />
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<area shape="circle"
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<area shape="circle" coords="775,236,55" alt="Lock and Key: this controls when the colors are produced" href="/Team:British_Columbia/LockandKey" />
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      coords="774,121,54"
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<area shape="circle" coords="774,350,54" alt="The Jammer: this mRNA sequence blocks the key from opening the lock." href="/Team:British_Columbia/Jammer" />
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      alt="Sensors: This links to the pBAD promoters that sense the arabinose."
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      title="Sensors: This links to the pBAD promoters that sense the arabinose."
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      href="/Team:British_Columbia/pBAD"
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/>
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<area shape="circle"
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      coords="775,236,55"
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      alt="Lock and Key: this controls when the colors are produced"
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      title="Lock and Key: this controls when the colors are produced"
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      href="/Team:British_Columbia/LockandKey"
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/>
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<area shape="circle"
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      coords="774,350,54"
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      alt="The Jammer: this mRNA sequence blocks the key from opening the lock."
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      title="The Jammer: this mRNA sequence blocks the key from opening the lock."
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      href="/Team:British_Columbia/Jammer"
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/>
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</map>
</map>
</html>
</html>
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[[Image:E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png|thumb|center|950px|Schematic black-box representation of the E. coli Biosensor that detects various concentration inputs and color outputs. The idea is discrete analog outputs based on a user-specified threshold for each range of concentration.]]
[[Image:E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png|thumb|center|950px|Schematic black-box representation of the E. coli Biosensor that detects various concentration inputs and color outputs. The idea is discrete analog outputs based on a user-specified threshold for each range of concentration.]]
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The Traffic Light is composed of three distinct subparts:
 
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* The [[Team:British_Columbia/pBAD|pBAD promoter family]]
 
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* The [[Team:British_Columbia/LockandKey|lock and key riboregulation system]]
 
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* The [[Team:British_Columbia/Jammer|Jammer]].
 

Latest revision as of 03:58, 22 October 2009

E.coli Traffic Light:
A flexible, modular, and transparent system for multi-level assessment of variable inputs.'

Biosensors have a diverse variety of real-world functions, ranging from measuring blood glucose levels in diabetes patients to assessing environmental contamination of trace toxins. The majority of these sensors are highly specific for a single input, and their outputs often require specialized equipment such as surface plasmon resonance chips.

Our project aims to create a biosensor that recognizes a specific target and alters its output fluorescence from green, to yellow, to red as a function of concentration up to critical levels (hence, a biological "traffic light").


Click the colours of the traffic light to learn about its different subparts!

Sensors: This links to the pBAD promoters that sense the arabinose. Lock and Key: this controls when the colors are produced The Jammer: this mRNA sequence blocks the key from opening the lock.