Team:TUDelft

From 2009.igem.org

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=Welcome to the award winning 2009 Bacterial Relay Race=
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='''Home'''=
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Our team acquired a '''Gold medal''' and was awarded with [https://igem.org/Results?year=2009 '''Best information processing project'''], during the 2009 iGEM Jamoboree at MIT, Boston.<br>
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This is the first template of the TU Delft 2009 iGEM team wiki! On this page information about the project and its progress can be found.
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<br><br>
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== The Team ==
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This is the second year the TU Delft participates in the iGEM competition.
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The group consists of : (list of members to come here)
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a number of instructors and a lot of advisors, willing to help out and think with us when this is necessary. An overview of the people involved and our competences can be found on the [[Team:TUDelft/Team|team]] page.
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== The Meetings ==
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'''Minutes, action points'''
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=== April 7th, 2009 ===
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'''Orr'''
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*''Bologna 2008 - Ecoli.PROM: an Erasable and Programmable Genetic Memory with E. coli''
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In our project we aim to create a cell-to-cell communication system that allows the propagation of a multi-task message with the capability of being reset. To achieve this, the system will include a reengineered conjugation system, a time-delay genetic circuit and a self-destructive plasmid. This system could be the basis for creating a long distance biosensor and/or be applied in reducing antibiotic resistance of bacteria. Furthermore, we have done a parallel research on the different perceptions of iGEM participants and supervisors on  [https://2009.igem.org/Team:TUDelft/Ethics ethical issues in synthetic biology]. We focused on the consequences of the ultimate conditions of the top-down and bottom-up approaches as applied in biology. We thank everyone who participated in our survey on these ethical issues in synthetic biology.
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The Bologna team created here a genetic memory for E.coli that would switch between two states as a response to a certain signal (a UVc signal would inhibit Lex A (an inhibitor of LacI), thus allowing the production of LacI, whereas an IPTG signal would inhibit LacI and allow the production of TetR).
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*''Cambridge 2008 - iBrain: Foundations for an Artificial Nervous System using Self-Organizing Electrical Patterning''
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==The Project - Bacterial Relay Race==
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In this project, the Cambridge team decided to do three simultaneous sub-projects: one involved the creation of an artificial neurological system for E.coli (using potassium channels to transfer the ion and thus allow for a gradient of the ions), the second involved generating Turing patterns in order to integrate two signalling systems into Bacillus subtilis, and the third part involved generating standardized tools and techniques for B. subtilis. We learned from this project an important lesson: quality is definitely more important than quantity, and there is no point of doing many simultaneous experiments if we cannot finish any one of them properly.
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*''KULeuven 2008 - Dr. Coli, the bacterial drug delivery system''
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In this project, the KU Leuven team presented the idea of using E.coli as a transporter of medication in such a way that it would be targeted at a specific location. Furthermore, the E.coli would react to the presence of foreign organisms and would express certain proteins to destroy them, followed by it's self destruction after the area would be completely cured. It is important to emphasise that the project was not intended to produce a specific medication to a specific disease, but merely as a way to show that the general concept of curing a disease in a direct manner is possible.
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'''Sriram'''
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*''Illinois - Biomolecular fluorescence biosensor system: cell bases biosensor system''
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'''Project description'''
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*''Ljubljana, Slovenia - Virotrap - A synthetic biology approach against HIV''
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Our project is the Bacterial Relay Race. As our team logo and the animation below show, we want to build an improved cell to cell communication system. We choose this subject since most applications or tasks we set to our synthetic biological systems are generally completed by a population of cells, not a single cell. Gaining new insights into cell to cell communication and designing manageable cell to cell communication systems will provide us with a wide range of new possibilities. Manageable cell to cell communication systems could have applications in different fields like therapeutic applications or fermentation technology applications. We are attempting to construct an E.coli strain which is capable of passing a GFP signal through conjugation to other E.coli cells only once, with communication appearing population wide. Our work builds on projects of previous iGEM teams from Berkeley UC and Peking University.
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*''Ljubljana, Slovenia - Engineered Human cells - say no to sepsis''
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'''Our project is made up of three modules:'''
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'''Tim Weenink'''
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*''ESBS Strasbourg - Binary generation counting in Yeast''
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*''University of Ottowa - Puslegenerator in Yeast''
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1) [https://2009.igem.org/Team:TUDelft/Conjugation_Overview Conjugation]
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*''Calgary Wetware - Quorum coupled bacteriocin release (engineering a champion)''
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Our cell to cell communication system is based on bacterial conjugation. We use this to pass a message, initially GFP, along to other bacteria in the culture.
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===17th April 2009===
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'''Tim Vos'''
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*''MIT - Biogurt: A Sustainable and Savory Drug Delivery System''
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*''Groningen - Conway’s Game of Life in real life''
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2) [https://2009.igem.org/Team:TUDelft/SDP_Overview Self Destructive Plasmid] (SDP)
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*''UFreiburg - Modular Synthetic Receptor System''
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In order for our signal to be reset the signal plasmid must be able to self-destruct. The Self Destructive Plasmid (SDP) is degigned to test this functionality. It contains a GFP message, inducible endonuclease gene, and restriction site of this endonuclease. The plasmid is able to degrade itself after receiving the destructing signal.
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'''Daniel'''
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*''Harvard - bactricity''
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*''ETH Zurich - Random walks towards the minimal genome''
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*''Slovenia - Immunobricks''
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'''Saeed'''
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*''Caltech - Engenering multi-functional probiotic bacteria''
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*''Heidelberg - Ecolicense to kill''
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3) [https://2009.igem.org/Team:TUDelft/Module_3_Overview Delay device]
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*''Valencia - Hot Yeast''
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It is important that there is a time delay between the time that the signal plasmid is received and its destruction. This gives the cell time to pass the signal plasmid to other cells. If the signal plasmid is degraded too fast after it is received, our relay race would end before reaching the finish line. We therefore constructed a device which is capable of delaying the expression of the endonuclease.
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{|align="justify"
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'''Some potential applications for this project are'''
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|You can write a background of your team here. Give us a background of your team, the members, etc. Or tell us more about something of your choosing.
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Welcome to the Wiki of the TU Delft team for iGEM 2009. The site is still under construction, but as soon as it is finished, we hope to keep with the standards of the TU Delft team last year.
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#Grasping of bacterial communication - the communication between bacteria using DNA can advance through bacterial networks, and in this sense our project would allow to send multiple messages in a single DNA, thereby to better understand those bacterial communication networks.
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|[[Image:Example_logo.png|200px|right|frame]]
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#Understanding of bacterial antibiotic resistance - these days, bacterial infections are often treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, bacteria have the tendancy to pass antibiotic resistance to other bacteria through the process of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_conjugation conjugation], thus making the antibiotics useless. Using our project, it might be possible for future researchers to better understand the mechanism by which antibiotic resistance passes among bacterial colonies, and perhaps even inhibit it
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#To test one condition and return to the original state without killing the cell or changing any of its previous genetic and physiological characteristics
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#To generate a pulse in the expression of a certain gene
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<!--- ''Tell us more about your project.  Give us background.  Use this is the abstract of your project.  Be descriptive but concise (1-2 paragraphs)''--->
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#To control the amplitude of the pulse created by the plasmid
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With our 7 participants and 4 instructors, we are enthusiastic to start working on our project (whatever it may be).
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==The Team==
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This is the second year, TUDelft participates in the iGEM competition.
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The group consists of 6 students, 3 instructors and a lot of advisors from TUDelft willing to help out and think with us when it is necessary. An overview of the people involved and our competences can be found on the [[Team:TUDelft/Team|team]] page.
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|[[Image:Teamtudelft.png|right|frame|Your team picture]]
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{{Template:TUDelftiGEM2009_end}}
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|align="center"|[[Team:TUDelft | Team Example]]
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Latest revision as of 15:19, 2 March 2010

Welcome to the award winning 2009 Bacterial Relay Race


Our team acquired a Gold medal and was awarded with Best information processing project, during the 2009 iGEM Jamoboree at MIT, Boston.

In our project we aim to create a cell-to-cell communication system that allows the propagation of a multi-task message with the capability of being reset. To achieve this, the system will include a reengineered conjugation system, a time-delay genetic circuit and a self-destructive plasmid. This system could be the basis for creating a long distance biosensor and/or be applied in reducing antibiotic resistance of bacteria. Furthermore, we have done a parallel research on the different perceptions of iGEM participants and supervisors on ethical issues in synthetic biology. We focused on the consequences of the ultimate conditions of the top-down and bottom-up approaches as applied in biology. We thank everyone who participated in our survey on these ethical issues in synthetic biology.

The Project - Bacterial Relay Race


Project description

Our project is the Bacterial Relay Race. As our team logo and the animation below show, we want to build an improved cell to cell communication system. We choose this subject since most applications or tasks we set to our synthetic biological systems are generally completed by a population of cells, not a single cell. Gaining new insights into cell to cell communication and designing manageable cell to cell communication systems will provide us with a wide range of new possibilities. Manageable cell to cell communication systems could have applications in different fields like therapeutic applications or fermentation technology applications. We are attempting to construct an E.coli strain which is capable of passing a GFP signal through conjugation to other E.coli cells only once, with communication appearing population wide. Our work builds on projects of previous iGEM teams from Berkeley UC and Peking University.

Our project is made up of three modules:

1) Conjugation

Our cell to cell communication system is based on bacterial conjugation. We use this to pass a message, initially GFP, along to other bacteria in the culture.

2) Self Destructive Plasmid (SDP)

In order for our signal to be reset the signal plasmid must be able to self-destruct. The Self Destructive Plasmid (SDP) is degigned to test this functionality. It contains a GFP message, inducible endonuclease gene, and restriction site of this endonuclease. The plasmid is able to degrade itself after receiving the destructing signal.

3) Delay device

It is important that there is a time delay between the time that the signal plasmid is received and its destruction. This gives the cell time to pass the signal plasmid to other cells. If the signal plasmid is degraded too fast after it is received, our relay race would end before reaching the finish line. We therefore constructed a device which is capable of delaying the expression of the endonuclease.

Some potential applications for this project are

  1. Grasping of bacterial communication - the communication between bacteria using DNA can advance through bacterial networks, and in this sense our project would allow to send multiple messages in a single DNA, thereby to better understand those bacterial communication networks.
  2. Understanding of bacterial antibiotic resistance - these days, bacterial infections are often treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, bacteria have the tendancy to pass antibiotic resistance to other bacteria through the process of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_conjugation conjugation], thus making the antibiotics useless. Using our project, it might be possible for future researchers to better understand the mechanism by which antibiotic resistance passes among bacterial colonies, and perhaps even inhibit it
  3. To test one condition and return to the original state without killing the cell or changing any of its previous genetic and physiological characteristics
  4. To generate a pulse in the expression of a certain gene
  5. To control the amplitude of the pulse created by the plasmid

The Team

This is the second year, TUDelft participates in the iGEM competition. The group consists of 6 students, 3 instructors and a lot of advisors from TUDelft willing to help out and think with us when it is necessary. An overview of the people involved and our competences can be found on the team page.

Retrieved from "http://2009.igem.org/Team:TUDelft"