Team:Calgary

From 2009.igem.org

(Difference between revisions)
(protect your wiki next time)
 
(77 intermediate revisions not shown)
Line 19: Line 19:
cell-padding: 5px;
cell-padding: 5px;
border-collapse:collapse;
border-collapse:collapse;
 +
border-width: 0px;
}
}
Line 34: Line 35:
td{
td{
color: #cccccc;
color: #cccccc;
 +
border-collapse:collapse;
}
}
Line 78: Line 80:
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff">
<td bgcolor="#ffffff">
-
<embed src="http://www.oneplusyou.com/bb/files/countdown/countdown.swf?co=222222&amp;bgcolor=444444&amp;date_month=10&amp;date_day=29&amp;date_year=0&amp;un=IGEM%20JAMBOREE%202009&amp;size=normal&amp;mo=10&amp;da=29&amp;yr=2009" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" wmode="transparent" height="54" width="160">
+
<embed src="http://www.oneplusyou.com/bb/files/countdown/countdown.swf?co=222222&amp;bgcolor=444444&amp;date_month=10&amp;date_day=30&amp;date_year=09&amp;un=IGEM%20JAMBOREE%202009&amp;size=normal&amp;mo=10&amp;da=30&amp;yr=2009" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" wmode="transparent" height="54" width="160">
</td>
</td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td>
Line 114: Line 116:
<td bgcolor="#ffffff">
<td bgcolor="#ffffff">
-
<img border="0" height="76" width="160" src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/sponsors/nexenlogo_color2.gif" />
+
<img border="0" height="76" width="160" src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/sponsors/brand.gif" />
</td>
</td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td>
Line 126: Line 128:
</center>
</center>
-
<p align="justify"><a href="http://www.nexeninc.com/">Nexen</a><br>
+
 
-
Nexen Inc is one of Canada’s largest energy producing companies, selling
+
<div class="desc">
-
proprietary and third-party natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids,
+
Talisman Energy is an independent upstream oil and gas companies headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Talisman has operations in Canada and its subsidiaries operate in the UK, Norway, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the United States. It is committed to conducting business in an ethically and environmentally responsible manner. Talisman’s generous support and contribution to the University of Calgary’s iGEM project has recognized Talisman among this year’s Bronze sponsors. Thank you Talisman Energy and Congratulations!
-
ethanol, and power in certain regional markets. In 2005, Nexen announced the
+
</div>
-
first coalbed methane (CBM) commercial development in the Mannville coals in
+
-
Alberta and produced first premium synthetic crude at Long Lake in 2009.
+
-
With rapid growth well underway, Nexen continues to build on its successes
+
-
and prosper from its valuable assets and establishments around the world.
+
-
</p>
+
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Line 338: Line 335:
</div>
</div>
-
<td width="10" rowspan=9 bgcolor="#222222">
+
<td width="10" rowspan=9 bgcolor="#222222" position="absolute">
-
&nbsp;
+
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</td>
</td>
Line 349: Line 346:
</div>
</div>
<div class="desc">
<div class="desc">
-
The iGEM competition is a synthetic biology competition held annually at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in November. Started in 2004, the iGEM Jamboree brings together  teams from multiple universities to compete on an international stage.  The competition allows undergraduate teams from all over the world to be part of the emerging field of Synthetic Biology, an intertwining of principles from Biology and Engineering. For more information about iGEM, please visit their <a href="http://www.igem.org" target="_blank">official website</a>.
+
The International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition is annually held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field of Synthetic Biology. Since 2004, this competition encourages undergraduate teams from all over the world to develop a project that intertwines the principles of Biology and Engineering. The competition not only determines the worth of projects solely based on biological merit, but also requires teams to examine their project as a whole. This includes aspects such as modelling of genetic circuits, marketing the project and educating the public about iGEM and Synthetic Biology. For more information about iGEM, please visit their <a href="http://www.igem.org" target="_blank">official website</a>.
<br>
<br>
<br>  
<br>  
Line 373: Line 370:
<br>
<br>
<div class="heading">
<div class="heading">
-
A TOUR OF iGEM CALGARY
+
A TOUR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY iGEM TEAM
</div>
</div>
<a name="tour 1"></a>
<a name="tour 1"></a>
Line 380: Line 377:
</center>
</center>
<br>
<br>
-
Welcome to the iGEM Calgary wiki! This tour will give you a broad overview of our project, through our different subgroups and what we've been up to lately. This is the <b>first step</b> of our tour! Here you can click and see a few pictures of our adventures in synthetic biology, as well as leave some comments and read a brief overview of iGEM (which is above) and of our project (which is below). Once you've finished exploring our front page, please click <a href="https://2009.igem.org/Team:Calgary/Team#Tour">HERE</a> for an intro to our team!
+
<div class="desc">
 +
Welcome to the University of Calgary iGEM wiki! This is the <b>first step</b> of our tour! With this tour, you will not only learn about our overall project, but also delve into all aspects of our project and find out what we've been up to lately. On this page, you can read about iGEM, our project, and check out a few pictures that display our adventures in synthetic biology. Also, please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions at the bottom of the page. Once you've finished exploring our front page, please click <a href="https://2009.igem.org/Team:Calgary/Team#Tour">HERE</a> to continue the tour for an intro of our team!
</div>
</div>
<br><br>
<br><br>
Line 393: Line 391:
<br>
<br>
<div class="heading">
<div class="heading">
-
THE PROJECT - COMMUNICATION
+
U OF C iGEM: REPROGRAMMING A LANGUAGE AND A COMMUNITY
</div>
</div>
 +
<div class="desc">
 +
The progression of strong scientific research depends on whether industry and the public know about it and understand how the research can be applied. With this in mind, the U of C iGEM team’s work stretches far beyond the wetlab. We pursued initiatives all the way from mathematical modelling to ethics and from education to fundraising. Below there is a list of all the aspects of our project with respective icons and a brief description about each endeavour. These icons are present throughout our wiki so you can keep track of which aspect of our project you are learning about.
 +
</div>
 +
<div class="desc">
<div class="desc">
Line 405: Line 407:
</td>
</td>
<td>
<td>
-
Communication is essential in our everyday lives; it drives collaboration, understanding, and progress. The University of Calgary iGEM Team recognizes the importance of communication in developing the field of synthetic biology. This year, our team is exploring the development of a communication system in <i>E. coli</i>: the AI-2 signalling system. This system allows for the coordination of bacterial behaviour, essentially allowing a large group to act as a single organism.<br>
+
<b>LAB.</b>  For the wetlab, we explored the concept of Quorum Sensing, a cell-to-cell communication process used by bacteria. We constructed the <i>V. harveyi</i> AI-2 signalling system in <i>E. coli</i>. This system allows for the fined tuned coordination of bacterial behaviour in that bacterial colonies are able to act as single entities. <br>
<br>
<br>
</td>
</td>
Line 417: Line 419:
</td>
</td>
<td valign="top">
<td valign="top">
-
Using mathematical modeling, we are developing models that allow us to predict and evaluate the signalling system's behaviour, thus characterizing the circuit. We have chosen to approach modelling of our system through membrane computing and Matlab.
+
<b>MODELLING.</b>  We modelled the AI-2 signalling system using mathematical modelling (Matlab) and the novel Membrane Computing (Mathematica) frameworks. The purpose of these models is to characterize the AI-2 signalling system by predicting and evaluating certain parameters.  
<br>
<br>
</td>
</td>
Line 429: Line 431:
</td>
</td>
<td>
<td>
-
Beyond the development of a communication system between bacteria, we have also explored and demonstrated methods of communication with the public. For synthetic biology to flourish, there needs to be meaningful discourse between individuals, whether within the synthetic biology community, with other disciplines, or with the public. This is especially important when discussing the ethical issues that arise from synthetic biology. Our team is examining multiple aspects of concerns regarding synthetic biology, and looking at novel, interesting ways to communicate the results of our exploration to the public.
+
<b>HUMAN PRACTICES.</b>  We pursued various approaches to communicate with the public about Synthetic Biology, iGEM and iGEM at the UofC. This initiative is important to gain an understanding of the public perception of Synthetic Biology, whether the public knows about this field or not. We investigated the ethical issues surrounding this emerging field as well as novel means to communicate our research work with the public.
<br><br>
<br><br>
</td>
</td>
Line 441: Line 443:
</td>
</td>
<td>
<td>
-
For meaningful discourse to occur, all participants require a working knowledge of the concepts they are discussing. Education is a fundamental aspect of providing and spreading such information. This year, our team is using multiple approaches in spreading information to the public regarding iGEM and synthetic biology, as well as providing educational opportunity to students. Such outreach programs include our High-School workshop. We are also developing an educational tool for teaching synthetic biology within the virtual program Second Life. In Second Life, we are creating the means to teach the potentials of synthetic biology, the assembly of genetic circuits, and molecular biology lab procedures. We hope that our virtual learning environment will allow for the training of future iGEMers in molecular biology.
+
<b>SECOND LIFE.</b>  Education is a fundamental aspect of iGEM because synthetic biology is an emerging field in which students have limited knowledge before participating. We have created and are continually developing an educational tool for teaching synthetic biology within the virtual world of Second Life. This interactive platform has been used to teach the potential applications of synthetic biology, the assembly of genetic circuits, and molecular biology lab procedures. We hope that our virtual learning environment will allow for the training of future iGEMers.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Line 453: Line 455:
</td>
</td>
<td>
<td>
-
In addition to utilizing education and outreach to raise the profile of synthetic biology, our fundraising endeavors have also allowed us to create more interest in this field. Our communication with businesses in many industrial sectors allows for the discussion of the opportunities and future developments provided by synthetic biology and the potential applications of our signalling circuit.
+
<b>MARKETING.</b>  In order to (1) get industry interested in Synthetic Biology/iGEM, (2) afford to send all UofC team members to the iGEM Jamboree and (3) fund lab, modelling, Second Life and outreach endeavours, we have pursued marketing and fundraising initiatives. Our communication with businesses in many industrial sectors allows for the discussion of the opportunities and future developments of synthetic biology and the potential applications of our wetlab and modelling projects. Our marketing endeavour is intertwined with the outreach initiative and can thus be found under the 'Human Practices' section.
<br>
<br>
<Br>
<Br>
Line 475: Line 477:
</div>
</div>
-
<br>
 
-
 
-
<div class="heading">
 
-
QUORUM SENSING and OUR PROJECT
 
-
</div>
 
-
<div class="desc">
 
-
Bacteria are able to communicate by producing and releasing chemical signal molecules termed autoinducers in a process called Quorum Sensing (QS) (1).  An increase in local population density of bacteria results in the accumulation of autoinducers until a minimal threshold concentration is reached, whereby bacteria are able to organize their behaviour by coordinating their gene expression. Such coordinated behaviour includes virulence induction, swarming, biofilm formation and genetic competence (2).
 
-
<br>
 
-
<br>
 
-
QS was first observed in the bioluminescent bacteria Vibrio fischeri (3), where light was emitted only at high population densities, but could be induced in low population densities with the presence of an extracellular substance, later identified as the autoinducer N-acylhomoserine  (AHL) (4).
 
-
<br>
 
-
<br>
 
-
Further research in QS led to the discovery of the universal signaling molecule (5)  autoinducer-2 (AI-2), which has been characterized in the gram-negative, bioluminescent marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi (1). AI-2 binds to the periplasmic protein LuxP forming an AI-2-LuxP complex that interacts with LuxQ, a membrane bound histidine kinase (6). At low population density corresponding to low AI-2 levels, this AI-2 signalling acts as a phosphorylation cascade, resulting in the phosphorylated form of luxO. Phospho-LuxO complexes with transcription factor σ54 to activate the transcription of the genes encoding five regulatory small RNAs (sRNAs) termed Qrr1-5 (7). These sRNAs bind and destabilize the mRNA of luxR (8) , a transcriptional activator of the luciferase operon luxCDABE (9). As the mRNA of luxR is degraded in the presence of low levels of AI-2 and low cell density, V. harveyi will not express bioluminescence.
 
-
<br>
 
-
<br>
 
-
In high population densities and thus high AI-2 levels, LuxQ changes from a kinase to a phosphotase, and the result is unphosphorylated LuxO (1). There is no complexing with σ54, and no production of sRNAs. This leads to unblocked luxR mRNA allowing its translation that drives the expression of bioluminescence via luciferase.
 
-
<br>
 
-
<br>
 
-
We, the University of Calgary's 2009 iGEM team, have engineered this Vibrio harveyi AI-2 signaling system in Escherichia coli using the molecular cloning techniques used in the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition. This system is coupled with the expression of aiiA, a gene that encodes an AHL-degrading enzyme partaking in quorum quenching, allowing us to target biofilm maintenance.
 
-
<br>
 
-
<br>
 
-
References
 
-
<br>
 
-
(1)Waters, C.M. & Bassler, B.L.. Quorum sensing: cell-to-cell communication in bacteria. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 21, 319-346 (2005).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(2)Hardman, A.M., Stewart, G.S. & Williams P. Quorum sensing and the cell-cell communication dependent regulation of gene expression in pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. 74, 199-210 (1998).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(3)Nealson, K. H., Platt, T. & Hastings, W. Cellular Control of the synthesis and activity of the bacterial bioluminescent system. J. Bacteriol. 104, 313-322 (1970).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(4)Eberhard, A., Burlingame, A.L., Kenyon, G.L., Nealson, K.H. & Oppenheimer, N.J. Structural identification of autoinducer of Photobacterium fischeri luciferase. Biochemistry. 20, 2444-2449 (1981).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(5)Sun, J., Daniel, R., Wagner-Dobler I. & Zeng, A.P. Is autoinducer-2 a universal signal for interspecies communication: a comparative genomic and phylogenetic analysis of the synthesis and signal transduction pathways, BMC Evol. Biol. 4, 36 (2004).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(6)Bassler, B.L., Wright, M., Silverman, M.R. Multiple signaling systems controlling expression of luminescence in Vibrio harveyi: sequence and function of genes encoding a second sensory pathway. Mol. Microbiol. 13, 273-286 (1994).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(7)Lilley, B.N. & Bassler, B.L. Regulation of quorum sensing in Vibrio harveyi by LuxO and sigma-54. Mol. Microbiol. 36, 940–54 (2000).
 
-
<br>
 
-
(8)Lenz, D.H., Mok, K.C., Lilley, B.N., Kulkarni, R.V., Wingreen, N.S. & Bassler, B.L.The small RNA chaperone Hfq and multiple small RNAs control quorum sensing in Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio cholerae. Cell 118, 69–82 (2004)
 
-
<br>
 
-
(9)Swartzman, E., Silverman, M. & Meighen, E.A. The luxR gene product of Vibrio harveyi is a transcriptional activator of the lux promoter. J. Bacteriol. 174, 7490–7493 (1992)
 
-
 
-
</div>
 
-
 
-
 
-
 
<br>
<br>
</td>
</td>
Line 534: Line 491:
LATEST NEWS
LATEST NEWS
</div>
</div>
-
<div class="heading">Tour of the Oil Sands @ Fort McMurray, August 10th-11th</div>
+
<div class="heading">U of C iGEM team wins provincial competition, September 20th</div>
-
<p>On August 10th and 11th nine members of the U of C team and 2 facilitators, along with some team members and facilitators from U of L and U of A had the opportunity to go on a tour of the Oil Sands near Fort McMurray.
+
<div class="desc">
-
<p>
+
With smiling faces and heightened team pride, the U of C brought home the aGEM trophy after placing first in the Alberta Genetically Engineered Machines (aGEM) competition, which was held in Banff from September 18th -19th. aGEM is the Alberta Genetically Engineered Machines Competition. aGEM facilitates a sense of regional spirit and gives students a chance to compete and critique each other’s work as the three Albertan teams (U of C, U of A, and U of L) prepare for the iGEM Jamboree in the fall.  
-
<p>
+
-
The trip included tours of both Suncor and ConocoPhilips sites as well as a trip to the Oil Sands Discovery Centre.  The trip was interesting as it got us thinking about how synthetic biology could possibly have an impact on the sustainability of oils ands projects: offering solutions to some of the problems facing oil sands projects today.
+
-
 
+
</p>
</p>
-
<p>For more details, click <a href="https://2009.igem.org/Team:Calgary/News">HERE</a>.
+
<p>For more details, click <a href="<li><a href="https://2009.igem.org/Team:Calgary/News/Alberta_Events#agem">HERE</a>.
 +
</div>
<br>
<br>
</td>
</td>
Line 555: Line 510:
<br>
<br>
<div class="heading">
<div class="heading">
-
STATS & COMMENTS
+
STATS, COMMENTS & SOCIAL MEDIA
</div>
</div>
<br>
<br>
Line 589: Line 544:
<!-- End of StatCounter Code -->
<!-- End of StatCounter Code -->
</center>
</center>
 +
<br /><br />
 +
<center>
 +
<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN -->
 +
<a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=jamiefeng"><img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border:0"/></a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js?pub=jamiefeng"></script>
 +
<!-- AddThis Button END -->
 +
<br><br>
 +
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/iGEM-Calgary/164192411205" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/Calgary_fb.jpg" border="0" alt="facebook" width="50" height="50"></a>
 +
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39774334@N04/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/Calgary_flickr.jpg" border="0" alt="flickr button" width="50" height="50"></a>
 +
<a href="http://igemcalgary.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/Calgary_rss.jpg" border="0" alt="rss button" width="50" height="50"></a> <br />
 +
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/iGEMCalgary" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/Calgary_youtube.jpg" border="0" alt="youtube button" width="50" height="50"></a>
 +
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/iGEMCalgary" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/Calgary_twitter.jpg" border="0" alt="twitter button" width="50" height="50"></a>
 +
<a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/search?q=iGEM" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/1243416413174_i7.jpg" border="0" alt="stumbleupon button" width="50" height="50></a><img src="http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/igemcalgary/whiteTR.gif">
 +
</center>
 +
<br><br>
 +
<div id="twtr-profile-widget"></div>
 +
<script src="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/1/widget.js"></script>
 +
<link href="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/1/widget.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
 +
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,124,0" width="290" height="350" id="TwitterWidget" align="middle">
 +
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" />
 +
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" />
 +
<param name="movie" value="http://static.twitter.com/flash/widgets/profile/TwitterWidget.swf" />
 +
<param name="quality" value="high" />
 +
<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" />
 +
<param name="FlashVars" value="userID=74782939&styleURL=http://static.twitter.com/flash/widgets/profile/velvetica.xml">
 +
<embed src="http://static.twitter.com/flash/widgets/profile/TwitterWidget.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="290" height="350" name="TwitterWidget" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" FlashVars="userID=74782939&styleURL=http://static.twitter.com/flash/widgets/profile/velvetica.xml"/>
 +
</object>
</td>
</td>
Line 595: Line 576:
<td width="400">
<td width="400">
-
 
+
<!-- JS-KIT codeword=spilp -->
<div class="js-kit-comments" permalink=""></div>
<div class="js-kit-comments" permalink=""></div>

Latest revision as of 20:29, 5 November 2009

University of Calgary

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY





RECENT PHOTOS
iGEM Calgary - Flickriver


SPONSOR OF THE MONTH
Talisman Energy is an independent upstream oil and gas companies headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Talisman has operations in Canada and its subsidiaries operate in the UK, Norway, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the United States. It is committed to conducting business in an ethically and environmentally responsible manner. Talisman’s generous support and contribution to the University of Calgary’s iGEM project has recognized Talisman among this year’s Bronze sponsors. Thank you Talisman Energy and Congratulations!


OUR SPONSORS

   
iGEM - INTERNATIONAL GENETICALLY ENGINEERED MACHINES
The International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition is annually held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field of Synthetic Biology. Since 2004, this competition encourages undergraduate teams from all over the world to develop a project that intertwines the principles of Biology and Engineering. The competition not only determines the worth of projects solely based on biological merit, but also requires teams to examine their project as a whole. This includes aspects such as modelling of genetic circuits, marketing the project and educating the public about iGEM and Synthetic Biology. For more information about iGEM, please visit their official website.

The U of C iGEM team is made up of 15 undergraduate students from Health Sciences, Engineering, Computer Science and Kinesiology as well as 4 facilitators. For more information regarding the U of C iGEM Enterprise, please visit our website.


NAVIGATION
Need help navigating our site? Click HERE for a navigational guide and sitemap. Or, follow our tour:

A TOUR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY iGEM TEAM

Welcome to the University of Calgary iGEM wiki! This is the first step of our tour! With this tour, you will not only learn about our overall project, but also delve into all aspects of our project and find out what we've been up to lately. On this page, you can read about iGEM, our project, and check out a few pictures that display our adventures in synthetic biology. Also, please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions at the bottom of the page. Once you've finished exploring our front page, please click HERE to continue the tour for an intro of our team!



U OF C iGEM: REPROGRAMMING A LANGUAGE AND A COMMUNITY
The progression of strong scientific research depends on whether industry and the public know about it and understand how the research can be applied. With this in mind, the U of C iGEM team’s work stretches far beyond the wetlab. We pursued initiatives all the way from mathematical modelling to ethics and from education to fundraising. Below there is a list of all the aspects of our project with respective icons and a brief description about each endeavour. These icons are present throughout our wiki so you can keep track of which aspect of our project you are learning about.


LAB. For the wetlab, we explored the concept of Quorum Sensing, a cell-to-cell communication process used by bacteria. We constructed the V. harveyi AI-2 signalling system in E. coli. This system allows for the fined tuned coordination of bacterial behaviour in that bacterial colonies are able to act as single entities.



MODELLING. We modelled the AI-2 signalling system using mathematical modelling (Matlab) and the novel Membrane Computing (Mathematica) frameworks. The purpose of these models is to characterize the AI-2 signalling system by predicting and evaluating certain parameters.

HUMAN PRACTICES. We pursued various approaches to communicate with the public about Synthetic Biology, iGEM and iGEM at the UofC. This initiative is important to gain an understanding of the public perception of Synthetic Biology, whether the public knows about this field or not. We investigated the ethical issues surrounding this emerging field as well as novel means to communicate our research work with the public.

SECOND LIFE. Education is a fundamental aspect of iGEM because synthetic biology is an emerging field in which students have limited knowledge before participating. We have created and are continually developing an educational tool for teaching synthetic biology within the virtual world of Second Life. This interactive platform has been used to teach the potential applications of synthetic biology, the assembly of genetic circuits, and molecular biology lab procedures. We hope that our virtual learning environment will allow for the training of future iGEMers.



MARKETING. In order to (1) get industry interested in Synthetic Biology/iGEM, (2) afford to send all UofC team members to the iGEM Jamboree and (3) fund lab, modelling, Second Life and outreach endeavours, we have pursued marketing and fundraising initiatives. Our communication with businesses in many industrial sectors allows for the discussion of the opportunities and future developments of synthetic biology and the potential applications of our wetlab and modelling projects. Our marketing endeavour is intertwined with the outreach initiative and can thus be found under the 'Human Practices' section.

Another important aspect of communication in this competition is the availability of collaborative work, within our own team and as a community itself. Our team is made up of students from health sciences, kinesiology, and engineering; who are actively participating in interdisciplinary work. This requires the ability to communicate information to people from different backgrounds and perspectives. As well, iGEM allows us to communicate with other teams at an international scale. We hope to establish means of communication and thus cooperation with other teams in our respective projects, enhancing the iGEM experience.

The wetlab, modelling, second life, human practices, and fundraising components of our project have allowed us to establish communication at the cell, individual, and synthetic bio community levels.


LATEST NEWS
U of C iGEM team wins provincial competition, September 20th
With smiling faces and heightened team pride, the U of C brought home the aGEM trophy after placing first in the Alberta Genetically Engineered Machines (aGEM) competition, which was held in Banff from September 18th -19th. aGEM is the Alberta Genetically Engineered Machines Competition. aGEM facilitates a sense of regional spirit and gives students a chance to compete and critique each other’s work as the three Albertan teams (U of C, U of A, and U of L) prepare for the iGEM Jamboree in the fall.

For more details, click HERE.



STATS, COMMENTS & SOCIAL MEDIA


Locations of visitors to this page


Bookmark and Share

facebook flickr button rss button
youtube button twitter button stumbleupon button



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