Team:UCSF

From 2009.igem.org

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Revision as of 06:57, 5 October 2009


This is a template page. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS.
You are provided with this team page template with which to start the iGEM season. You may choose to personalize it to fit your team but keep the same "look." Or you may choose to take your team wiki to a different level and design your own wiki. You can find some examples HERE.
You MUST have a team description page, a project abstract, a complete project description, and a lab notebook. PLEASE keep all of your pages within your teams namespace.


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Engineering the Movement of Cellular Robots

Some eukaryotic cells, such as white blood cells, have the amazing ability to sense specific external chemical signals, and move toward those signals. This behavior, known as chemotaxis, is a fundamental biological process crucial to such diverse functions as development, wound healing and immune response. Our project focuses on using a synthetic biology approach to manipulate signaling pathways that mediate chemotaxis in two model organisms: HL-60 (neutrophil-like) cells and the slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum. We are attempting to reprogram the movements that the cells undergo by altering the guidance and movement machinery of these cells in a modular way. For example, can we make cells move faster? Slower? Can we steer them to migrate toward new signals?

Through our manipulations, we hope to better understand how these systems work, and eventually to build or reprogram cells that can perform useful tasks. Imagine, for example, therapeutic nanorobots that could home to a directed site in the body and execute complex, user-defined functions (e.g., kill tumors, deliver drugs, guide stem cell migration and differentiation). Alternatively, imagine bioremediation nanorobots that could find and retrieve toxic substances. Such cellular robots could be revolutionary biotechnological tools.

iGEM Team 2009

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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Home The Team The Project Parts Submitted to the Registry Modeling Notebook

(Or you can choose different headings. But you must have a team page, a project page, and a notebook page.)