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Team:BCCS-Bristol
From 2009.igem.org
iGEM 2009
Contents |
Background
The [http://bccs.bris.ac.uk/ Bristol Centre for Complexity Sciences (BCCS)] is a new highly interdisciplinary centre for training and research funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC). It is a major collaboration across 4 faculties within the [http://www.bris.ac.uk/ University of Bristol].
Both the BCCS and iGEM share an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving and a culture of communication between previously disparate scientific fields. Furthermore, the BCCS aims to nurture the next generation of scientists in complexity, fitting with iGEM's ethos of introducing undergraduates to cutting edge science. This year the team is made up of advisors and students from the BCCS, Engineering Mathematics, Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry.
By taking part in iGEM the BCCS and Bristol University hopes to:
- Build links between departments and people within and outside the university,
- Demonstrate the effectiveness of such collaborations,
- Attempt to apply, where appropriate, techniques from the field of Complexity Science.
Meetings
26th June 2009
Bacterial diagnosis
Ollie and Thanasis spent some time this week looking into whether we could use bacteria to detect and report on the state of an organism. It now seems we have now dropped the idea on the grounds it is too similar to projects attempted in previous years (NYMU, KULeuven) and would require licensing. However there was a suggestion that this idea could be taken in the direction of sequence based toggle switches to carry out a (more complicated) decision tree based diagnosis.
Magnetic bacteria
Petros prepared some slides on the biological feasibility of engineering E.coli to synthesize magnetosomes.
Steve and Emily looked into possible applications of magnetotaxis. These papers seem particularly interesting:
- [http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/89/233904/1 Controlled manipulation and actuation of micro-objects with magnetotactic bacteria]
- [http://wiki.polymtl.ca/nano/images/0/00/C-2006-MTB-IARP-Sylvain.pdf Towards Autonomous Bacterial Microrobots]
- [http://www.polymtl.ca/recherche/rc/en/professeurs/details.php?NoProf=122&showtab=PUB Other publications by Sylvain Martel]
Vesicles
Tom gave a presentation developing the idea of communication and self-assembly using vesicles.
18th June 2009
The shortlist was down to 7 projects and 3 of those made it to the next round as voted by the present audience. These are as follows (project title, (votes received)):
- Magnetic Bacteria (10)
- Bacterial Vesicles (6)
- Non-Invasive Reporting/Switches & Sensors (6)
- Genome Updates & version control (5)
- Host/Parasite Symbiosis (3)
- Bacterial Computation
- RNA Editing
Thus the top three were chosen to review the literature further and assess the possibility of carrying each out in 3 months.
11th June 2009
Kick off meeting. Narrowed down ideas from ~15 to 7. See Team:BCCS-Bristol/Brainstorming.
2nd June 2009
Presentation of initial ideas at MCB2009.
