Team:British Columbia

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==The Bacterial Traffic Light: <br> A ''flexible'', ''modular'', and ''transparent'' system for multi-level assessment of variable inputs.'==
==The Bacterial Traffic Light: <br> A ''flexible'', ''modular'', and ''transparent'' system for multi-level assessment of variable inputs.'==
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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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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").
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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]] -->
<html>
<html>
<img src="/wiki/images/thumb/f/fc/E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png/950px-E_coli_Traffic_Light_General.png" width=950 usemap="#trafficlight">
<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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Click the colours of the traffic light to learn about its different subparts!
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[[Image:E_coli_Traffic_Light_Subprojects.png|center|thumb||400px|The ''E. coli'' Traffic Light Biosensor is composed of three major subparts: variable arabinose-inducible promoters, RNA lock and key system, and reverse antisense promoters for input detection, color activation and traffic light switching respectively.]]
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[[Image:E_coli_Traffic_Light_Step_by_Step.png|thumb|center|700px|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.]]
<map name="trafficlight">
<map name="trafficlight">

Revision as of 02:10, 22 October 2009

The Bacterial 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! [[Image:E_coli_Traffic_Light_Subprojects.png|center|thumb||400px|The ''E. coli'' Traffic Light Biosensor is composed of three major subparts: variable arabinose-inducible promoters, RNA lock and key system, and reverse antisense promoters for input detection, color activation and traffic light switching respectively.]] [[Image:E_coli_Traffic_Light_Step_by_Step.png|thumb|center|700px|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.]] 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.


The Traffic Light is composed of three distinct subparts:

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