Team:UC Davis/notebook/overallworkplan.html

From 2010.igem.org

Overall Workplan: The Approach in Designing the Circuit

Our Circuit


In building a spatial oscillator, the genetic circuit must fulfill at least 3 main properties.


1. Cells must be able to react to stimuli to start the oscillation.

  • Our circuit is induced with the absence of light (as indicated by the moon symbol) and arabinose (as indicated by the red molecules.) The light sensor allows the cell to detect the external stimuli, and sends a signal to the light-sensitive promoter to initiate the signal cascade to propagate the spatial oscillation.


2. Cells must be able to transform into one of two states.

  • In our circuit, all promoter have dual functions. They are activated or inhibited by specific molecules. For example, the ON promoter is lambda-activated, but inhibited by the "434" protein. Likewise, the OFF switch is lux-activated, but inhibited by the lambda protein.


3. Cellular expression must be robust to external environmental perturbations.

  • In our circuit, robustness is achieved through the use of positive feedback. For example, in the ON switch, once the lambda protein activates the ON promoter, it continuously upregulate its own production to keep the promoter ON. Simultaneously, this reinforces the inhibition of the OFF promoter as well.


We would like to take a moment to thank all of our sponsors for their very generous donations, as we could not have done this without your help!

We would also like to thank and acknowledge:
Our Advisors
Marc Facciotti
Ilias Tagkopoulos
Technical Guidance
David Larsen
Andrew Yao
Visiting iGEMer
Jia Li of Zhejiang University (TEAM ZJU-China)
cI Promoter Screen
Drew Endy - Stanford
Thomas Schneider - NIH
Want to sponsor us? Send an email to mtfacciotti@ucdavis.edu to discuss various ways you can help! :)