| Modelling
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| So now the design concept has been thought out, how could we begin to fill in the details? Will our system be sensitive enough to trigger? How can we make our output mechanism as fast as possible? By applying some complicated equations, we gained modelling data that fed straight back into our design.
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| Assembly
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| Next came the lab work. A complex assembly strategy was developed, and three separate lab teams formed. Over the course of the project we developed 23 different parts. For a more technical overview of what we did and how we did it, take a look at our lab protocol and lab diary pages.
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| Testing
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| The moment of truth! For a comprehensive overview of what happened, check out our results page. One part we are particularly proud of is the extensive characterisation of the existing XylE BioBrick, and a series of successful assays of our inactivated GFP-XylE fusion protein.
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| Achievements
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| Take a look at our achievements page for the full list of what we accomplished this summer. Some accomplishments we are particularly proud of include running a series of school workshops, working for the first time on Neglected Tropical Diseases, extensively characterising a set of parts, creating a truly modular system, and designing a system based upon both modelling and human practices data.
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| School Workshops
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| Public engagement is an essential part of research; bridging the gap between academics and the wider public can achieve so much. When discussing this aspect of synthetic biology, we realised that school students would be an interesting demographic to present the subject to. We also liked the idea of inspiring young people to learn more about synthetic biology and iGEM, so we ran a series of school workshops and developed a toolkit so you can run your own.
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| Software Tool
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| To highlight and explore the modularity of our system, we created a software tool that allows you to customise your input. By changing the protease recognition site of the surface protein you can detect whatever protease you like. We've created a list of options that would be interesting to detect, and other variables to adjust your sensor. Also included here are a few ideas for what you could use our cell-wall-binding biobrick to attach to the surface of a cell.
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| Acknowledgments
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| We couldn't have completed this project all by ourselves, and we have many people to thank. Our supervisor Chris Hirst, our advisors, the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation and the experts we consulted, among many others, made this project possible. Thank you everyone!
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| Media
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| We thought it would be nice to keep a strong visual diary of our project, so we recorded many videos and took many pictures. As well as this, we were being filmed throughout for a documentary about Synthetic Biology. Head over to our documentary page for more information!
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| Return to the main page...
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