Team:UNAM-Genomics Mexico

From 2010.igem.org

The Gist

For millions of years, bacteria have only transmitted information in a chemical fashion (i.e. Quorum sensing). It is now time to start a paradigm shift where communication is mediated by light , not only through its presence or absence, but also through the wavelength(color) emitted, thus breaking spacial and chemical barriers.

We have implemented 3 emission and 3 reception modules for red, green, and blue light, and interconnected them so as to construct a light-based feedback loop of red-green-blue light, which will make the proof of concept of communication over distance and proper signal decoding.

We are sure that this new level will soon change reasoning and design in synthetic biology while interfacing living systems with themselves and informational systems, as computers.

The time has come to embrace possibilities like intercontinental cell synchronization, bio cables, cuaternary (as opposed to binary) logic gates, computer controlled gene expression, and anything within the reach of human imagination.

The Quick & Dirty Facts

Our team in numbers

Gold medal winners.
14 parts sent to iGEM HQ
30 parts submitted to the registry
5 parts assayed.
1 part re-characterized.
1 part from other iGEM team improved
470 students reached by Synthetic Biology (SB)
406 students with a practical definition of SB
3 fruitful collaborations with fellow iGEM teams
60% of project achieved
Infinite amounts of fun (and mischief) during the summer!!

We'd like to thank...

UNAM Genomics Mexico teams 2008 and 2009 for share us their experiences in the iGEM competition.
Dr. Rafael Palacios for his support to the Genomics team.
Dr. Miguel Angel Ramirez for his instruction and help in the wetlab.
Dr. David Romero for the economical support.
Dr. Julio Collado for his lab.
Juan Carlos Martinez that always traveled to Cuernavaca in order to teach us modeling tools.
Dr. Chris Wood for his advices working with the luciferases.
Dr. Charles Yanofsky for the trpR mutant, even his laboratory is already closed, he kindly went to prepare the shipment. So cool!
Dr. Devin Strickland for his useful advices working with LovTAP.
Edinburgh advisor Dr. Chris French for his help with the shipment issues to interchange biobricks.
Dr. Susana López for lending us her luminometer.
Jose Luis who helped us with the fluorimeter measurements.
Mario Sandoval Calderon and his lab for proving us with an important plasmid and enzyme, as well as wet lab guidance.
Rocio that helped us with the spectrofluorimeter.
Karla Cedano for contacting us with some of our sponsors.
Maria Elena for helping us with the shipment and traveling issues.
Mariana really wants to thank Dr. Jesús Caballero Mellado and his lab group, with his enthusiasm and friendly guidance, he was a life example (may he rest in peace).
UNAM-CINVESTAV-MEXICO Team for helping us discussing about the Project and doing us an incredible 3 chassis model.
EDINBURGH ILLUMINATI Team for their invaluable help, discussing and interchanging information about the project.
CAMBRIDGE Team for LuxABCDE genes and protocol advice.
The mysterious guy that always opened the lab at midnight, during the weekends… really ALWAYS!
Lux High School, La Salle High School of Leon, Thomas Alva Edison High School in Mexico City.
To the professors and students of National High School 2 “Erasmo Castellanos Quinto” and National High School 6 “Antonio Caso" for their help in the Human Practice activity.
To the folks at [http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ DynamicDrive] for some very useful web tools, as well as the guys at the [http://groups.google.com/group/kappa-users KappaUsers forum] for some great assistance and troubleshooting with the Kappa language.
To all the people who were always willing to help us: our instructors and advisors, and many others who made the project possible.

Third Div Content

Here goes even more info.

Movie

We made this short animation to show the concept behind our project.

Welcome

You are very much welcome to our Wiki! We have invested considerable effort in it, we hope you like it.

iGEM

iGEM is the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition, held each year at MIT and organized with support of the Parts Registry. See more here.

Synthetic Biology

This is defined as attempting to manipulate living objects as if they were man-made machines, specifically in terms of genetic engineering. See more here.

Genomics

We are students on the Genomic Sciences program at the Center for Genomic Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, campus Morelos. See more here.

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