"
Team:Alberta/Kit
From 2010.igem.org
GENOMIKON
The Idea
GENOMIKON evolved from a team objective to bring synthetic biology to high school students. This proved to be a tall task as a high school environment has many limitations that don't apply to university research labs.
To work GENOMIKON must be:
- Require very little expensive equipment (autoclaves, centrifuges, -70C freezers)
- Fast
- Efficicent
- Easily shipped
- Inexpensive
The limitations imposed by the high school requirements forced our team to design a new standard for the assembly and production of DNA parts, BioBytes 2.0. The BioByte 2.0 standard solved most of the problems.
BioBytes 2.0 is:
- Fast-Parts can be added to a growing construct in 7 minutes.
- Efficient-It has been modelled to be 96% efficient. We have also used BioBytes 2.0 to create plasmids that have been transformed successfully into E. coli.
- Equipment-It does not require centrifugation or any other expensive equipment inherently.
The other limitations were solved by using innovative protocols and products:
- Equipment-Expensive micropipetters are replaced with precision droppers, which can accurately dispense small volumes of solutions.
- Easily Shipped-We will utilize lyophilized competent cells so that cold temperatures are not neccesary.
- Inexpensive-Based on our distribution analysis the kit will be inexpensive to produce and can be sold at costs that are lower than currently used high school biology labs.
GENOMIKON was designed with safety in mind and as such it has many safety features built in.
- A common lab strain of E. coli DH5α is used. This strain has been used safely in labs around the world and was designed to be safe.
- Proper safety equipment is not required but will be recommended to further decrease the risks of contamination.
- The kit will teach safety education to the students.
