Earlier this year , I had though that one project we could take up was to design Video Games using bacteria , Dr Ashray Suggested that one easy project we could up was to track the bacteria. Taking up a project with a long term goal would be good for us ,as it would mean that we would be worth the time of others, as everywhere we went ,SynCti ; to Collect the plasmids from NUS IGEM , there would tbe pereinnial question of "What is your Project?" or "How can we help you?
I had floated a few Ideas , many of which would have been too ambitious , unrealistic or unlikely to suceed. Some of these ideas included Desining a bacteria that could detect HDL ,LDL cholestrol , as an accecible alternative to traditional test-strips and devices. I discussed this with Dr Ashray, and he sugegsted along the lines that we could start by finding a bacteria that could first metabolize HDL or LDL cholestrol, and work from there. The detector would just beable to distinguish high and normal cholestrol levels. But ,finding a relaible way to couple the metabolism or binding of cholestrol to enzymes in a cell or evrn outside, to an output is really just hokey and complicated. This however reminds me of Paris Bettancourt's work where they went to vineyards to find a bacteria that would have the enzyme to metabolize Winestains in order to develop a altenrative to Toxic Cleaning chemicals. However our work would have been far more harder than just 4 months of IGEM.
Another idea i had was designing "Probiotics" for mammalian cell culture , again this idea would have been more likely to be either unfeasible or complicated. IGEM , Imperial again carried out a much simple project where they were able to Force 2 diffrent bacterias into symbiosis.
Another idea i had was designing "Probiotics" for mammalian cell culture , again this idea would have been more likely to be either unfeasible or complicated. IGEM , Imperial again carried out a much simple project where they were able to Force 2 diffrent bacterias into symbiosis.
The idea that i did float which would probabbly work , was to design a bacteria that could help teach biology in a accecible way , and be fun to interact with. Designing a Biological Toy would not have been difficult and would not involve complicated Biochemistry nor would we have to contend with the many considerations in medicine. The only requirement of the toy would be that it is fun and interactive. The idea of a biologcal Toy is not new , the first digital 'biological' toy that comes to mind is Pokemon the other, Digimon. Pokemon however stands out , as a game that had simple game mechanics and is only arguably fun because one had a sense of ownership of the pokemon which posses cool tricks.
While discussing with Dr Ashray , he suggested that we could design a bacteria that students could use in order to test how well they can caryout aseptic techniques so that they would not contaminate the lab nor school. Teacher proposed that students would work with our designed bacteria toy. When playing/working with the bacteria, Enviromental samples of the bacteria would be inevitably spread around the lab and school, especially if the students failed to follow lab protocols carefully. Our toy would thus have to be easily detectable in order to determine if when carrying out their lab work, the students contaminated the environment or lab intermittently.
This would be useful as it would allow students to learn and get a better idea of how they have been contaminating the laborotory and would allow the school to better train them for the health sector in particular.
This would be useful as it would allow students to learn and get a better idea of how they have been contaminating the laborotory and would allow the school to better train them for the health sector in particular.
I had such a hard time cathing Latias , and i wanted latios but though i heard Red :(
The minimum specs of the bacteria for a proof of concept are:
- Easily tested for in an unknown enviromental sample
- Non-Pathgenic , which means we will use a lactobacillus chassis
- Have a unque Output, eg.smell , color ,Biolumincecne, fluorecence
- Should have a mechnism to reduce chances of the plasmid escaping to almost zero. as close to zero as it already would be
- Should come in diffrent varieties , eg color coded, so teams/individual students can identify if they contaminated the enviroment
- Should be as fun as possible
Proposed Solutions
Quorum sensing and Manipulation of bacteria growth rate:
Quorum Sensins is a mode of bacteria communication.By using the lux operon we can get the bacteria to express Genes only when needed, when concentration of bacteria and autoinducers are high enough, this i suspect will reduce the wastage of proteins though consitutive expression . We may also Manipulate sigma factors to or explore oprions to maniplutate rate of bacteria growth.
What is quorum Sensing
In the words of Bonnie Basseler Quorum sensing can be imagined as bacteria voting inorder to make a collective decision.Signaling molecules called Autoinducers are produced by bacteria to promote expression of genes in the Lux Operon. Autoinducers encourge the production of more Autoinducers and other geneslike biolumince in the lux operon.
The Autoinducers promote gene expression only when the concentration of autoinducer ligands are high enough. in this way the bactera vote whether or not to collectivively express a gene. By using a Lux Operon(Quorum sensing operon) We will be able to get the bacteria to express a gene only when all the bacteria are ready. In addition we could play around with the Sigma factors, which are promoters that regulate gene expression during times of cellular stress, growth and bacteria multiplication..
Iam proposing the Lux operon or quorum sensing will allow us to design a bacteria to not constitutively express a visable output but only when there is enough bacteria to produce an output that can be detected soon after they express a gene eg. biolumincence. In this way I suspect the bacteria do not waste time and resoucrces producing proteins constitutively but only when all the bacteria are ready. do they start to produce proteins that we will use to uniquely identify the bacteria.
The Autoinducers promote gene expression only when the concentration of autoinducer ligands are high enough. in this way the bactera vote whether or not to collectivively express a gene. By using a Lux Operon(Quorum sensing operon) We will be able to get the bacteria to express a gene only when all the bacteria are ready. In addition we could play around with the Sigma factors, which are promoters that regulate gene expression during times of cellular stress, growth and bacteria multiplication..
Iam proposing the Lux operon or quorum sensing will allow us to design a bacteria to not constitutively express a visable output but only when there is enough bacteria to produce an output that can be detected soon after they express a gene eg. biolumincence. In this way I suspect the bacteria do not waste time and resoucrces producing proteins constitutively but only when all the bacteria are ready. do they start to produce proteins that we will use to uniquely identify the bacteria.
Bacteria USB2:
USB3 has a transfer rate of 3 gb, or 6 times faster than its predessesor USB2. On its own, the tiny USB has a low storage potential and has limited capabilities. Its soulmate the Computer however is able to do so much more.
What if we could Design two diffrent bacteria and 'compartmentalize' the tasks of the respective bacteria. Say we have a bacteria called USB which students will handle and presumably contaminate their enviroments inevitably .
And then we would have a Bacteria called computer that would exist in a thick nutrient broth. Bacteria-Computer would be able to only signal to eachother using quorum sensing though ligandComputer/signaling molecule and produce a visble output to the student or Lacturer marking the student's performance in the lab, eg Colored proteins. Ligand 1 will also signal the Bacteria-Computer to produce more ligandComputer.
And then we would have a Bacteria called computer that would exist in a thick nutrient broth. Bacteria-Computer would be able to only signal to eachother using quorum sensing though ligandComputer/signaling molecule and produce a visble output to the student or Lacturer marking the student's performance in the lab, eg Colored proteins. Ligand 1 will also signal the Bacteria-Computer to produce more ligandComputer.
Bacteria-Computer would be able to recive an external signal diffrent from the quorum sensing pathray though ligandUSB from Bacteria-USB, which is diffrent from ligand 1. The ligand 2 would signal a cell to start prodcing the ligandComputer needed for quorum sensing and quickily a cascade of bacteria recieving ligand 1 and producing ligandComputer. As there the Bacteria-computer already exsists in a nutrient broth they can quickily produce a visable output or color in response to just a few Bacteria-USB producing ligandUSB. 
6 " Lactobacillus USBs" from team5 , quickly leads to a cascade of signaling in the Device(Bacteria-Computer)
