IGEM:MIT/2006/Introduction

This page contains links to introductory information for the MIT iGEM team.

Design

System Design considerations

• Feasible system scale (numbers of parts, plasmids, chassis types)
• Design tools - models, network diagrams
• Moving from system->devices->parts->DNA specification
• Likelihood of success - protein engineering, cloning, new biological techniques and new science etc.

Abstraction hierarchy & standardization

• Parts - zinc fingers?
• Devices - receiver?, inverter?
• Systems - bacterial photography?
• PoPS and composability

Build

Construction methods

• BioBricks - Day 1, Week 1
• Standard assembly - Day 2, Week 1
• 3A assembly
• In frame assembly
• Direct synthesis

Construction tools

• Registry
  1. Obtain accounts - Day 1, Week 1
  2. Making a part (both basic and subpart) - Day 1, Week 1
  3. BLAST
  4. Sequence alignments
• VectorNTI
• Others?

Test

• Plate reader characterization (i.e. Receiver)
• Flow cytometry (i.e. Screening plasmid)
• Microscopy
• RT-PCR and Westerns

Necessary skills

Lab notebooks & documentation

• Getting started with wiki editing - Day 1, Week 1
• Populate the official iGEM wiki

Searching and reading the literature

• Searching the literature - Day 3, Week 1

Lab safety certification

To complete your online safety training, visit the Endy lab safety training guide. (Even if you have worked in a lab before, you should visit this page and verify that your training is up to date.) This should be done before your first day in lab.

Heather will be giving the lab-specific training - Day 1, Week 1

Links

General introduction to ideas in Synthetic Biology

1. Adventures in synthetic biology comic --> Learn about PoPS
2. Foundations for engineering biology --> rant by Drew Endy
3. MIT iGEM 2004 presentation (.ppt,pdf)
4. UT Austin and UCSF 2004 project (coliroids)
5. Find descriptions of 2005 projects

Schedules

• IGEM:MIT/2006/Introduction/Week 1