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 MIT iGEM 2006 wiki page]
• The online lab notebook framework

Searching and reading the literature

• Searching the literature - Day 3, Week 1

Lab safety

• Complete the Endy lab safety training. (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