User:Justin Tan

Registration/Questionnaire: 20.109 Fall 2007

Last Name

Tan

First Name

Justin

Preferred name

Justin

Course/Minor

20 - Biological Engineering 15 - Management

Year of Graduation

2009

Telephone #

339-221-2455

Email

jtan_87 AT mit DOT edu

Have you taken

7.05/5.07 (Biochemistry) - YES 7.06 (Cell Biology) - NO 7.02 (General Biology Lab) - NO 5.310 (General Chemistry Lab) - NO

Do you have any experience culturing cells (mammalian, yeast or microbial)?
YES

Do you have any experience in molecular biology (electrophoresis, PCR, etc)?
YES

Please briefly describe any previous laboratory experience

In high school, I did a lot of biochemistry research. When I arrived at MIT, I worked at the Langer Lab doing tissue engineering research, specifically with regards to the osteogenic stem cell line. Finally, throughout my sophomore year, I worked in the Hamad-Schifferli lab designing temperature-sensitive biomedical devices for drug delivery.

Anything else you would like us to know?

I am really excited to be in this class! Although I have already had significant experience working in lab, I would really like to diversify the types of research that I do since I haven't really found a "passion" in any of the work that I've done in the past. I am also very enthusiastic about improving my oral/writing skills since it is something that I have always struggled with in the past.

Protein	Function	Re-engineering Ideas
I	Assembly	Modifiy the gene so that the channels becomes less selective and thus allow other ions, molecules, and proteins to enter and exit the bacteria- see how this affects the life cycles of both the bacteria and the phage
II	Replication of DNA + strand	Alter the gene to make it more active and thus replicate DNA more frequently- see how increased DNA production affects phage growth
III	Phage tail protein (5 copies)	Modify the proteins that bind to the bacteria (and thus initiate the F pilus and infection) so that the bacteriophage canbind to and infect other types of bacteria- examine the varied life cycles that result
IV	Assembly	Alter the gene in such a way as to destabalize the outer membrane (e.g. no longer detergent-resistant)- test varying environments for phage survival rate
V	Binds ssDNA	Vary the activity of the gene and thus the competition between dsDNA formation and the sequestering of ssDNA- compare the results to find the optimum level of phage production possible
VI	Phage tail protein (5 copies)	Add some sort of tag to the gene that is only visible when p6 is outside of the bacteria- thus we would be able to determine when the phage has been secreted
VII	Phage head protein (5 copies)	Alter the gene so that p8 cannot be substituted for p5- see how this affects the phage (e.g. can it still be secreted?)
VIII	Phage coat protein (2700 copies)	Add a small protein to the gene that we would like to amplify becuase p8 is synthesized so many times- see if this method works and if yes, what applications could this be used for?
IX	Phage head protein (5 copies)	Modify the gene so that it can bind to bacterial surface proteins (like p3 does)- see if this allows the phage to interact with other bacteria (now that both ends can bind)
X	DNA replication	Altering this gene will also alter gene 2 so any alteration would affect both genes, so make any number of small modifications - see what interesting phenomena result
XI	Assembly	Modify the gene so that it is longer, hopefully resulting in a larger channel- see if this could allow multiple phages to pass through, thus making the channels more effective