Project Results

About This Project

Need a to get back to the basics on what synthetic biology is? Check out our Lab Notes section below for an excellent background video.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

This year, we aim to tackle two fundamental problems of engineering biological systems: standardizing DNA "parts", called BioBricks, and increasing the modularity of these parts for genome scale engineering. Our project has three components that in conjunction will address these problems.

1) Improve the characterization standard of iGEM's Registry of Standard Biological Parts with the help of international collaborators.

2) Demonstrate the usefulness of Taguchi statistical methods for optimizing BioBricks across different bacterial strains.

3) Adapting genetic tools that will improve the precision of gene expression to the BioBrick standard for their widespread among iGEM teams.

What is the significance of this project?

The Registry of Standard Biological Parts is the parts catalog for all iGEM teams and many synthetic biologists outside the iGEM competition. A better, more stringent standard for parts submission will improve the quality of parts within the Registry and in turn, the function of future living "machines" built from these parts. The iGEM competition has historically significantly advanced the larger synthetic biology community, and the vast majority of professional synthetic biologists are alumni of the competition. Therefore, it's a reasonable assumption that improving the quality of iGEM's output will translate to a greater impact by synthetic biology onto the biotechnology industry.

What are the goals of the project?

The increased funds will allow us to repair and replace some of our broken or missing lab equipment, such as buying a new PCR machine. Funds will also go to trip planning to the various iGEM competitions so that more of our members can afford to go. Funds will also be used to help us plan for future years of the Purdue iGEM team.