Team:Toronto/HP/Gold

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HP Gold

Beyond the lab

The main goal of our project is to employ affordable sensors that can detect level of gold in soil samples. Our target group was artisanal miners living in developing countries. To address the needs of our group, we investigated use of synthetic gold sensor circuits in order to provide an alternative prospecting tool and understand Malaria epidemiology. We researched soil levels and conditions to understand how current prospecting techniques are performed and means to employ our technology. We found that specificity of our device plays an important role as soil samples can contain variety of metal ions. In addition, since the gold concentration in soil samples can be low in the range of uM, we tested our circuits in concentrations less than 10uM. We performed a comparative functional assay to select the best circuit among BioBricks constructed and available in the registry. We selected BBa_K2048002 as it was highly specific to gold and showed minimum to no expression level in the presence of copper metal ions.

Additionally, we performed an analysis for resources available to artisanal miners and minimum amount of resources required to employ our technology. Due to low-setting resources presence in artisanal mining settings, we investigated use of a mobile lab and centralized community testing locations. Our analysis and interview conducted with experts in the field of malaria showed that centralized community testing locations are preferred for validated data analysis. In addition, we worked creating a cell-free testing platform that can be shipped to artisanal miners. Cell-free sensors are optimum for low resource settings as they do not require biological containment, activated with water and incubated with body heat.

In order to employ malaria diagnostics, we conducted series of interviews with experts to understand root cause factors causing Malaria spread. Based on our research and discussions with experts, we optimized our tool to be cell-free paper based design, minimized the risk factors such as highly acidic and expensive reagents, and increased the sensitivity for gold at low concentration with visible output to enable functioning in low resource settings.

Discover Synthetic Biology: A Conversation On Modern Science

Are you interested in student-led innovation and research, and would you like to meet like-minded peers in an informal setting? On October 18th in the Charbonnel Lounge at St. Michael's College, iGEM Toronto hosted a free Panel Discussion about Synthetic Biology and its many applications. We also aimed to get feedback from public on employment of cell free synthetic gene networks.

In our event we engaged participants from all walks of life (professors, students, and accredited professionals in the field) in order to generate a casual yet critical discussion about Synthetic Biology and how to design research initiatives to maximize success. Topics such as feasability, effective implementation, and ethical concerns will be discussed. We encourage anyone with a critical mind to attend!

The panel was moderated by iGEM members and will consist of two parts: 1) A guided conversation with panelists followed by 2) A question-answer period where audience members can add their own input.

AGENDA: 6:00-7:15pm: Introduction to our iGEM project and Panel discussion 7:15-7:30pm: Break 7:30-8:00pm: Facilitated Q & A session between the audience and the panelists.