Difference between revisions of "Team:Newcastle/Design"

“Design, and build, a modular system to illustrate our research in the field of Bioelectronics, by providing an easy-to-assemble kit suitable for demonstrations to students of high school age.” -Newcastle iGEM 2016

Beginning with the above specification, we drafted up some initial designs that used press-together studs as their connection/conduction mechanism. This idea was inspired by the John Adams ‘Hot Wires’ kits and other such ‘easy-build’ systems. We also reached out to John Adams to discuss features that make their products so successful within their target demographic.

These products are usually designed to reinforce ideas already taught as part of the United Kingdom national curriculum. However, with our project, we hope to explore entirely ‘new ground’ for end users, as synthetic biology receives little to no mention before the final year of A levels in the UK, at age 17/18. Due to this, it was decided we would need attractive packaging and targeted advertising on pre-watershed TV to raise awareness and generate pester power. Above all, it was stressed that due to the growing array of toy safety requirements, science-based products are becoming more expensive to develop. Potentially imposing a restriction on the number of people becoming interested in particular areas of science. These issues were given great thought, not least due to the public’s largely negative connotations associated with genetically modified (GM) organisms. It was deemed, we had to ensure, and advertised as so, that our system was as safe as possible.

We then gave a presentation about the iGEM competition and our project to groups of sixth form students across two open days. During the event, we presented our ideas as well as the Hot Wires kits along with two other variants and asked them for feedback on the products. We wanted to establish what they liked and features that could be improved, recording this information and feeding into our design rationale. Use of bright colours and clear labelling received unanimous praise, while snap-together studs were rejected as too fiddly. It was this observation that made us decide to pursue a magnetised system, using coloured perspex to ensure the kit was visually stimulating.

We wanted to produce a series of interchangeable parts that could house the hardwire required to activate the heat shock response within our bacteria contained in the microfluidic chambers. While also maintaining user-friendly functionality and an aesthetically pleasing product. This would allow for easy experiment preparation and consistency in any observations, as we would include all laser cut and 3D model designs for free.

In keeping with our previous stud-based design, we opted to use a series of nodes attached to bases, which were magnetised. This meant that depending on the circuits they wished to build; the bases could be rearranged in space, with strong connections between segments to ensure stability. All connector pieces and components used the same form factor based on these small-but-powerful round magnets, which guarantee stable conduction. Copper tape was soldered to each magnet and used to conduct across plastic connector pieces.

In testing, it transpired that although the magnetic nodes were visually appealing. Due to small manufacturing inconsistencies, we could not always get the stable connection we needed to deliver the electricity for heat shock. From this finding, the final iteration of the design was born.

In testing, it transpired that while the magnetic nodes were visually appealing, due to small manufacturing inconsistencies we could not always get the stable connection we needed to deliver the electricity for heat shock. From this realisation, the final iteration of the design was born.

Now we are using 8mm neodymium disc magnets for our design, which are powerful but most importantly completely smooth, with the copper-magnet join taking place away from the connection surface. Finally we had achieved the perfect current delivery method, and adapted all our pre-existing models and diagrams to incorporate the magnets.

During our experiments we had been using a Bio-Rad PowerPac Basic to supply electricity. Given the short time available to us we would have liked to develop our own variable PSU design, but for now we have opted to make adapters that will allow multiple types of bench supply to work with our breadboard system, which are included in the kit.

Of course, we intended from the beginning for our designs to be freely available and modifed - we have included a thumb drive with every single lasercutting profile and 3D model required to build your own kits, along with the relevant documentation. These files are also downloadable from on this wiki at the link HERE. We’d love to see what new parts you can come up with and integrate into the system - as the field of synthetic biology evolves, so can the system.