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Revision as of 18:23, 20 April 2016
2016 iGEM InterLab Measurement Study
All of the 2016 iGEM teams are invited and encouraged to participate in the Third International InterLaboratory Measurement Study in synthetic biology. We’re hoping this study will get you excited for iGEM and help prepare you for the summer! Please note: this is an optional and voluntary exercise for all teams.
A Brief History of the InterLab
Over the past two years, iGEM has advanced the frontiers of science with the two biggest interlaboratory studies even done in synthetic biology. These studies establishing a baseline for replicability of fluorescence measurements and identified likely key sources of error, and have now been published as an open-access journal article in PLOS ONE.
To read the article, you can either click on the image to the right or go directly to the following URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150182.
Overview for the 2016 InterLab
This year, we aim to improve the tools available to both the iGEM community and the synthetic biology community as a whole. One of the big challenges in synthetic biology is that measurements of fluorescence usually cannot be compared because they are reported in different units or because different groups conduct assays and process data in different ways. Often we work around this by doing some sort of “relative expression” comparison.
However, being unable to directly compare measurements makes it harder to debug engineered biological constructs, harder to effectively share constructs between labs, and harder even to just interpret your experimental controls. Imagine if somebody asked how tall you were, and you couldn’t say “160 centimeters” but could only say, “10% shorter than my friend”! Without absolute units you cannot even say precisely how much shorter you are!
Goal for the 2016 InterLab
This year, we have two protocols for measuring GFP fluorescence that will result in common, comparable units for teams to test out. For 2016, we have a major question we want to explore with your help: How close can the numbers be when fluorescence is measured all around the world?
All teams who participate in the InterLab study will be acknowledged at the Giant Jamboree and earn a special InterLab Prize!
Participate in the Third InterLab!
Can you measure fluorescence somewhere in your lab? Then this is the perfect study for you! Even if your lab or the organisms you work with mean that you can’t measure GFP from the specific devices, we want every team to be able to participate: email measurement (at) igem (dot) org and we will work out an alternative.This year, we are providing teams with the InterLab Measurement Kit in the Distribution Kit that teams will receive from iGEM HQ. This is meant to make participating in the InterLab easier, as it removes cloning steps from the process. (For teams who still wish to clone the InterLab parts, please send an email to measurement (at) igem (dot) org for instructions.)
The InterLab Measurement Kit includes the plasmid DNA needed to carry out the InterLab experiments as well as components to measure GFP in absolute units.
