During iGEM we have got into the habit of using special scientific terms of the “language” of synthetic biology which are not self-explanatory. But for those who do not have a biological background or want to explore an unfamiliar area, a glossary of all these terms is shown below.

Non canonical amino acid
In biochemistry, non-canonical, non-coded, non-proteinogenic, or "unnatural" amino acids are those not naturally encoded or found in the genetic code of any organisms. Naturally, an organism could encode for 20 amino acids.

4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzylserine (DMNBS)
Serine with O-nitrobenzyl protection group, a non-canonical amino acid (“caged” serine).

Ortho-nitrobenzyl tyrosine (ONBY)
Tyrosine with O-nitrobenzyl protection group, a non-canonical amino acid (“Caged” tyrosine).

They are used in the process of photo-caging with its corresponding orthogonal tRNA/synthetase pair.