This year we collaborate with ZJU U with their hardware improvement and parts characterization. They are working on E.coli two component systems wherein transcription of the output promoter is controlled by different activating and inhibitory light wavelength, which is documented to produce reliable signals.

Previously, they use a device that can only emit light and the lighting is controlled manully. Controlling the on-off stages of each LED or even generating a sequential signals of different wavelengths becomes tedious tasks. Therefore we wonder if we could help with robust hardware construction that could improve the efficiency of their experimentation.

We devised a signal control system driven by Arduino microcontroller board located outside standard 96-well incubator. A wrapper was written for this library to enable simple commands to be used to drive the LEDs in the device, requiring user to specify only a row, column, color and intensity. In this way, the intensity can be programmed and the signals can be specified without having to interrupt the experiment. Moreover, as the device matches the standard biological incubator (2ml 96 well plate), more replication experiment can be conducted simultaneously, which enhance the reliability and repeatability of data acquired.