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<h2>Our Motivation</h2> | <h2>Our Motivation</h2> | ||
− | <p class="pale">Electronic engineering has given us the television and the mobile phone, while genetic engineering has afforded us mass-scale antimalarial drugs, biofuels and | + | <p class="pale">Electronic engineering has given us the television and the mobile phone, while genetic engineering has afforded us mass-scale antimalarial drugs, biofuels and a plethora of biosensors. </p> |
− | <p class="pale">More than a decade ago, Tom Knight and colleagues envisioned using 'BioBricks' to standardise synthetic biological parts. Here at Newcastle we want to return to iGEM's humble origins and come full circle. We are currently working on replacing traditional electronic components with biological alternatives. | + | <p class="pale">More than a decade ago, Tom Knight and colleagues at MIT envisioned using 'BioBricks' to standardise synthetic biological parts. Here at Newcastle, we want to return to iGEM's humble origins and come full circle. We are currently working on replacing traditional electronic components with biological alternatives. Through the creation of new compatible bacterial components, we aim to unite biological and electrical components to create electro-biological circuitry within a breadboard chassis.</p> |
− | <p class="pale">The circuit will allow synthetic biologists to combine bacterial and electronic components to create electro-biological circuits, offering an exciting new fusion of synthetic biology and computer science. The ultimate goal is to | + | <p class="pale">The circuit will allow synthetic biologists to combine bacterial and electronic components to create electro-biological circuits, offering an exciting new fusion of synthetic biology, electronic engineering, and computer science. The ultimate goal of the Culture Shock project is to achieve consistent outputs for our biological parts.</p> |
</div> | </div> | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
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<div id="s3-content"> | <div id="s3-content"> | ||
<h2>Our Achievements</h2> | <h2>Our Achievements</h2> | ||
− | <p class="brown homep">As a team | + | <p class="brown homep">As a team, we have achieved a lot over the course of our relatively short (but <a href="https://twitter.com/ncliGEM16">great!</a>) summer as part of iGEM. We have <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Parts">designed</a>, characterised, and documented new parts in the <a href="http://parts.igem.org/cgi/partsdb/pgroup.cgi?pgroup=iGEM2016&group=Newcastle">iGEM Registry of Standard Biological Parts</a>. Not content with just working on our our project, we have also made lots of new friends through <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Collaborations">collaboration with a number of teams</a> and our attendance in UK and European meets.</p> |
− | <p class="brown homep">As well as getting to know | + | <p class="brown homep">As well as getting to know fellow iGEM-ers, we have run school taster days to get 16 & 17-year-olds interested in synthetic biology. We also met with researchers in the field to <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Human_Practices">explore the ethical impact of our work</a>. Acting upon these meetings, we have written software to explore different aspects of our project, addressing topics such as <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Notebook/Lab/ODE-Modelling">'how it would biological parts integrate into an electric circuit'</a>, and <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Human_Practices">'how to use thought experiment to explore the ethics of our work'</a>. If you thought we’d just stick to software you’d be wrong, for our project we also built a prototype 'plug n play' breadboard kit to articulate how we imagine biological and electronic components uniting in the real world.</p> |
− | <p class="brown homep">And that’s not all, over the summer we have also submitted <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1895003">corrections to sequences in the registry</a> and built on the work of past iGEM teams like <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Tokyo-NoKoGen/metallothionein">Tokyo-NoKoGen 2011</a>'s use of metallothioneins and | + | <p class="brown homep">And that’s not all, over the summer we have also submitted <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1895003">corrections to sequences in the registry</a> and built on the work of past iGEM teams like <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Tokyo-NoKoGen/metallothionein">Tokyo-NoKoGen 2011</a>'s use of metallothioneins, and <a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-Germany/Project/MFC"> 2013 Bielefeld</a>'s use of porins in microbial fuel cells. Last but not least, we participated in the <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/InterLab">2016 InterLab study</a>, completing both the plate reader and flow cytometry data collection tasks.<p> |
<p class="brown homep">You can find much more information, on our achievements and how they relate to the iGEM medal requirements on <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Medals">our medal requirements page</a>.</p> | <p class="brown homep">You can find much more information, on our achievements and how they relate to the iGEM medal requirements on <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Medals">our medal requirements page</a>.</p> | ||
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<h2>What Next?</h2> | <h2>What Next?</h2> | ||
− | <p class="pale">The foundation | + | <p class="pale">The foundation advance provided by the Culture Shock project opens ups myriad of potential research routes for the emerging field of Bioelectronics. Applications such as self-healing circuitry and "living" electronic and cell integrated computers no longer seem as implausible and distant as they once did.</p> |
− | <p class="pale"> With any new technology it is important to consider the surrounding ethical issues, as well as general Public response. We felt obligated | + | <p class="pale"> With any new technology it is important to consider the surrounding ethical issues, as well as general Public response. We felt obligated to spend a considerable amount of time considering potential ethical issues associated with these ideas. Our "Thought Experiment" was the culmination of this, and considers four of these key concepts, with each having its own level. You can <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Software/Hosted/Thought-Experiment">play through the entire thought experiment here</a>, or <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Newcastle/Human_Practices">read up on our entire human practices work here.</a> </p> |
</div> | </div> | ||
</div> | </div> |
Revision as of 19:36, 16 October 2016
Newcastle iGEM 2016
Scroll down to learn more about our Culture Shock project
Our Motivation
Electronic engineering has given us the television and the mobile phone, while genetic engineering has afforded us mass-scale antimalarial drugs, biofuels and a plethora of biosensors.
More than a decade ago, Tom Knight and colleagues at MIT envisioned using 'BioBricks' to standardise synthetic biological parts. Here at Newcastle, we want to return to iGEM's humble origins and come full circle. We are currently working on replacing traditional electronic components with biological alternatives. Through the creation of new compatible bacterial components, we aim to unite biological and electrical components to create electro-biological circuitry within a breadboard chassis.
The circuit will allow synthetic biologists to combine bacterial and electronic components to create electro-biological circuits, offering an exciting new fusion of synthetic biology, electronic engineering, and computer science. The ultimate goal of the Culture Shock project is to achieve consistent outputs for our biological parts.
Our Achievements
As a team, we have achieved a lot over the course of our relatively short (but great!) summer as part of iGEM. We have designed, characterised, and documented new parts in the iGEM Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Not content with just working on our our project, we have also made lots of new friends through collaboration with a number of teams and our attendance in UK and European meets.
As well as getting to know fellow iGEM-ers, we have run school taster days to get 16 & 17-year-olds interested in synthetic biology. We also met with researchers in the field to explore the ethical impact of our work. Acting upon these meetings, we have written software to explore different aspects of our project, addressing topics such as 'how it would biological parts integrate into an electric circuit', and 'how to use thought experiment to explore the ethics of our work'. If you thought we’d just stick to software you’d be wrong, for our project we also built a prototype 'plug n play' breadboard kit to articulate how we imagine biological and electronic components uniting in the real world.
And that’s not all, over the summer we have also submitted corrections to sequences in the registry and built on the work of past iGEM teams like Tokyo-NoKoGen 2011's use of metallothioneins, and 2013 Bielefeld's use of porins in microbial fuel cells. Last but not least, we participated in the 2016 InterLab study, completing both the plate reader and flow cytometry data collection tasks.
You can find much more information, on our achievements and how they relate to the iGEM medal requirements on our medal requirements page.
What Next?
The foundation advance provided by the Culture Shock project opens ups myriad of potential research routes for the emerging field of Bioelectronics. Applications such as self-healing circuitry and "living" electronic and cell integrated computers no longer seem as implausible and distant as they once did.
With any new technology it is important to consider the surrounding ethical issues, as well as general Public response. We felt obligated to spend a considerable amount of time considering potential ethical issues associated with these ideas. Our "Thought Experiment" was the culmination of this, and considers four of these key concepts, with each having its own level. You can play through the entire thought experiment here, or read up on our entire human practices work here.