Difference between revisions of "Team:Virginia/iGEM Outreach"
| Line 83: | Line 83: | ||
var row = (sum / 5); | var row = (sum / 5); | ||
if (sum === 5) { | if (sum === 5) { | ||
| − | alert(" | + | alert("The best biocontainment method for your purposes is: Traditional Auxotroph. Traditional auxotrophs are organisms that cannot synthesize a certain chemical necessary for survival and therefore must rely on artificial supplementation of the chemical."); |
} | } | ||
else { | else { | ||
var methodNames = ["Traditional Auxotroph. Traditional auxotrophs are organisms that cannot synthesize a certain chemical necessary for survival and therefore must rely on artificial supplementation of the chemical.", "Kill Switch. In typical kill switches, production of a toxin is suppressed by the presence of an environmental signal. When the signal is no longer presentin the environment, toxin production is uninhibited and the cell dies. Alternatively, a toxin can be produced as the end product of a reaction. Therefore, the organism will die upon completion of its task. Refer to this link for an example of a kill switch: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1979. Note, there are many other different types of kill switches.", "Gene Circuit. In gene circuits, biological circuits respond to specific combinations of environmental signals in order to suppress toxin production. For example, signals A and B must be present to translate or activate C, a toxin production repressor. Refer to this link for an example of a gene circuit: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1979", "Lock and Key. Lock and key is a form of synthetic auxotrophy where a set of essential genes (lock) are engineered so that they will not function properly unless a supplied molecule (key) is present. Since the default state of the cells is death, mutations are much less likely. Refer to this link for more information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00085", "Non-Standard Amino Acid (NSAA) synthetic auxotrophy. NSAA synthetic auxotrophs are organisms that cannot survive unless a synthetic amino acid is supplemented in the growth environment of the organism. In this system, a tRNA recognizing a stop codon binds to the synthetic amino acid. This method requires full genome and proteome engineering to incorporate the stop codon and synthetic amino acid. Refer to this link for more detailed information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14121"]; | var methodNames = ["Traditional Auxotroph. Traditional auxotrophs are organisms that cannot synthesize a certain chemical necessary for survival and therefore must rely on artificial supplementation of the chemical.", "Kill Switch. In typical kill switches, production of a toxin is suppressed by the presence of an environmental signal. When the signal is no longer presentin the environment, toxin production is uninhibited and the cell dies. Alternatively, a toxin can be produced as the end product of a reaction. Therefore, the organism will die upon completion of its task. Refer to this link for an example of a kill switch: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1979. Note, there are many other different types of kill switches.", "Gene Circuit. In gene circuits, biological circuits respond to specific combinations of environmental signals in order to suppress toxin production. For example, signals A and B must be present to translate or activate C, a toxin production repressor. Refer to this link for an example of a gene circuit: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1979", "Lock and Key. Lock and key is a form of synthetic auxotrophy where a set of essential genes (lock) are engineered so that they will not function properly unless a supplied molecule (key) is present. Since the default state of the cells is death, mutations are much less likely. Refer to this link for more information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00085", "Non-Standard Amino Acid (NSAA) synthetic auxotrophy. NSAA synthetic auxotrophs are organisms that cannot survive unless a synthetic amino acid is supplemented in the growth environment of the organism. In this system, a tRNA recognizing a stop codon binds to the synthetic amino acid. This method requires full genome and proteome engineering to incorporate the stop codon and synthetic amino acid. Refer to this link for more detailed information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14121"]; | ||
| − | alert(" | + | alert("The best biocontainment method for your purposes is: " + methodNames[row]); |
} | } | ||
} | } | ||
else { | else { | ||
if (sum < 11) { | if (sum < 11) { | ||
| − | alert(" | + | alert("The best biocontainment method for your purposes is: Traditional Auxotroph. Traditional auxotrophs are organisms that cannot synthesize a certain chemical necessary for survival and therefore must rely on artificial supplementation of the chemical."); |
| + | } | ||
| + | if (sum > 10 && sum < 21) { | ||
| + | alert("The best biocontainment method for your purposes is: Lock and Key. Lock and key is a form of synthetic auxotrophy where a set of essential genes (lock) are engineered so that they will not function properly unless a supplied molecule (key) is present. Since the default state of the cells is death, mutations are much less likely. Refer to this link for more information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00085"); | ||
} | } | ||
| − | |||
if (sum > 20) { | if (sum > 20) { | ||
| − | alert(" | + | alert("The best biocontainment method for your purposes is: Non-Standard Amino Acid (NSAA) synthetic auxotrophy. NSAA synthetic auxotrophs are organisms that cannot survive unless a synthetic amino acid is supplemented in the growth environment of the organism. In this system, a tRNA recognizing a stop codon binds to the synthetic amino acid. This method requires full genome and proteome engineering to incorporate the stop codon and synthetic amino acid. Refer to this link for more detailed information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14121"); |
} | } | ||
} | } | ||
Revision as of 18:19, 18 October 2016
Our outreach to other iGEM teams included attending a Mini Jamboree, conducting an iGEM-wide survey, producing a pamphlet on biocontainment for iGEM teams, and designing a widget to help teams choose a biocontainment method.
First, we needed to assess the biocontainment knowledge of iGEM teams. We wanted to find out what people knew, and more importantly didn’t know, about biocontainment. We accomplished this first on a small scale, by attending the Mid-Atlantic Mini Jamboree, hosted by the University of Maryland. We exchanged project ideas with other teams. We also hosted a biocontainment forum with the other attending teams. This forum inspired us to create electronic tools and expand our outreach to other teams. We created an online biocontainment surveyto gauge understanding of biocontainment across iGEM teams. Using the results of this survey, we developed a comprehensive pamphlet. We also created an interactive web widget that allows iGEM teams to customize biocontainment that fits their project. Do teams need something robust, something quick, or a method that fulfils other criteria? With our widget, they can find the perfect solution.
UMaryland Mini Jamboree
On July 22, 2016, the University of Maryland (UMaryland iGEM) hosted their second annual Mid-Atlantic Mini-Jamboree. Several teams from the East coast came together to present their progress, and learn from other iGEMmers.
During this conference, our team was not only able to present our progress in a fifteen minute presentation, but also conducted an educational forum on the topic of biocontainment. Through this forum, we were able to teach teams about the need for and various methods of biocontainment, in addition to fielding questions about biocontainment as it related to their specific projects. The responses in the forum were extremely informative for our team in the generation of our iGEM-wide survey survey and addressing relevant concerns in our pamphlet.
