Team:Stanford-Brown/SB16 Practices Exploration

Exploration

As part of our summer experience, we went on plenty of adventures and met cool people! EteRNA Conference, Hackathon, BioCurious (http://biocurious.org/), Escape Room, etc.

EteRNA

A lot of the work for Biosensing went into the design of our functional oligonucleotides. We experimented with many secondary and tertiary folding softwares to predict their affinity for molecules in binding pockets, but after consulting experts like Christina Smolke, we eventually determined that was not enough. We sought out crowd-sourcing as a means to optimize our aptamer designs. eteRNA is an interactive platform created by Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University that essentially turns RNA folding into a game. Currently, this user-base is attempting to tackle the lingering world health problem of tuberculosis. The site's many features allow users and players to have an in silico lab experience. We participated in the eteRNA Convention on July 16th-17th at the Li Ka Shing Center at Stanford. Mike got quite into the game and is now ranked top 1000 in the world! Check out this example of the IRE-mediated translation biosensor and see if you can meet the thermodynamic constraints of -11.7 kcal/mol necessary for proper folding of the Theophylline aptamer!

BioCurious

We participated in weekly gatherings with a group of biologically-inclined hackers known as BioCurious. We aligned with their mission of creating an open space for biotechnology around Silicon Valley, much like iGEM strives to promote standardized synthetic biology. Not only did we help out with ideation and prototyping a 3D BioPrinter (a device used to print out actual biological objects, such as a leaf), but we also received constructive criticism from biotech experts about our own ideas at NASA.

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