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Team:Cambridge/Project/Biosensors
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| - | As the main crux of this project is a standardised output, we aimed to develop several biosensors, employing different mechanisms, to prove the extended functionality of the final product. To date, most of the biosensors in the registry use an inducible promoter to control expression of their reporter protein. We | + | As the main crux of this project is a standardised output, we aimed to develop several biosensors, employing different mechanisms, to prove the extended functionality of the final product. To date, most of the biosensors in the registry use an inducible promoter to control expression of their reporter protein. We aim to use some of these as a proof of the compatability of our kit with a theoretical customers' sensors. However, we also explored another mechanism of biosensing in the form of riboswitches. These have several advantages over traditional inducible promotors: firstly, they are usually modular in design, typically containing an aptamer (ligand binding) domain and an expression platform domain, which alters expression of downstream genes. Such a structure may allow for abstraction of discrete parts of each riboswitch, and construction of new regulatory elements with engineered properties. Secondly, if the expression platform acts by altering translational rate after transcription has finished, such devices may allow for faster respone times than those seen for normal genetic devices, which can only alter transcriptional rates. |
==The sensors:== | ==The sensors:== | ||
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{{Template:Team:Cambridge/CAM_2012_TEMPLATE_FOOT}} | {{Template:Team:Cambridge/CAM_2012_TEMPLATE_FOOT}} | ||
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| + | ===References=== | ||
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| + | *Nyan Win M. and Smolke C.,A modular and extensible RNA-based gene-regulatory platform for engineering cellular function, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2007) vol. 104 (36) pp. 14283-8. | ||
Revision as of 23:36, 19 September 2012
Biosensors
As the main crux of this project is a standardised output, we aimed to develop several biosensors, employing different mechanisms, to prove the extended functionality of the final product. To date, most of the biosensors in the registry use an inducible promoter to control expression of their reporter protein. We aim to use some of these as a proof of the compatability of our kit with a theoretical customers' sensors. However, we also explored another mechanism of biosensing in the form of riboswitches. These have several advantages over traditional inducible promotors: firstly, they are usually modular in design, typically containing an aptamer (ligand binding) domain and an expression platform domain, which alters expression of downstream genes. Such a structure may allow for abstraction of discrete parts of each riboswitch, and construction of new regulatory elements with engineered properties. Secondly, if the expression platform acts by altering translational rate after transcription has finished, such devices may allow for faster respone times than those seen for normal genetic devices, which can only alter transcriptional rates.
The sensors:
References
- Nyan Win M. and Smolke C.,A modular and extensible RNA-based gene-regulatory platform for engineering cellular function, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2007) vol. 104 (36) pp. 14283-8.
