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From 2012.igem.org

Project overview

For our first participation in iGEM, we have decided to combine the future and the past, tradition with modernity and our project aims to combine Synthetic biology and the roots of french society: '''frogs'''. We will bring Xenopus, a model organism in developmental biology, to iGEM for the first time. We hope to show it can be a great multicellular chassis for the iGEM community. We will create tools for the next generation of iGEMers to be able to easily express synthetic systems in various tissues. In order to link all these parts together, we want to create an '''orthogonal, synthetic hormonal system''' using the plant hormone auxin, in order for the different tissues to communicate with one another.

A quick summary of each project is proposed in this page. Please go on the specific page of each project for more details!

The French Froggies: Engineering a new hormonal system in tadpoles

So far, synthetic biology and especially the iGEM competition has been mostly focused in engineering unicellular organisms and the bacteria in particular. Some work has already started in engineering systems in pluricellular organisms but there is almost no work reported of a synthetic system created at the whole organism scale. The use of a multicellular organism provides an additional level of complexity compared to single-celled organisms which multiplies the potential applications in terms of synthetic biology.

Xenopus tropicalis is a model organism for develpmental biology, and very recently it has become an interesting chassis for synthetic biology. Our aim is to pave the way towards integrated multicellular genetic circuits by creating a synthetic, orthogonal hormonal system. We want to use the plant hormone auxin for communication between organs.

Modeling a tadpole: a multi-level approach

Modeling a synthetic system at the whole organism scale is a challenge in itself. Using differential equations and agent based simulation, we aimed at modeling our entire synthetic hormonal system, as well as providing a new set of mathematical tool for iGEM in order to model complete organisms.

Cloning: a new biobrick cloning format

We have started the development ou a new biobrick format that may revolutionize the future of iGEM cloning by enabeling the assembly of a complete expression cassette in one shot, in a cheaper and most reliable way than all the current cloning method. We are the initiator of that project and we are going to develop it in partneship with the iGEM Paris Bettencourt and the CINVESTAV-IPN-UNAM_MX team in Mexico.

Human practice: What does it imply to engineer a multicellular organism

Working with vertebrates raises many ethical questions. We decided to track the changes in our attitude to animal experimentation during our project. Before starting our experiments, we answered a list of questions concerning the ethical aspects of our project. Our answers were based on a theoretical perspective, because most of us have never worked with live multicellular organisms before. We will continue our survey and observe the changes in our attitude with the advancement of our project. Because we are a multinational team, we are also interested in comparing animal rights in different parts of the world.