AutoGene was developed to make a simple-to-use design tool whereby users can select features they want to design with, drag these features into the order they want, perform operations on these features, and then import their newly designed plasmid to the workspace.
A user starts by selecting features they want to design with. These features can be chosen from multiple plasmids in the workspace. To select a feature, a user simply drags that annotation into the Design Registry, a listing of features the user wants to save for later use. We wanted to make this process extremely intuitive and easy, so we implemented a user-friendly drag and drop system whereby a user can drag their cursor over multiple features from a plasmid and drag them into the design registry all at once. They pop inside the pane on the right side of the screen, waiting to be designed with
When a user is ready to begin designing, they continue the drag and drop process by dragging features from the private registry into the design pane. The whole process is especially user-friendly and simple to use. Anyone can use it, and this was also another one of our major goals. The design pane consists of three windows which are discussed below. As the plasmid is made, the associated DNA sequence and the associated picture of the plasmid is updated in real time so that a user can get a real view into the Plasmid they are designing. AutoPlasmid helps visualize this new plasmid. Once a plasmid is done being designed, the user may import it into the workspace and then export as a genbank, fasta, and SBOL as discussed above