Team:TU-Eindhoven/Notebook/Before/Facebook
From 2012.igem.org
Nowadays, `Facebook' is one of the most important social media services available on the internet. Based on the principle of social networking, we wanted to reduce these networks to nano-scale. The bacteria-based nanonetwork should be made on a liquid medium and consists of so called nodes and carriers [6]. The nodes try to communicate with each other by exchanging messages. The messages will be encoded in a plasmid, circular double-stranded DNA. The carriers will take up the DNA and swim through the liquid medium to another node, using flagella. Flagella are tail-like extensions which the bacteria use to move. Each node emits its own chemical attractant. Due to this, the sending nodes can address a specific receiver node. The carriers move to the chemical attractants by the use of chemotaxis. Chemotaxis is the movement of bacteria into a certain direction due to chemical concentration gradients. When the carriers are arrived at the right node, the plasmid will be transferred to this node and the message will be decoded.