Thursday 26.04.12
Today, all the groups from last time started with giving an overview of possible project within their topic. Then we discussed for quite a long time, and in the end we decided we wanted to work with cancer. But we also decided to keep the biosynthesis of fatty acids as a side project. The electricity project turned out to be quite hard to complete in only two months, so we decided to drop it.
Our final project idea is then to make bacteria, for example E.coli cells, produce anti cancer drugs; preferably as many different molecules as possible. We have read about both enzymes and endpoints of metabolic pathways that are disadvantageous for cancer cells.
Our engineered cells should also be able to respond to a signal molecule secreted in larger amounts from cancer cells than from normal cells, for example a signaling molecule that promotes angiogenesis.
When the cells detect the signal molecule from thabe cancer cells, they should lyse, releasing the anti cancer molecule close to the tumour.
Another approach to reach the tumour could be to take advantage of the fact that the environment inside tumours normally is oxygen deficient. And as E.coli cells naturally migrate towards areas low in oxygen, a possible solution is also to activate the lysis gene when the cells are in an are with little oxygen.
Rahmi told us about a promoter that gets activated by low concentration of O2. This could regulate the lysis genes.
For the main project, we have to make the cells lyse at a certain concentration of an outer stimuli. For our side project it could be interresting to do the oposite; making the cells lyse when they have produced a certain amount of fatty acids.
Friday 20.04.12
Today, we decided on the overall top three projects for the team. We added the points all the team members have given to the different projects, and the list then becomes as follows:
| Project
| Number of points
|
| Cancer (search and destroy)
| 14 points
|
| Biosynthesis of fatty acids
| 10 points
|
| Bacteria as electrical switch
| 6 points
|
| Water purification - hormones
| 3 points
|
| Water purification - sucralose
| 1 point
|
| Oil spill removing bacteria
| 1 point
|
| Biomining
| 1 point
|
We decided to look deeper into the overall top three projects. We formed three groups of two and two, and decided to look at the following things for the next meeting:
- Look at earlier projects on the topic
- Come up with some specific project ideas
- Look at the feasibility of the proposed projects
- Look at which biobricks we would need for each of the proposed projects, and see if they are present in the registry, or if we would have to make them ourselves.
The groups:
- Eirin and Jarle - Biosynthesis of fatty acids
- Rolf and Ove - Bacteria as electrical switch
- Nina and Gunvor - Cancer (search and destroy)
We also elected Ove as wiki chief:-)
Friday 13.04.12
Since we have quite a few project ideas to choose between now, we decided that for next meeting, all team members should pick their three favourite projects. We decided to give our favourite project three points, the project on second place two points, and our third favourite project one point. Before the next meeting we will add all the points together, and se which projects we should look at more in depth.
At this meeting, we also discussed activities for Researchers Night. So far we have thought about making a construction kit to make the attendants on RN understand how we can combine different biobricks.
We also discussed bringing pipettes, letting the attendants make alginate beads with different colours that they could bring home, and bringing a microscope and coloured cells (harmless, of course).
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