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SUMMARY:Cambridge iGEM 2009 - Jim Ajioka\, James Brown\, Tom Ellis\, Jim H
 aseloff\, Gos Micklem\, Duncan Rowe Cambridge iGEM Advisors
DTSTART:20091029T130000Z
DTEND:20091029T133000Z
UID:TALK21187@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:15560
DESCRIPTION:The engineering of new biological systems is an exciting front
 ier\, with opportunities for collaboration between biologists\, programmer
 s and engineers. The iGEM competition throws together students from differ
 ent disciplines\, requires them to initiate a novel scientific programme 
 over the summer\, and challenges them to learn and share different skills.
  The competition has provided a new educational model in the exciting new 
 field of Synthetic Biology. In Cambridge\, we are unreservedly positive a
 bout the educational aspect of the competition. As well as learning challe
 nging new scientific skills\, the competition allows students to experien
 ce project brainstorming\, management\, teamwork\, presentation and other 
 organisational skills in a way that is essentially outside the undergradua
 te curriculum. The competition provides a powerful educational tool\, expo
 sing students to engineering challenges and a modern research environment\
 , while in pursuit of their own goals. \nBased in the Department of Plant 
 Sciences\, the Cambridge 2009 iGEM team has spent the last 4 months design
 ing\, building and testing two kits of parts that will facilitate the desi
 gn and construction of biosensors. Previous iGEM teams have focused on gen
 etically engineering bacterial biosensors by enabling bacteria to respond 
 to novel inputs\, especially biologically significant compounds. There is 
 an unmistakable need to also develop devices that can 1) manipulate input 
 by changing the behaviour of the response of the input-sensitive promoter\
 , and that can 2) report a response using clear\, user-friendly outputs. T
 he most popular output is the expression of a fluorescent protein\, detect
 able using fluorescence microscopy. The team have successfully characteris
 ed a set of transcriptional systems for calibrated output (Sensitivity Tun
 ers) and significantly expressed a spectrum of pigments in E. coli\, desig
 ning a set of Colour Generators\, for use in cheap\, easily distributable 
 biosensors across the globe.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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