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Team:Shasta Summit CA
From 2014hs.igem.org
[http://aslanbnguyen.wix.com/igem The Main Site]
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| [http://aslanbnguyen.wix.com/igem Official Team Profile] |
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Contents |
The Team
Professors:
Chris Vulpe of UC Berkeley
Nick Kapp of Skyline College
Students:
Albert Liu
Alex Liu
Aslan Nguyen
Brendan Thompson
Dexter Hamilton
Ethan Bull-Vulpe
Jen Co
Jimmy Lujan
Kyra Newcomb
Mitchell Wong
Osama Hanhan
Sydney Huddleston
William McEachen
Goal
Our goal is to create a CO (Carbon Monoxide) sensor that will detect CO and create a noticeable color. This CO sensor would be more useful than it’s electronic cousin in many ways:
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It would not require constant power, this means that you could use it in locations with easy access to power, such as third world countries, underground places/mines, portable/handheld, etc.
It would be small and compact, allowing for easy transportation, meaning it could be carried by people everywhere, providing constant protection. It would create a smell, this means that deaf and blind people would be able to be aware of it, as well as allowing people with headphones or ear protection to sniff out CO.
This means that it would have many uses beyond the ordinary electric, roof-bound, carbon monoxide sensor.
Our Project
We plan to ultimately create a bacteria that would be stimulated by the presence of CO to produce a red hue. The uses of this kind of organism/bacteria would include disaster relief in areas that do not have the access to the equipment needed to monitor the concentration of CO in the area. The goal would be to have the bacteria glow red in the presence of CO, and different colors based on the concentration. For example: It would glow a darker red and/or emit a smell if the level of CO in the air was at fatal levels. It is based upon the percentage of CO in the air. Carbon Monoxide is a fatal gas that is undetectable to humans. In iGEM we plan to use biobricks to make sensors. We plan to construct two sensors, one with the sensor and one with the reporter. The plasmid with the reporter with glow red if the levels of CO are at fatal levels. iGEM also requires outreach which the team has and is doing, the outreach includes teaching, and using a website to convey information.
[http://aslanbnguyen.wix.com/igem#!projects/cm8a Read up here!]
Expanding Your Horizon
On March 15th the team went to Skyline College to be part of the Expanding Your Horizons program. They introduced future high schoolers to the idea of synthetic biology. They hoped to inspire young women to be more interested in the field of science.
Poster Presentation at Skyline College
On April 24th, 2014, the team gave a presentation about their ideas and synthetic biology at Skyline College in the form of a poster presentation.
The Notebook
Every Tuesday we meet to make progress on our iGEM project. On Thursdays we go to the lab at skyline collage and do laboratory work, at the end of our meetings we discuss the progress we have made, and research new information for our next meeting!
Choosing The Sequence
Doing some research the team was able to find an organism that was able to sense Carbon Monoxide and react. Using that gene they added that to the 1-9i plate, which contains an RBS and an RFP. This is going to be the reporter plasmid. Then they made a plasmid that would be the sensor. (The CooA gene.) Using the 3a assembly the team would combine the two plasmids onto the pSB1C3 plasmid backbone.
Testing the Bacteria
The team plans to expose the bacteria to Carbon Monoxide. They will start with a preliminary test of simply exposing the bacteria to carbon monoxide. The second set of tests they plan to do would be to create a gas mixture of 5% carbon monoxide, 1% carbon monoxide, and .1% carbon monoxide, respectively. Making sure that the mixture is correct is difficult, as measuring how much gas is release is difficult. So they filled a 2 liter graduated cylinder with water then pumped Carbon Monoxide into the container and stopped when there was approximately 100ml of water out of the graduated cylinder. With 100ml out that means there is 100ml of gas in the graduated cylinder. Then they will remove the gas and add that to a cylinder filled with 1900ml of air. Then with that mixture they will pump that out into a container containing the bacteria. 100ml in a 2000ml total would make that 5% mixture.
3A Assembly
The team had a blast using the 3A assembly kit, learning all sorts of things about cutting plasmids and instituting their own. Although with some failures, the team moved on and created a successfully modified plasmid.
Results/Conclusions
Over the course of the year we have practiced with bacteria by making transformations and competent cells. Here is a diagram of the project we intend to complete:
Safety
In the lab at Skyline College we are always supervised by Chris Vulpe (Professor at UC Berkeley), and Nicholas Kapp (Professor at Skyline College).
Human Practices
This CO sensor would be useful in many ways:
1. It would not require constant power, this means that you could use it in locations with easy access to power, such as third world countries, underground places/mines, portable/handheld, etc.
2.It would be small and compact, allowing for easy transportation, meaning it could be carried by people everywhere, providing constant protection.
3. It would create a smell, this means that deaf and blind people would be able to be aware of it, as well as allowing people with headphones or ear protection to sniff out CO. This Means that it would have many uses beyond the ordinary electric, roof-bound, carbon monoxide sensor.
Fun!
Kyra is awesome!
Sponsors
[http://www.bio-rad.com/ Bio-Rad]
[http://www.skylinecollege.edu/ Skyline College] for Labspace
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