Team:Wellesley TheTech/Project/Background

BAC PACK

• TEAM
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  • Acknowledgements
• PROJECT
  • Overview
  • Digital Component
  • Wetlab Component
  • Background
  • Hardware
• OUTREACH
  • Practices
  • Methodology
  • Collaboration
• MEDAL FULFILLMENT

SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND

 In order to fulfill the design and learning goals, BacPack draws upon the research paper, “Towards Synthetic Biological Approaches to Resource Utilization on Space Missions”,which discusses the possible application of genetically engineered bacteria in extreme environments such as space missions(Menezes, et. al
). The paper explores how synthetic biology can be incorporated into lunar and Martian space missions. One of the key points of this study is the idea that synthetic biology could allow explorers in space to use microorganisms to produce their own food, medicine, fuel, and biopolymers for building material rather than bringing all those supplies with them on the spacecraft or making these resources from scratch on the Martian surface. This demonstrated that synthetic biology can play a key role in space mission, and we used this paper as a reference when designing BacPack For New Frontiers.

Fig. 1 The biology mapping is from a constrained set of inputs to a fixed set of output classes

 Moreover this study plays a role in the design of BacPack For New Frontiers. The tangible genes of the exhibit have an intuitive fit and are categorized by “input” or “output” genes. This logical fit of the biological parts is based on the biology mapping of constrained set of inputs such as carbon dioxide and oxygen to a fixed set of outputs such as food and propellant mentioned in the paper. As seen in Figure 1, one input does not match up with a specific output. Rather, this map is unconstrained, and any various inputs correlated with a variety of outputs.

iGEM projects

 iGEM itself actually plays huge role in this exhibit as well. Many biobricks from previous teams have been included, and these biobricks also provide substantial scientific backings and proof to the general public that it is possible to have really interesting and amazing outcomes in synthetic biology.