Birkbeck iGEM

The Owligos are the first-ever team entered into the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition by Birkbeck, University of London. We’re a varied group of students who reflect the diversity and unique character of our institution: many of us have chosen science as a second career, having already spent some time in full-time work. For most of us, this has meant making our way through a degree while continuing to work full-time. Hopefully this kind of dedication will help us successfully navigate our way through our iGEM project.

Project Aim

Our project aims to create a new diagnostic solution that will be low-tech and cost-effective enough to allow its usage in deprived and remote communities. We’re attempting to engineer a bacteriophage lambda chassis to change its host affinity, while simultaneously adding a marker that will facilitate easy detection of a target bacterial pathogen in patient samples.

To demonstrate this approach as a proof of concept for the competition, we plan to change this affinity between different strains of E.coli; however, ultimately we hope to demonstrate that this principle could also be applied to alter the phage’s host range to other bacterial species. We could then provide a modular system capable of diagnosing a range of diseases. Of course, we haven’t chosen a simple goal. But as Birkbeck pioneers, we are determined to prove ourselves by making our project a success. We can’t wait to present the results of our work at the Giant Jamboree in September!

Wiki Categories

Our wiki has six different categories, in addition to this main page. Some are divided into subcategories discussing similar topics, which are described and linked accordingly. We are working on a submenu to access each of the subcategories in one click, however for now please make do with the main category pages (and the menu present on the left hand side of every page other than this one)

Team

Find out about each of our team members, advisors and supervisors by having a look at our Team page.

Research

Find out about the research we're conducting by having a look at our Research page, which currently includes an overview of our Project, the important Background to our research and some of our Methods used to date.

Modelling

Page Under Construction

Outreach

Find out about our outreach to society by having a look at our Outreach page, which currently includes our voluntary work with the Community.

Cooperation

Find out about help we have given and recieved by having a look at our Cooperation page, which currently includes details of our Collaborations with other iGEM teams and Attributions containing details of our sponsors.

Journal

Find out what progress we've made, on a weekly basis, by having a look at our Journal.

Where we live. We'll replace this with a picture of the team when we finally manage to get the whole group into a room together...