Model and manufacturer:
o Incubator – 2cm shaking diameter
o Spectrometer – Used to measure absorbance at 600nm of each sample.
o Typhoon FLA 9500 - GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Wavelength used to excite cells - 475nm. Filter/channel used to capture the light emission from the cells - Filter BPB1 (530DF20).
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Revision as of 14:59, 8 September 2015
Glasglow
Interlab Study
Home > Measurement > Interlab Study
Overview
All 2015 iGEM teams have been invited to participate in the Second International InterLab Measurement Study in synthetic biology. Each lab will obtain fluorescence data for the same three GFP-coding devices with different promoters varying in strength. The objective is to assess the robustness of standard parts and the variability of measurements among different research groups using different lab techniques.
Introduction
This year iGEM Glasgow have participated in the InterLab study and Extra Credit. The three devices required were cloned, as specified, and using a plate reader measurements were obtained in absolute units in terms of moles of FAM labelled oligonucleotide.
Equipment
Equipment used to acquire measurements
Feeding
Operation
Above the main visualisation chamber is a tube that rises up to Furri-lux’s mouth, where fresh broth can be poured in. New broth would need to be poured in every morning, and it’s assumed that there would be enough bacteria residing on the sides of the container to repopulate the broth during the day while the child is at nursery or school.
Safety
Inside this tube is a one-way valve, so that the fresh broth can easily reach the bacteria, however upon shaking, dropping or inverting, bacteria will not be released.
First Use
Operation
Furri-lux would theoretically come already sterile, with spout bottles of replacement broth (“monster food”), and a glycerol stock of replacement bacteria to be kept in the freezer. Each broth bottle would hold enough broth to half fill the main compartment, leaving room for the bacteria to be sufficiently ventilated. Upon first opening the toy, one of the broth bottles would need to be inoculated with bacteria from the glycerol stocks, and poured into the toy.
Safety
It is important that contamination does not occur during inoculation of the initial broth bottle. Wearing gloves would be recommended for this task, along with the use of sterile toothpicks.
Contamination
Future Considerations
Size
In hindsight, it was thought the toy may be slightly too large to fit comfortably on a child’s windowsill. If mass production were to be considered, a scaled down version of the toy would not affect its functionality as a pet, a light source or an educational tool, but would mean it would be more comfortable on a small ledge, as well as less material being consumed in its production and less broth being needed to fill it, bringing down costs. The larger model is, however, better for demonstrating and displaying the different components.
Alternatives
Sea monkey
“Sea Monkeys” were a very popular novelty pet during the 50s and 60s after their invention by Harold von Braunhut in 1957, and still sell well today. They are a hybrid of different brine shrimp within the Artemia species, named Artemia NYOS, which can exist as eggs in suspended animation for an extremely long time. Once poured into purified salt water they hatch “instantly”.
Pros
Sea Monkeys are large enough to see swimming around once they are fully grown, unlike our bacteria which would remain too small to be visible to the naked eye. They also only need to be feed once every few days, where our bacteria would need to be feed every day. In addition they do not pose any risk to the environment in the event of release, which is something that is theoretically true of our bacteria, however the small risk of mutation or other adverse effect will always be present.
Cons
Sea Monkeys do not require a UVA source, however they do not glow in the dark, which gives an extra element of functionality to our toy.
So yes… Sea Monkeys have a considerable degree of advantage over our product in terms of ease of use and maintenance. There is also the toss-up between whether they glow or are visible individually to the naked eye… but what if we combined them? A future iGEM team idea could be to create glow in the dark Sea Monkeys…!
Read More!
