Difference between revisions of "Team:Warwick/Project"

 
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<h4>Brixells</h4>
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<h4>Brixells: Achieving Spatial Organisation of Cells</h4>
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Our team's aim is to create a tool box allowing the selective allocation of specific cell types to an engineered DNA scaffold, using zinc finger binding proteins on an E. coli model. Our research would allow for the self assembly of complex multi-type cell structures. The project will advance in progressive bands of complexity: designing and cloning the zinc finger coated E. coli cells, constructing DNA structure to allow for the cells to bind, further development of the zinc finger binding proteins allowing for multiple cell types to coexist on the DNA structure, and finally designing complex 3-D structures that the cells will be able to self assemble into. This has possible applications throughout medicine. Our research would contribute potentially to 3-D printing organic tissues, allowing for customised living tissues to be engineered.
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<br><br><br><h5>Our aim is to develop a technique which allows precision control over the positioning of cells in space. </h5>
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<p><br>Our goal can be broken down into two main steps:
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<li>  1. Developing a method that enables cells to bind to a specific area. </li>
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<li>  2.        Creating a target to which the cells can attach. </li>
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By modifying cells to express (and display) zinc finger proteins on their surface, we can engineer cells that have the ability to recognise and bind to specific sequences of double stranded DNA. The arrangement of these DNA strands can then allow the cells to be positioned in the desired area.  
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We have chosen to use <i>E. coli</i> as the model for our concept for multiple reasons:
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<blockquote> It is the one of the most studied microorganisms, any changed we make to the genome are unlikely to have unexpected results. </blockquote>
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<br><br><b>What we did:</b>
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<blockquote> When made electrocompetent or chemically competetent it readily accepts plasmids. </blockquote>
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<blockquote> It has a rapid generation time so we can grow a lot of it in a short time period. </blockquote>
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<br><br> Zinc finger proteins are intracellular molecules that recognise (and bind) unique strands of double stranded DNA. We expressed these zinc fingers on the surface of our cell by attaching them to transmembrane proteins.
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And most importantly:
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<blockquote> It can be cultured easily and inexpensively in a lab, so any mistakes we make when experimenting won't bankrupt us! </blockquote>
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<br>Using 4 different zinc fingers and anchor proteins, we planned to optimise the system by finding the best combinations of zinc fingers to anchor proteins.
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<br>By using immunofluorescence microscopy we were able to test the 2 main steps to achieving our goal. We looked at whether our anchor proteins were being expressed, as well as the binding between our zinc fingers and their unique binding domains. 
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<img src="" alt=""><b>Fun diagram of <i>E. coli!</i></b>
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<h5>Accomplishments:</h5>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/e/e7/WarwickCell-ecoli.gif" alt=""><b>E.Coli Diagram</b>
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<li> Presenting at the iGEM Giant Jamboree (Boston) 2015.</li>
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<li> Presenting at the Westminster iGEM meetup. </li>
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<li> Submitting 6 new parts to the <a href= "https://2015.igem.org/Team:Warwick/Parts">registry</a>.</li>
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<li> Running sessions in schools to teach the students about synthetic biology.</li>
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<li> Educating the general public about synthetic biology.</li>
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<li> <a href= "https://2015.igem.org/Team:Warwick/Collaborations">Collaborating</a> with various iGEM teams. </li>
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<li> Hosting 6 interns. </li>
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<li> Discussing our idea with professionals in<a href= "https://2015.igem.org/Team:Warwick/Modelling3"> 3D printing</a>.</li>
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<li> Conducting a survey to gauge public opinion of synthetic biology.</li>
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<li> Speaking to various researchers about how our idea could be used in their field in the <a href= "<a href= "https://2015.igem.org/Team:Warwick/PracticesFuture">future</a>.</li>
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<li> Improving the <a href= "https://2015.igem.org/Team:Warwick/Description">characterisation</a> of part JO4450 in the registry.</li>
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<li> Successfully campaigning for and receiving £34,550 in funding. </li>
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Latest revision as of 20:25, 18 September 2015

Warwick iGEM 2015

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