Team:Warwick/Modelling4
DNA Beading
Once we had a method of calculating the concentration of cells needed we had to model the number of cells required to make a certain shape. We also needed to invent a novel approach to creating 2D shapes using cells, this page discusses bonding them to a longer string of DNA to form a pattern.
Minimum E.coli for Image
The image on the right shows the increase of E.coli cells needed to make a shape. The number of cells per shape follows a linear progression, proportional to the number of sides that the shape has. A basic first order, linear differntial equation would be C=13(S-2)+12, where C is the approximate number of cells needed to make that shape and S is the number of sides of the shape.
DNA Beading
This could potentially then be used to create 2D shapes and images, by combing strings of DNA with the bonded E.coli cells along them to create something like the image to the left.
To make the DNA beads we will use an E.coli genome and then denature the double stranded DNA and then add in primers at different locations with the zinc finger binding sequence attached to the end.
This shows how numerous strings of DNA could come together to make an image in a 2D plane.
The benefit of this idea is that you could create very complex patterns with relatively few zinc fingers by just using a longer section of the original E.coli plasmid.
Primer Sequences for Beads
To add the zinc finger binding sites we chose to find primer sequences along the string of DNA which we would then attach a primer to which had the corresponding zinc finger on the end. The table to the left shows the attachment sequences we used. These 20 sites evenly distribute the E.coli cells across the DNA string with approximately half an E.coli cell between each one.
