Team:BostonU/Mammalian synbio/Current Challenges

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Significance

Current Challenges

Proposed Solutions

Current Challenges

We aimed to identify a few broad reasons why mammalian cells are not heavily used in the iGEM community.

Cost

We very quickly recognized that there is a high cost associated with performing research in mammalian cells. This cost comes at many levels.

1. Higher Cost of Equipment and Facilities

   To use classic mammalian cell lines such as HEK293T cells, researchers require BSL2 certified spaces. The space itself may be difficult for individuals to obtain - working with multiple organisms in the same lab space may result in more chances for contamination, and thus for best results, researchers may want to have a designated space for mammalian use. Our iGEM team stems from a lab that has many researchers working with mammalian cells, and we were fortunate to be able to use dedicated BSL2 facilities for our research project.

   Some notable facilities and equipment needed for mammalian cell work include:

   1. CO₂ Incubator: In order to keep mammalian cells alive and growing, they need to be incubated at a certain temperature and CO₂ level. Our incubator was set at 37 C with a CO₂ level of 5.0%.

Through our time working with mammalian cells we certainly came across different problems that hinder this research. Our iGEM team was fortunate enough to work in a lab that frequently utilizes mammalian cells. While we were extremely new to any procedures related to mammalian cells, we had many other researchers in lab who were there to help and guide us through the most optimal way to do things. We wish that everyone in the iGEM community had the same opportunities that we had, especially because so many teams do research for amazing health and medical applications. If we as a community were able to further that research into mammalian chassis, synthetic biology would be one step closer to feasible applications.

The biggest obstacle is definitely the cost associated with mammalian research. There is an initial cost to equipment and facilities and then an ongoing cost of upkeep of that equipment and the proliferation of cells. It is unfortunate that such a high cost is necessary for this cutting edge research, but we believe that as time goes on these costs will decrease because not only will new methodologies come out but even different techniques could arise. So, the most important thing we can do now is to begin the movement towards increased mammalian research by beginning a thorough discussion.

A concern more specific to iGEM is about the submission of mammalian constructs, which are generally larger and more internally complex than bacterial parts. If possible, we would want to lead further investigation into how to make BioBricks more welcoming for these parts or promoting use of MammoBlocks first suggested by MIT 2010 and 2011.

Finally, there is generally less familiarity and awareness within the community about using mammalian chassis for translational health applications. It is important to at least make teams aware about the pros and cons of this research so that they can actively decide whether or not their project would benefit from it.