IGEM:MIT/2006/Introduction

This page contains links to introductory information for the MIT iGEM team.

System Design considerations

 * Feasible system scale (numbers of parts, plasmids, chassis types)
 * Design tools - models, network diagrams
 * Moving from system->devices->parts->DNA specification
 * Likelihood of success - protein engineering, cloning, new biological techniques and new science etc.

Abstraction hierarchy & standardization

 * Parts - zinc fingers?
 * Devices - receiver?, inverter?
 * Systems - bacterial photography?
 * PoPS and composability

Construction methods

 * BioBricks - Day 1, Week 1
 * Standard assembly - Day 2, Week 1
 * 3A assembly
 * In frame assembly
 * Direct synthesis

Construction tools

 * Registry
 * Obtain accounts - Day 1, Week 1
 * Making a part (both basic and composite) - Day 1, Week 1
 * BLAST
 * Sequence alignments
 * NCBI Entrez - Day 1, Week 1
 * VectorNTI
 * Others?

Test

 * Plate reader characterization (i.e. Receiver)
 * Flow cytometry (i.e. Screening plasmid)
 * Microscopy
 * RT-PCR and Westerns

Lab notebooks & documentation

 * Getting started with wiki editing - Day 1, Week 1
 * Populate the official MIT iGEM 2006 wiki page
 * The online lab notebook framework

Searching and reading the literature

 * Searching the literature - Day 3, Week 1

Lab safety

 * Complete the Endy lab safety training.  (Even if you have worked in a lab before, you should visit this page and verify that your training is up to date.)  This should be done before your first day in lab.
 * Heather will be giving the lab-specific training - Day 1, Week 1

Links
General introduction to ideas in Synthetic Biology
 * 1) Adventures in synthetic biology comic --> Learn about PoPS
 * 2) Foundations for engineering biology --> rant by Drew Endy
 * 3) MIT iGEM 2004 presentation (.ppt,pdf)
 * 4) UT Austin and UCSF 2004 project (coliroids)
 * 5) Find descriptions of 2005 projects

Schedules

 * IGEM:MIT/2006/Introduction/Week 1