BioSysBio:abstracts/2007/iGEM2006 Imperial College

• Add or delete the sections that you require.

Engineering a synthetic molecular oscillator based on the lotka volterra dynamic model

Author(s): I. CoLi Team 2006
Affiliations: Imperial College
Contact:email: your_e-mail
Keywords: 'iGEM' 'Biological Oscillator' 'AHL' 'AiiA'

Abstract

Oscillators or clocks are a vital part of all electronic devices from computers to televisions they allow synchronisation of a system which prevents an overflow of information. Stable biological oscillators are a vital first step towards synthetic biological computers which can harness the massive parallel computing power inherent to biological systems. We have designed a synthetic biological oscillator which can be used in synthetic biological circuits.

It is based on predator prey dynamics and creates population wide synchronised oscillations of the concentration of an Acyl Homoserine Lactone molecule. The oscillations are driven by a synthetic quorum sensing / quenching mechanism which has been designed to behave in such a way that it fits the lotka volterra population dynamics model. The machinery is housed in two separate populations of cells which do not kill each other. Instead the cell density of the cell populations is proportional to parameters of the model such as the AHL production rate. Thereby altering the relative cell densities of the cells in our system allows us to tune the frequency and amplitude of the oscillations. This system works in mathematical models and we are currently trying to build it.

[For full details visit our openwetware project site] I recomend visiting the design pages for a more complete overview

Results

Add your text here

Images/Tables

Add your images or tables here

Materials/Methods

Add your text here

Conclusion

Add your text here

References

For further help on editing, please see [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing here]