How construct a LED Array?

The following information contains the steps that was done by the Unam Genomics Team of the iGEM 2010 in order to construct an improvised light dispositive to irradiate bioluminiscent cells.

Blue Led Array

Introduction

Synthetic Biology has been enabling changes in all bio-domains, one such being communication. Cellular communication has relied since time immemorial on chemical messengers to exchange information.

In the project of Unam Genomics Team at the iGEM 2010, their goal is to render the chemical barrier deprecated by using a non-chemical messenger: photons. These will transport information between cells that have been designed to sense and emit light, thus creating a photon-based inter-cellular communication system.

They decided to break down their devices into 3 sub-devices: Reception, Emission, and Transmission. One of the most important things in the project is how the cell receive the information and process it. The intensity of the answer is proportional to the level of the message, so is necessary to characterize the black magic box that occurs in the cell.

A simple aproach to reach this goal is know how many photons are needed to turn on the system and to find the level of the expression in the cell. We then, constructed a plate with variable light which have autonomus temporizer.

In order to allow you to test our receptors or if you have a lot of free time in the lab do the experiments we report a do it yourself.

What do you need

• Soldering kits
• 96 LEDS 3 volts of the color that you want
• ELISA plate
• 4 meters of copper wire
• An energy transformer (120 V ~ 3V) of at least 2 ampers.
• Patience :)

More information:

• Bitacore of our team experience From 22/06 to 27/06
• The experiment and Technical issues
• Unam Genomics iGEM 2010 Wiki