"
Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing field of science that promises to revolutionize almost every part of our technology. However, one of the biggest drawbacks of synthetic biology compared to other fields is the lack of standardization within the field. Some of this can be attributed to the nature of the field itself; biological systems are much harder to control than electrical or mechanical ones.
A good portion of the problem though, comes from how the genetic parts are characterized and presented. The iGEM competition has sought for many years to create a “Registry of Standardized Parts” so that iGEM teams and other researchers can submit and use genetic parts that have been proven to work and function. While creating and characterizing new parts and devices to be added to the registry are important, if the information needed to use that part is not communicated efficiently, the parts themselves are useless. This year, the Purdue iGEM team set out to solve this problem by creating a definitive characterization standard for the registry. By talking and collaborating with over fifty other iGEM teams around the world, we have developed a way to standardize how characterization data is submitted and presented in the registry.
This system encompasses an easy, template-based system to enter data of a part into the iGEM registry. Once implemented, our solution will revolutionize the Registry of Standardized Parts and add some much-needed standardization to the field of synthetic biology.
