Plannig the Synthetic Biology Tunnel
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Planning this important event involved a lot of important aspects but the most important was the purpouse which was to spread the meaning of synthetic biology to the public in general with this reaching, teenagers, adults, and even kids and old men.
For the constrution the team worked for 4 large months with 2 official frequencies per week being these ones the Fridays and Sundays. The staff were constructing the exposition 5 hours per day and it was really hard. Som days with cold, other ones with rain but always being a good experience for each one of them.
For the special edition of the exhibition held in Cuatro Cienegas, it was done an adaptation of each one of the modules of the tunnel to applications that can only be given to synthetic biology in that special area. For that special signs were made that depending on the module, it realize a description as shown below:
Topics: -DNA as the information storage molecule in all living things. -Organization of DNA within cells. -Molecular structure of DNA -DNA structure model.
Activity: Puzzle board game to learn how DNA is copied.
Topics: -Genes as functional units of DNA -Organization and parts of a genes -How do the genes work? -Central dogma of molecular biology.
Activity: Puzzle with multiple options to explain gene function through the central Dogma. -Use of common examples.
Topics: -Proteins as carriers of most biological processes -Types of proteins -Examples of common proteins -The genetic code
Activity: Build a protein from DNA code (translation), Protein models.
Topics: -Recombinant DNA technology -Restriction enzymes, ligase and vectors -Examples.
Activity: Build a recombinant DNA molecule with colored cables and transform a cell.
Topics: -Universality, modularity and abstraction of bioparts -Synbio as the application of engineering concepts to biology -Advancements in DNA synthesis and sequencing technologies.
Activity: Construct a genetic circuit on a board and estimate time and costs to build it.
Topics: -BioBricks as standard DNA parts - Parts of a BioBrick - Types of BioBricks. -Biobrick assembly -The Registry of Standard Biological Parts
Activity: Put compatible bricks together.
Topics: -Imagine the possibilities -Addressing high impact problems through biomachines. -Metabolic load -Advantages of biomachines over robots.
Activity: "Labyrinth of metabolism" so that the visitor knows that "parts" must be manipulated to make a organism perform certain function.
Topics: -Impact of SynBio in a wide variety of areas - Examples of issues solved through SynBio (How do these projects work?)
Activity: The visitor must correlate a specific genetic circuit to its application area.
Topics: iGEM as the biggest synthetic biology competition, rules, motivation, scope. - iGEM UANL 2011 and 2012 -CIDEB-UANL 2012
Activity: -Explain
our 2011 project -Exhibition of the light-machine used in our project -Explain
CIDEB's 2012 project
Topics: -Ethics definition -Human quality of life -Good and ugly -Impact awareness -Acceptance of SynBio -Potential problems -Precautions taken to prevent them -Biosafety levels
Activity: Dress with biosafety equipment (lab coat, glasses, gloves…) as fast as possible!
Finally, we thought for being a good scientist is really necessary to know about arts and design too for this kind of situations, and of course to know how to coordinate a lot of people for making things like this possible.
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