Paris Bettencourt

The Paris Bettencourt-Calgary iGEM collaboration started last June when a few members from each team met at the SB6.0 synbio conference in London. After a few beers and lab stories, we learned that despite coming from the opposite sides of the globe, we were using synthetic biology to build biosensors to sense DNA. Although our systems were targeted to different problems, we were struck by a number of commonalities between these projects. Please see the below table for a breakdown of these differences.

As we talked our projects, we recalled how we could not find DNA biosensor parts in the registry. Moreover, we complained about the lack of organization of biosensors in the parts registry. The veteran iGEMers on each team recalled how biosensors had consistently finished as grand prize winners in previous years of iGEM. We were curious about how biosensors have evolved since the beginning of iGEM and how our projects fit into the context of the iGEM Parts Registry.

We decided to collaborate to answer these questions. Since our initial meeting in London, members of each team have conferenced weekly on Skype. After accustoming ourselves to the eight hour time difference, we developed SensiGEM, a joint database in which we catalogued all the biosensors in the history of iGEM.

Before sinking our teeth into past Wikis, we realized that we had different definitions of biosensors. We asked each other a fundamental question: What is a biosensor? We developed the following definition:

A biosensor is an engineered system that relies on a biological systems or components to detect and report a condition. The condition(s) detected and reported could encompass an environmental, biological, chemical or synthetic aspect or compound in the sensor’s environment or surroundings.

Once we agreed on the nature of biosensors, we split up the Wikis from 2007 onward between Calgary and Paris Bettencourt. We analyzed every Wiki since 2007 by hand, incorporating the projects which matched our biosensor definition into the collaborative SensiGEM database. We designed this database with future iGEM teams in mind, with tools for efficient navigation biosensors according to inputs, outputs, and their intended application. We foresee this database as a resource which future iGEM teams can contribute their biosensor projects.

We did some preliminary analysis on biosensors in iGEM and the results of these analysis can be found below.

To extend the scope of this collaboration and to further show that the TALEs and CRISPRs are indeed modular in nature. Also list some characterization idea/ studies we might do as a future direction.