Team:UCL/Project/Chassis

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Synthetic biologists refer to the host cells for their ‘genetic circuits’, inserted genes sequences, as a ‘chassis’. You can think of the genetic circuit as computer code, and the chassis as the machine that will run it. The chassis manages all the material a genetic circuit requires to function, providing building blocks for protein synthesis, energy and an environment in which the inserted genes can operate. Cellular machinery is essential for reading a circuit information. Synthetic biologists generally use a small suite of well understood chassis, primarily E.coli, in order to better standardise their creations and allow for the easy use of parts in labs worldwide. Other cell types must often be used for different types of circuit. The properties of a chassis often need to complement the properties of its genetic circuit. Highly specialist chassis may have to be used to perform specific tasks.

If a chassis is to be a cell from a multicellular organism, then they can either be taken from that organism directly and used, these are primary cells and are generally harder to transfect, or immortalised cell lines are used. Immortalised cell lines can survive for long periods of time in vitro because, while they cannot divide indefinitely, they have been genetically manipulated to sidestep cellular senescence. Their behaviour is generally a good approximation to cells of the same type working in an organism, but the mutations and their accumulated genetic alterations can change their functioning slightly.

In our project, we used three different chassis; E.coli, HeLa cells and microglial cells. We used both the immortalised human microglia SV-40 and primary microglia from rat brains.