Biological Modules

The first question we had to face for the E.calculus project was: “how can we transpose an electronic device into a reasonable biological system?”
The diagramm of an electronic full adder can be divided into two independant parts : Input and Output signals (A, B, C_in, S, C_out) and logic gates. Indeed, logic gates will ever be the same, but signals must be adaptable to considered applications and microorganisms.

Input

For the input, it was needed to use a signal that can easily represents an “ON and OFF” switch. The use of lights to represent the inputs was our first idea : a blue and a red light.

Output

The output needed to be a signal that can be easily seen without any divice, something visual like a color.

Riboregulation System

In order to better control the expression of the recombinases, a ribo regulation system has been add before the recombinases genes.

Logic Gates

An electronic full adder is composed of 5 logic gates (2 XOR, 2 AND and 1 OR). To transpose these logic gates into biological gates, two publications published this year (2013) inspired us.

Carry

To represent the carry, a molecule that can transmit a message from one colony to an other was essential.

Full Adder

With a logic diagram, a full adder can be illustrated with 5 logic gates (2 XOR, 2 AND and 1 OR) A and B represent the two operands and Cin and Cout the carries. In our biological system, this diagramm represents the input part.