Colisweeper as a worldwide interaction platform

Figure 1: A global, web-based version of Colisweeper to educate and raise awareness about Synthetic Biology

We see Colisweeper as an original and novel tool to raise awareness and educate people about synthetic biology. We envision an application for which no biological background is necessary at all. To achieve this, one could set up a global web-based platform, where people from across the world could compete against each other. At the department of biosystems and engineering in Basel, we have a platform called openBIS available, that allows to connect to a cloning robot at our departement via remote control. This allows to play colisweeper using a video feedback from any point of the world. We plan to create a QR Code to access our website and application for smartphones and tablets to connect ot the openBIS platform and play colisweeper with the robot against player from all around the world.
Even a participation in the design process of the Colisweeper circuit would be possible. Ideas about different combinations of promoters and hydrolases could be submitted and tested. This would add a large educational value completely in agreement with the "plug-and-play" idea of gamification.

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