Colisweeper as a worldwide interaction platform

Figure 1: A schematic diagram of a global, web-based platform to play Colisweeper

We believe Colisweeper is an original and novel tool that can be employed to raise awareness and educate people about synthetic biology. We envision an application with which people from all over the globe can remotely interact to participate in a multi-player game. Using a global web-based platform, a smart phone application that can be downloaded, people can remotely connect with other people miles away. At the department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH-Zürich in Basel, we have a platform called openBIS. OpenBIS, an Open Source Biology Information is purposed for the management, annotation and sharing of data measured in biological experiments. We plan to create a QR Code to access the our website and application for smartphones and tablets to connect ot the openBIS platform. Using OpenBIS, global players can connect to a cloning robot at our department via remote control. Once connection is established, our bio-game colisweeper can be played with multiple players across the world. The game grid can be viewed by the players with each position of the colony in the grid represented by an alpha-numeric code. The player chooses a code after which the robot makes the move. (watch the video for the robot in action) Alternatively, the opponent player makes a move. The player that encounters the mine colony first loses the game.

Educational expansion

Through our global web-based platform, we extend the possibility of a player to participate in the design process of the Colisweeper circuit. As our circuit involves a sender-receiver module, different combinations of promoters and hydrolases can be chosen by the player. From a displayed chart of indexed sender modules and receiver modules, a certain combination will yield a specific output. Through a use-friendly modeling interface, a definite set of reactions systems are specified for a selected sender-receiver circuit. The feasibility of the circuit in terms of the time scales, visible and compatible outputs, could be checked, plug in parameters and exploiting the modularity of our model.

Figure 2: Possible plug and play combinations.

This would add a large educational value completely in agreement with the "plug-and-play" idea of gamification.

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