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Team:INSA Toulouse/contenu/lab practice/notebook/calendar/getting started
From 2013.igem.org
Calendar
Getting started
September 2012 - December 2012:
- Team selection by our advisor Mr Truan.
IGEM explanation, purpose definition, advisors funding.
Brainstorming period, all ideas were welcomed!
Once a week a meeting to discuss the new ideas and present different publications or iGEM projects.
Among the different ideas, some were studied with greater attention, carrying out bibliographical studies to evaluate the potential and the feasibility of the project.
Following is the list of the remaining projects at the end of December:
- A biological calculator: the idea is to associate different logic gates in order to construct an organism able to perform mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
- A biological clock: the idea is to associate an oscillator and a counter to enable the cells to measure time.
- A bio-plant: the idea is to construct an organism able to create protein “on request”, that is to say protein able to create a succession of amino acid chosen by an external operator, without modifying the genetic heritage.
- A chameleon bacterium: the idea is to design a bacterium able to detect the color of the support and to product pigment of the same color, like a real chameleon.
- A happy bacteria: the idea is here to design an organism able to detect and regulate the level of serotonin, an hormone contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness.
- A anti cholesterol bacteria: here the idea is to detect and degrade cholesterol LDL in blood.
January 2013 – May 2013:
- After lengthy discussions, the team agreed on the fact that the implementation of a regulatory system is essential in an iGEM project. This point allowed us to eliminate some ideas like the biological clock and the chameleon bacterium.
During the month of April, it was decided to drop of the project concerning the organism able to regulate serotonin and cholesterol. Our knowledge in medicine was too low to be aware of the consequences that such organism can have.
Little by little, the biological calculator became the favorite idea of the team and was finally chosen! The searches and the bibliographical studies were then refocused on this topic. We first wanted to create a decimal calculator but, we had to face different issues: how to create the carry? And how to make a system sensitive enough to be precise? Because we didn’t find any solutions to those problems, we switched to a binary calculator. The bibliographical studies were then focused on logical gates and biological gates and helped us to design our system. Finally a brilliant idea sprang from our brain, allowing bacteria to perform additions. E Calculus was born (see more details in Project)!
Beginning of sponsors approaching. Our iGEM budget was estimated around 60 k€ (80k$)!!
