Team:uOttawa

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Throughout the life cycle of any given cell, many pre-programmed genetic decisions are made by cells in order for the cells to develop normally or to respond appropriately to external stimuli. This is especially true in complex multi-cellular organisms, where various cell types have to work in tandem in a multitude of cellular tasks. For instance, the apoptotic pathway allows for controlled cell death, which is essential for the continued function of many multicellular organisms. Stem cells must make vital cellular decisions during early development of multicellular organisms about when to differentiate and into what cell type. Thus, it is through understanding the complexities of these ‘decisions’ that scientists may be able to design independent cells that will change its own cellular fate in order to better accomplish whatever its given task. With that in mind, the uOttawa iGEM team is attempting to recreate synthetically one particular cellular decision mechanism within a simply eukaryote (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), taking a step towards controlling entire decision pathways and possibly creating unique cell fates within existing cells. [[newline]] The mechanism behind pluripotency -- stem cells’ potential to differentiate into all different cell types-- has been a significant focus of modern research. In 2009, Sui Hang et al. theorized that pluripotency is controlled by a cascade of tri-stable switches, a type of genetic network motif that maintains three unique expression states simultaneously. This year, the uOttawa iGEM team is constructing iGEM’s first functional tri-stable switch based upon this theoretical premise in order to ascertain the potential for tri-stable switches to function as a differentiation mechanism. By doing so, we hope to create genetically engineered cells that are capable of making autonomous cellular decision in reaction to a multitude of internal and external stimuli, allowing us to study this dynamic cellular decision mechanism.
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