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Team:Dundee/collaborations
From 2014.igem.org
Collaborations
Let's Work Together
Besides the competitive aspects of iGEM, it also provides an excellent platform for collaboration between teams. As well as attending various meetings of iGEM teams to discuss projects, our collaborative efforts involved:
Scottish iGEM team poster session
We arranged a poster session for the four Scottish iGEM teams where teams would be able to discuss their projects at a high profile science convention in Scotland. It was held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 16th of October and was part of The Scottish Science Advisory Council (SSAC) event to launch their report 'Synthetic Biology: opportunities for Scotland'. This gave the teams a great chance to share their projects with some of the top synthetic biologists in the country and prepare for the Boston competition only a few weeks later.
Our final outing prior to Boston was to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the official launch of the Scottish Science Advisory Council’s report on synthetic biology Synthetic Biology: Opportunities for Scotland where a small group of core research and industry representatives led by Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland Professor Muffy Calder were gathered to discuss the future of SynBio in Scotland.
After an introduction by Prof Calder, a summary of the report’s findings was given by Professor Nigel Brown who highlighted the significance of synthetic biology to the futures of medicine, with a focus on the development of new antimicrobial drugs; agriculture, outlining how the use of synthetic biology to assist in screening plant lines for desirable traits could significantly streamline the breeding process; and economy, warning that if Scotland ignores the opportunities that SynBio has to offer then the country may lose business to others who do not.
Professor Richard Cogdell followed with a rousing talk on the future of SynBio in general, giving the example of an experiment whereby Geobacter sp. had been kept alive solely by electricity generated from solar panels via electrodes which contact extracelluar nanowires. Prof Cogdell suggested that this phenomenon might be exploited for large-scale storage of surplus energy from wind-farms (which currently must be shut down when over-producing electricity) in the form of chemical bonds. Prof Cogdell was emphatic in his espousal of the iGEM competition as a driving force for the future of SynBio, citing our team’s efforts to engage with the people who would benefit from the technology as an example of how to create a more trusting and transparent relationship between science and society. This was a great honour for the team!
A stimulating discussion on public relations, intellectual property and global considerations followed the talks which we hope foreshadows the Giant Jamboree in exploring the issues at the heat of SynBio.
We were joined by the Edinburgh and Aberdeen iGEM teams in giving a poster session after the talks and discussion, this was an excellent opportunity to discuss our projects and network with members and fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Special regards and thanks to our own Dave Burrell for working hard to organise the involvement of the iGEM teams in this event – to the benefit of all in attendance.
Sharing our resources
We provided bacterial strains and plasmids to team Berlin to aid them in their magnetic bacteria project. Constructs from Dundee iGEM 2011 team’s Sphereactor were sent to Oxford iGEM for the creation of their chlorinated waste disposal system.Completing Surveys
We answered surveys for Linköping University, Sweden on peanut allergies; Warwick University, UK on the public’s opinion on synthetic biology; ETH Zürich, Switzerland on complexity in everyday life and for University of São Paulo, Brazil on ethics in biology.We also discussed division of labor within our team with the Edinburgh iGEM team.
Welcome to Dundee's 2014 Wiki (Site Information)
Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease that results in the accumulation of thick mucus in the epithelial linings of the entire body, particularly the respiratory tract. Over the course of a patient’s life, the mucus-lined lung epithelium becomes repeatedly infected with pathogenic bacteria that stimulate an immune response; leading to inflammation, tissue damage, and ultimately, respiratory failure.
The microflora of the Cystic Fibrosis lung changes over time. In childhood, the major coloniser is Staphylococcus aureus, but as the patient matures other bacterial pathogens infect. The later-dominating pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia, are very difficult to eradicate and are associated with chronic decline in lung function. Burkholderia is so infectious that patients have to be isolated from one another, and can be denied lung transplants due to the persistence of this bacterium.
It is important, therefore, for medics to monitor and identify the levels of bacteria within the respiratory tract of a Cystic Fibrosis patient. Currently, patients must provide sputum samples and identification of bacteria takes between 72 hours and 2 weeks, by which point the bacteria can be in an antibiotic resistant state.
The Dundee 2014 iGEM project is focused on designing and testing a device that will rapidly and non-invasively identify the bacteria colonising a Cystic Fibrosis patient. Three biosensors will be developed that recognise external signal molecules produced by key bacteria, all of which are known to be in sputum samples of Cystic Fibrosis patients. A quinolone signal (PQS) is produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Diffusible Signal Factor (DSF) is produced by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, an organism that is also associated with Cystic Fibrosis lung infection in adults, and BDSF is a related, but chemically distinct molecule that is produced by Burkholderia cepacia.
By engineering signal recognition and signal transduction proteins from these biological systems the Dundee iGEM team want to produce a portable electronic device that will identify infection outside of the clinic, so that patients do not have to travel great distances, and can be used to help health professionals make informed and rapid decisions on antibiotic treatments.
Read this again by clicking on Site Information in the navigation bar!
Bulletin Board (Policy & Practice)
Come look at the poster explaining how we involved the local and national Cystic Fibrosis community in our project, how we listened to people on the front line of the disease and how they affected our project.
School (Project)
Come in and learn about all the parts that make The Lung Ranger. The lab work that we carried out over the summer is explained here in detail, along with the modelling and implementation.
Library (Log Book)
Read about the experience the team has had over the summer. A week by week description of our work, how we carried out that work and some photos of our time together.
Saloon (iGEM community)
Come on in, take a seat and learn how we have interacted with the larger iGem community. Who the team are, who helped them and how we helped others.
College of Life Sciences
With more than 1100 staff and research students and external funding of around £60 million per year, the College of Life Sciences is one of the largest and most productive research institutes in Europe. This reputation is genuinely global and is reflected in the fact that researchers in our laboratories represent no fewer than 62 different nationalities
Division of Mathematics A small friendly Division which offers a lively and modern programme of study at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.We have research groups in Mathematical Biology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Magnetohydrodynamics and Applied Analysis.
School of Computing With research areas in Human Centred Computing, Intelligent Systems, Space Technologies and Theory of Computation, the department has an emphasis on development. Furthermore, this department teaches popular undergraduate programs in Applied Computing and Computing Science.
We are a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.
