WELCOME TO iGEM 2014!

Your team has been approved and you are ready to start the iGEM season!
On this page you can document your project, introduce your team members, document your progress
and share your iGEM experience with the rest of the world!

Click here to edit this page!

Project Description

Our project consists of a biological molecular device (using Bacillus subtilis as chassis) for detection of Cystatin C, a biomarker of chronic kidney disease. The genetic circuit being assembled is based on the outstanding project of the Imperial College of London team of iGEM 2010 (special thanks to the ex-iGEMer Christopher Hirst, who helped us a lot sending some important BioBricks to us). Part of our mission is also to improve the characterization of the BioBricks developed on 2010 and to validate the molecular design as a generic detection system. This flexibility of detection is based on a protease cleavage of a membrane protein who triggers the genetic circuit. Since any cleavage site could be designed, virtually any protease could be used as a signal for the detection. In our case, the disease biomarker will inhibit the action of our chosed protease (Cathepsin S) and the detection will be made indirectlly and negativelly - i.e. by the Cathepsin lack of protease activity and absense of the system output. We're on the way to assemble all the parts and properlly characterize each part of our construction on time for the Jamboree.
To address a real world situation, we are working on the same principle and aesthetics of the well know devices for biotecetion like pregnancy or HIV tests: ease-to-use microfluidic devices. The plan is to design a microchip able to store spores of the developed strains of B.subtilis and safely expose blood samples to our biodetection system, successfully containing the biomaterial and enabling a proper discard of the chip. A priori, the device output monitoring would require a fluorescence detector tool, but we also propose a naked eye output observation as a concept for future prospects.
Because we're woking a solution directlly associated with a ordinary user, the concern about the perception of public opinion about synthetic biology is very important not only to know about the social impact of our work, but to help evaluate the biosafety and bioethical issues beyond a simple risk analysis - a sociological analysis of the values of our project. So, as a policy and practices approach, we'll try to draw a picture of the public opinion of Brazil on these issues using a questionary to evaluate our actual scenario and, in a certain way, our own project.

Wiki Pre Structure (Under Construction!)

This is the initial wiki pre structure that might be changed over its development. Everything here is merely provisional!

• Home
• The Issue
  • Overview
  • Avaliable Solutions
  • Our Solution
• The Project
  • Overview
  • Cystatin C
  • Detection Module
  • Diagnosis Module
  • Response Module
  • The Device
• Modeling (Question: how many pages we'll really need here!? Modelling guys must have the answer.)
  • Overview
  • Detection Module
  • Diagnosis Module
  • Response Module
• Results
  • Overview
  • Characterization
  • Sporulation and Desporulation
  • Microfluidic Device
  • BioBricks
• Outreach (The "Human Practices" part)
  • Overview
  • Public Opinion on SynBio
  • Jamboré
  • Working Together
• Notebook
  • Lab Journal
  • Protocols
  • Lab Safety
• Team
  • Members ("Team" + "Team Official Profile" (linking it) + "Attributions")
  • Collaborations (Maybe the page "Working Together" is enought for this subject, right!?)
  • Sponsors & Support

Requirements

Please be sure to keep these links, your audience will want to find your:

• Home
• Team
• Official Team Profile
• Project
• Parts
• Modeling
• Notebook
• Safety
• Attributions

There are a few wiki requirements teams must follow:

• All pages, images and files must be hosted on the 2014.igem.org server.
• All pages must be created under the team’s name space.
• As part of your documentation, keep the links from the menu to the left.
• Do not use flash in wiki code.
• The iGEM logo should be placed on the upper part of every page and should link to 2014.igem.org.

Visit the Wiki How To page for a complete list of requirements, tips and other useful information.

Tips

We are currently working on providing teams with some easy to use design templates.
In the meantime you can also view other team wikis for inspiration! Here are some very good examples

• 2013 SDU Denmark
• 2013 SYSU China
• 2013 Shenxhen BGIG ATCG
• 2013 Colombia Unianades
• 2013 Lethbridge

For a full wiki list, you can visit iGEM 2013 web sites and iGEM 2012 web sites lists.

This wiki will be your team’s first interaction with the rest of the world, so here are a few tips to help you get started:

• State your accomplishments! Tell people what you have achieved from the start.
• Be clear about what you are doing and what you plan to do.
• You have a global audience! Consider the different backgrounds that your users come from.
• Make sure information is easy to find; nothing should be more than 3 clicks away.
• Avoid using very small fonts and low contrast colors; information should be easy to read.
• Start documenting your project as early as possible; don’t leave anything to the last minute before the Wiki Freeze. For a complete list of deadlines visit the iGEM 2013 calendar
• Have lots of fun!