Our project in a nutshell

Summary of our project

The 2014 EPFL iGEM team has been working on showing that biologically engineered organisms can detect and process signals quickly and efficiently. With this in mind, our team brought forward a novel idea: combining protein complementation techniques with biosensors to achieve fast spatiotemporal analysis of cell response to stimuli.

As a proof-of-concept, we aimed to develop the first BioPad: a biological trackpad made of a microfluidic chip, touch responsive organisms, and a signal detector. To make our organisms touch sensitive, we engineering two stress-related pathways in E.Coli and S.Cerevisiae. In E.Coli, we engineered the Cpx Pathway – a two-component regulatory system responsive to envelope stress. In S.Cerevisiae we modified the HOG Pathway - a MAPKK pathway responsive to osmotic stress. To learn more about the various components of our project, check out our overview section. If you are a judge, you might also be interested in our data page.

Why a BioPad?

The biological concepts behind the BioPad project have applications in basic and applied sciences. From a scientific perspective, the ideas introduced and implemented by our project are novel and promising for future applications. The BioPad is also an interesting concept that will encourage public awareness of synthetic biology. The tangibility of the project will allow the general public to look at synthetic biology in a better way, as people will understand how great genetically modified organisms are! To get down the basics, the combination of novel biological concepts, a cool idea, and the community awareness that our project provides, makes the BioPad project perfect an ideal project for iGEM!

The BioPad's Applications

With respect to basic sciences, the BioPad demonstrates that protein complementation techniques are suitable for biosensors – especially for two-component regulatory systems. The introduction of the split IFP1.4 (infrared fluorescent protein) into the registry will allow future iGEM and research teams to take advantage of the reversibility and precision of this protein. Moreover, our work on the Cpx pathway will allow future iGEM teams to make novel uses of other members of this subfamily, as well as other two-component regulatory systems.

As for applied sciences, the BioPad could be used to deliver a cheap, fast, efficient, and accurate antibiotic screening system allowing researchers to easily quantify the effects of antibiotics on gram-negative bacteria. The BioPad project could also be the source of an "antibiotic complement" drug increasing the efficiency of pre-existing antibiotics. Moreover, the Biopad could provide a new approach to studying genes by allowing researchers to examine the relationship between genes and their corresponding activating signals. To learn more about the applications of our project click here.