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.
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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Requirements |
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Please be sure to keep these links, your audience will want to find your:
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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.
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Tips |
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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
For a full wiki list, you can visit iGEM 2013 web sites and iGEM 2012 web sites lists.
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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!
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