Team:EPF Lausanne
From 2014.igem.org
Our project in a nutshell
![EPFL_interaction_IFP_cartoon](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/0f/Interaction_test_11_cyan_white_bg_bigger.gif)
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 responses to stimuli. To restate this in an easier way, by fusing complementary fragments of a reporter protein to proteins interacting upon stimulus, we are able to detect signal dynamics thanks to the association of the reporter fragments. We thereby rely on much faster post-transcriptional modifications to generate signals rather than traditional reporter transcription.
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 result page, our data page and our judging form.
MEET OUR TEAM
We are a group of 13 students from the faculties of Life Sciences & Technologies and Computer Sciences, and are supervised by 2 EPFL professors, 1 Lecturer and 5 PhD students.
![the team's students](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/2/2c/Team_pic_sitting.jpg)