Team:Gothenburg/Modeling

Introduction

Our project intends to create a generation counter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The yeast cell would express fluorescent proteins of different colors according to the number of daughter cells spawn. Nowadays, the replicative age of a yeast cell is determined by counting the budding scars with the help of a microscope. This process is time-consuming and not automated. Once our idea is implemented, it would be possible to use a flow cytometric device to sort the cells according to their color and, consequently, generation number. To achieve that, we are building genetic circuits with a logical AND gate ensuring generation specific expression of different fluorescent proteins.

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the logical AND gate with the input and output signals.