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.

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.

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