Team:ETH Zurich/project/applications
From 2014.igem.org
Applications
---Alginate-Microencapsulated Implants--- These biological computers in turn need to find a way to be implemented in patients, if they are developed for therapeutic use. A promising application of such synthetic biological systems is cell based therapy by alginate-microencapsulated implants[2][3]. In our project we try to generate complex patterns using a grid of alginate beads by exploiting their communication and input integration systems. These beads are incapable of functioning in isolation but generate complex patterns when used together on the grid. We believe that this can be a significant step for the development of artificial organs composed of multiple alginate-microencapsulated implants. Analogous to our system, these encapsulated implants work together to perform the overall task which otherwise, could not have been achieved by a single implant working in isolation.