Biobricking of “IP-Free” Fluorescent Protein Genes

We started the competition period with a lofty goal- to create a small library of biobrick parts that would be open to the DIYbio community. The realities of an adult team that all have full time day jobs made it necessary to scale back that ambition, so we decided to focus on some fluorescent protein genes since turning E. coli K-12 green has become the “Hello World” experiment of citizen scientist groups everywhere. Little did we realize how twisted the path to open source biology is!