Team:Freiburg/Motivation

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of the Freiburger student
team competing for iGEM 2011.
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Why „Lab in a Cell“?

Synthetic Biology can be an expensive discipline to conduct research in. One needs many kits, reagents and costly laboratory apparatus, all of wich require an advanced infrastructure for biotechnology and chemistry. Yet in many developing countries it is hard to aquire the necessary equipment.

Our approach is based on the great advantage of living systems: self reproduction. Ideally, most equipment needs for molecular biology could be covered by nature itself. In creating an organism that can be controlled as precisely and as simply as possible in the functions we try to achieve, we may gain direct access to nature’s own capabilities to aid us in research.

The concept of our protein expression and purification mechanism is to be as indipendent as possible from high-tech infrastructure so it can be used in more remote areas of this world for research and diagnostic purposes, enabling scientists to work whereever it is required without a great increase in expenditure of resources.

Our Lab in a Cell concept is not only far simpler to handle than many current technologies, but also cheaper and easy to keep at hand for when needed. We imagine the functions of a synthetic biology lab provided by cells themselves, controlled via what nature provides, like light for example. Everything one would need could fit in a mere suitcase: Pipettes and tips, bacterial samples, extracted and dried DNA, a small device for light induction o rat least some colour filters.

This idea can be extended and modified for basically any cellular function we wish to use for our purposes.

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+== ''' Why „Lab in a Cell“? ''' ==
+Synthetic Biology can be an expensive discipline to conduct research in. One needs many kits, reagents and costly laboratory apparatus, all of wich require an advanced infrastructure for biotechnology and chemistry. Yet in many developing countries it is hard to aquire the necessary equipment.
+Our approach is based on the great advantage of living systems: self reproduction. Ideally, most equipment needs for molecular biology could be covered by nature itself. In creating an organism that can be controlled as precisely and as simply as possible in the functions we try to achieve, we may gain direct access to nature’s own capabilities to aid us in research.
+The concept of our protein expression and purification mechanism is to be as indipendent as possible from high-tech infrastructure so it can be used in more remote areas of this world for research and diagnostic purposes, enabling scientists to work whereever it is required without a great increase in expenditure of resources.
+Our Lab in a Cell concept is not only far simpler to handle than many current technologies, but also cheaper and easy to keep at hand for when needed. We imagine the functions of a synthetic biology lab provided by cells themselves, controlled via what nature provides, like light for example. Everything one would need could fit in a mere suitcase: Pipettes and tips, bacterial samples, extracted and dried DNA, a small device for light induction o rat least some colour filters.
+This idea can be extended and modified for basically any cellular function we wish to use for our purposes.
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