From 2011.igem.org

Project Description

Biological systems are composed of seemingly intractable sets of complex interactions. Studying these interactions one at a time can be tedious and time consuming. Our research introduces a recombinant method for studying these interactions more efficiently by designing custom “plasmid architectures” that allow the researcher to reconfigure different DNA parts within the plasmid. Our specific design driver is the exploration of transcription factor interaction in tuberculosis.

While studying biology can be intractable, managing your lab should not. Along with our custom plasmid architecture, we have developed a suite of software tools that not only automate the design process of these custom plasmids, but streamline the assembly of all DNA parts while keeping the members of the lab in sync via an electronic laboratory notebook. By linking these tools to a central lab database, all of this information can be accessed from multiple devices and shared between lab members. We hope that these tools will promote collaboration between labs and increase productivity within the synthetic biology community.