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Team:Penn State/Research
From 2011.igem.org
Achievements
We did lots of great things! Check it!
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Registered Team, had (too much) fun throughout the summer |
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Attended the Jamboree |
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At least one submitted and characterized part |
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Demonstrated part works as expected |
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Characterized one new part and entered the data in the “Main Page” section of that Part’s/Device’s Registry entry |
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Worked towards improving the function of an existing BioBrick Part |
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Helped another team (see our collaboration with NYC wetware below!) |
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New approach to human practices (Watch our Human Practices Video and learn about our workshop here) |
Experimental Results
Testing of Or as a Promoter
The backbone of the radiation sensor in our project relies on the operating region Or, and the two promoters one on each end of Or. In order to test the function ability of the of the pr promoter we attached a part called mcherry, which has rfp to the promoter. We used the TECAN in our lab to measure the fluorescence of our samples over time. The data collected while the samples were in exponential growth was used to determine a rate of expression of the rfp. Compared to the control, the rate of fluorescence was much higher in our test subject, about 4227 compared to 418 (fu/OD600nm). This suggests that the promoter on Or is functional.
Future Testing
Much of the work our project is still underway and due to time constraints cannot be posted before wiki freeze deadline. More characterization and testing of all the parts we are actively building is on the way and should be accomplished by the Jamboree.See our project pages for more information.
Dosimeter Design
We will put stuff here
Collaboration
Throughout the summer we connected with other iGEM teams interested in radiation-related projects. The NYC Wetware team in particular was studying the effects of genes cloned from the organism Deinococcus radiodurans on radiation resistance in E.coli. We were given the honor of helping them characterize one of their strains TS TR, a strain capable of producing the molecule trypanothione.
Using the gamma facilities provided by the Radiation Science and Engineering Center at Penn state we were able to carry out tests of gamma irradiation of their strain and subsequently measure cell viability.
Aliquots of culture (5ml each) inoculated with the TS TR strain were added to tubes which were irradiated by a cobalt-60 gamma source at a dose rate of 25 gys/min for total doses ranging from 0-800 gys. After irradiation 0.02 ml of the irradiated sample was inoculated into 5 ml of SOB media. The OD600 was measured 12 hours later. The results are shown below.
