"
Team:Dundee
From 2011.igem.org
The University of Dundee
iGem 2011
Project Brief
Over millennia, eukaryotic cells have evolved sophisticated organelles, which enabled them to partition their cytoplasmic contents into functional sectors (e.g. the nucleus for storage of genetic material).
Such compartmentalisation allows greater efficiency of cellular processes, where each organelle is allocated a set of specific metabolic tasks. Some prokaryotes, such as Salmonella enterica, have also developed a method of forming intracellular subdivisions called bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) by expressing a set of proteins that ‘cage in’ a reaction pathway to make it more efficient.
One such set of proteins is expressed from the propanediol utilisation (pdu) operon, which is normally involved in the breakdown of the organic compound propanediol.
Software
We are lucky enough to have two Applied Computing students on our team this year. They are focusing on maintaining the website and creating software tools and mobile applications to assist the scientists.
One of tools we are developing right now, is a multi-platform application that aims to reduce the need for looking up codon tables and hence speeding up the sequencing process.
The main aim of our technology team is to provide efficient and usable software.
Team
This is the first iGem team to emerged from Dundee. We are all very excited to be taking part in the competition.
We are a multi-disciplined team made up of students, advisors and supervisors from Applied Computing, Life Sciences and Mathematics. We feel having a mix of these skills will give us a competitive edge and a well round skill set.
Sponsors
Thanks for the support our sponsors have given us. Without them the project would not of happened.
