Our project for iGEM 2007 involves modeling the dynamics of the spread of an epidemic within a population. The model will be multiscale, specifically covering the molecular biology of the phage-host interaction, the spread of the phage within an isolated subpopulation, and the spread of the phage between artificially connected subpopulations. Integrating these levels of modeling to produce varying high-level population epidemic behavior by changing, for example, promoter strengths for the production of relevant proteins is one of the key aspects of our project. Building an understanding of high-level dynamics from the very lowest level of organization will demonstrate our ability to more accurately predict the epidemiological outcome.

For our host and phage we will use E. Coli and lambda phage respectively. We select this host-phage pair because they are both so well understood and documented and therefore we can more easily model their interaction, particularly at the molecular level. Lambda phage is also interesting because it can either immediately replicate itself and kill the host cell or it can insert its DNA and lie dormant. This adds a degree of flexibility to our model that allows us to check the model robustness for slightly different phage. As part of the project we have designed a reporter plasmid to generate florescent proteins to indicate which pathway the virus has taken. This plasmid, along with the use of a phage modified to be florescent, will allow us to determine how the population acts and verify our models.

At the highest level of our modeling we will use air traffic data with 96-well plates and a liquid handling system to indicate how a virus might spread via air traffic. Since a person can now get around the world before a virus manifests symptoms, this information is relevant to epidemiological studies. Using this model we can examine how shutting down certain airports or groups of airports might help to limit or prevent the spread of a virus through air travel.