Waterloo

From 2007.igem.org

Revision as of 20:21, 26 October 2007 by Anne (Talk | contribs)
UW iGEMLogoHeader.png


Our Team
Group photo mimi1.JPG
The UW iGEM team is a very interdisciplinary group. Our team members span three faculties: Science, Mathematics, and Engineering, and represent a wide range of undergraduate programs: Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Biochemistry, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Mathematical Physics.

Drawing on our diverse backgrounds, we bring a wide range of skills and modes of creative thinking to our iGEM project. The iGEM competition is providing us with an opportunity to become more familiar with the emerging field of synthetic biology in an engaging and fun atmosphere. In addition to gaining experience in the design, construction, and analysis of genetic circuits, we are also meeting the challenge of bringing together a large, diverse group toward a common goal.


Our Project
Abstract
The goal of this project is to design a basic device for computing. Our idea was to reproduce a circuit element called a half adder with DNA, which takes in two 1-bit inputs, adds them, and outputs a sum and a carry. Our device responds to two inputs: red light and the chemical tetracycline. The input sensors control a set of genetic switches in order to carry out the computation and fluoresces green and/or red depending on the outcome.

Half adders are an essential component in a device called the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), which is the fundamental building block of the central processing unit (CPU) in modern computers. ALUs perform simple and complex operations such as bitwise logical operations (i.e. AND, OR, NOT) and mathematical operations including integer arithmetic. Half adders are also used as building blocks for full adders

Schematic Design of Biological Half-Adder
Project Design Mathematical Modelling Construction and Testing Future Work
  • Binary addition and boolean logic
  • Half-adder vs. full-adder designs
  • Biological half-adder implementation
  • Predictive models for each scenario in the biological half adder system
  • Strategy for half-adder construction
  • Testing constructs for device
  • Test execution plan
  • What is a full adder?
  • Gene design for full adder


Acknowledgements
Fsf logo.gif MEF logo.gif SFF Logo.gif WEEFLogo.jpg WatSEF Logo.jpg
[http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/fsf/index.html Faculty of Science Foundation ] [http://www.student.math.uwaterloo.ca/~mefcom/ Mathematics Endowment Fund ] [http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~sff/ Sir Sanford Fleming Foundation] [http://www.weef.uwaterloo.ca/ Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund] [http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~watsef/mainpage.html Waterloo Science Endowment Fund]
 
UW EngFacLogo.PNG UW SciFacLogo.PNG UW MathFacLogo.PNG
[http://www.engineering.uwaterloo.ca University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering] [http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca University of Waterloo Faculty of Science] [http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics]
 
We would like to thank the following people for their support and guidance:
  • Dr. Trevor Charles
  • Dr. Barbara Moffatt
  • Dr. Joshua Neufeld