Figure 5: (a) A plate of non-glowing E.coli bacteria before the introduction of Hin allows the flipping of the DNA. Below (b) is a plate that began with the same DNA, but was introduced to the Hin protein that allows for the flipping of designated segments of the DNA.

a

ending up with Edge A in the first position and in 5’ to 3’ orientation. Those that glowed yellow flipped from their original positions of Edge B first and Edge A second, to a final orientation of Edge A in the first position and Edge B in the second position, both pointing in 5’ to 3’ direction.

b
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY'S POTENTIAL

Synthetic biology is a natural fit for multidisciplinary research for undergraduate students. The iGEM community provides a supportive environment for teams wishing to engage in research.

The applications of synthetic biology are widely varied, and projects can be tailored to individual interests. The projects carried out by our team have a deliberate focus on mathematics by applying biology to solve math problems, but many other iGEM projects have components of computation, simulation, and mathematical modeling. The results have application in medicine, the environment, and biofuels, as well as other benefits from data analysis and model building, to the testing of experimental designs. Readers can check out more at iGEM’s web site: http://2010.igem.org.

 

References

1. Adleman, L. 1994. M. Molecular computation of solutions to combinatorial problems. Science, 266. 1021-1024.

2. Haynes K. A., Broderick M. L., Brown A. D., et al. 2008. Engineering bacteria to solve the burnt pancake problem. Journal Biol En., 2, No. 8.

3. Registry of Standard Biological Parts: http://partsregistry.org/Main_Page.

Biographies Jeff Poet is an associate professor of mathematics at Missouri Western State University and 2010 winner of the Mathematical Association of America Missouri Section Distinguished University Teaching of Mathematics Award. Malcolm Campbell is professor of biology at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, co-founder of the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT), and co-author with Laurie Heyer of the premier undergraduate textbook on genomics, now in its second edition. Laurie Heyer, an associate professor of mathematics at Davidson College, lectures widely on bioinformatics, and in 2009 was selected as the Matthe ws Award recipient in recognition of her unique service to the College. Todd Eckdahl is professor of biology at Missouri Western State University and has won the James V. Mehl Faculty Scholarship A ward, a Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Award, and a State of Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Together, the four authors have collaborated since 2006 to co-mentor undergraduate teams of synthetic biology researchers. The students have won awards at the annual iGEM competition for their NSF-funded research in bacterial computing.