iGEM Sheffield 2023 are passionate about the Foundational Advance village, therefore it was crucial for us to contribute parts and wisdom back to the iGEM community - thus keeping in the spirit of the village and the ethos of the entire competition. Here is a summary of iGEM Sheffield 2023's contributions to the iGEM community:
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Characterised the growth slower genes, initially incorporated by iGEM Sheffield rEvolver (2022) and iGEM Imperial College London's Ecolibrium (2016), with background research and robust growth experiments to ensure that future iGEM teams can use these parts effectively and efficiently (more details here).
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Standardised and characterised a new fluorescent protein variant - vsfGFP - again, both in terms of background research and plate reader experiments. We hope this proves a useful improvement to an essential tool in virtually all facets of synthetic biology (on the parts registry).
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Designed, and registered a novel set of parts that constitute a butanol sensitive growth modulation system. Whilst initially serving as a proof of concept of the broad applicability of the approach taken within PARSE, we hope that future teams can use this biosensing machinery for a range of applications including those in biofuel production and directed evolution (here).
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Delineated a methodology for the calibration of PARSE for any desirable inducer/promoter pair, such that future teams can use PARSE within a wide range of biosensing contexts. We have also extensively modelled the molecular processes that underpin elements of PARSE, providing potentially crucial insights into its future implementation.
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Modelled and simulated an analytical bioreactor system in Mathworks MATLAB and Simulink, offering representations of the fundamental controls for each subsystem, mirroring the individual controls within the physical bioreactor. The provided analytical models establish a link between the biological modelling for growth modulation and the design of a multiplexed turbidostat for growth characterisation, allowing engineers to derive, study and test hardware system requirements. Future iGEM teams can use the work undertaken as a reference for further study and analysis of bioreactor system control designs.
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Designed a hardware system intended for growth modulation experiments across various scales, offering a more streamlined and cost-effective alternative to intricate and expensive microplate spectrophotometers. This type of bioreactor makes it possible to build an inducer vs OD standard curve automatically and to obtain several similar curves for growth characterisation purposes in parallel. With its several cells that may contain different microbial cultures, multiple cultivation experiments under varying conditions can be run simultaneously and analysed in real-time while maintaining turbidity at a constant level. The system schematics and high-fidelity prototypes for critical subsystems provide reference and insight into manufacturing a modular, multiplexed turbidostat for growth characterisation. The shared learnings from the engineering design process can be used to inform future iGEM multiplexed turbidostat systems.