Giving back to the iGEM community!
Our team’s contribution encompassed updates and additions to the Parts Registry and a highly adaptable hardware design. We updated and added both basic and composite parts on the iGEM registry, including data we collected and information we gathered from literature review. We also included information on how we created our microfluidic chamber to simulate the environment of the intestine, as molecules are continuously moving through and not stagnant. For example, if a probiotic is introduced to the intestine, there would likely be a concentration gradient. We hope that future iGEM teams can use our new and updated parts, and teams focusing on the gut can adapt our hardware simulating intestinal flow dynamics to their project for a better testing model.
As part of our project we were able to update existing parts to the registry. This includes the Constitutive promoter, the ykgMO promoter, and QS (ptd103) system.
Usually, microfluidics is a prohibitively expensive process that requires very specialized equipment only available to physics labs. Our agarose-based microfluidic chamber uses more common technologies that are commonplace in molecular biology labs such as a microwave and a 3D printer. This removes the technological barrier making microfluidics a much more accessible modeling device to future IGEM teams. As well, agar is a relatively more friendly environment to organisms such as single-celled E.coli when compared to PDMS therefore it opens the door to more options to test with live organisms in microfluidics rather than just inorganic fluid dynamics models. Finally, the permeability of agar allows for an assay that to our knowledge has not been characterized before. This type of assay relies on the fact that agar is a permeable solid and therefore whatever molecule the agar is doped with will slowly seep into the flowthrough at a predictable rate. A complete description of the process we designed to create the microfluidic chamber can be found in the Hardware section. Therefore, future IGEM teams can use this highly customizable assay to characterize how cells interact with permeable tissue (in our case calprotectin-permeable intestinal tissue).