Difference between revisions of "Competition/Tracks/Information Processing"

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<h2>Information Processing Track</h2>
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<h1>Information Processing Track</h1>
 
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Information Processing in iGEM covers a diverse range of projects. Like the Foundational Advance track, Information Processing teams are not trying to solve a real world problem with practical applications, but to tackle an interesting problem that might otherwise not attract attention. Teams enter this track if they are attempting projects such as building elements of a biological computer, creating a game using biology or working on a signal processing challenges.   
 
Information Processing in iGEM covers a diverse range of projects. Like the Foundational Advance track, Information Processing teams are not trying to solve a real world problem with practical applications, but to tackle an interesting problem that might otherwise not attract attention. Teams enter this track if they are attempting projects such as building elements of a biological computer, creating a game using biology or working on a signal processing challenges.   
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<li><a href ="https://igem.org/Team_Tracks?year=2016"> iGEM 2016 Information Processing team list</a></li>
 
<li><a href ="https://igem.org/Team_Tracks?year=2015"> iGEM 2015 Information Processing team list</a></li>
 
<li><a href ="https://igem.org/Team_Tracks?year=2015"> iGEM 2015 Information Processing team list</a></li>
 
<li><a href ="https://igem.org/Team_Tracks?year=2014"> iGEM 2014 Information Processing team list</a></li>
 
<li><a href ="https://igem.org/Team_Tracks?year=2014"> iGEM 2014 Information Processing team list</a></li>
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<h2>Recent Information Processing projects to win best in track</h2>
 
  
<h3>Winning Information Processing project in 2013 Undergrad: Mutant Ninja. coli</h3>
 
  
<h3><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Tokyo_Tech">Tokyo Tech</a></h3>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/c/c3/Titech2013_top.jpg" width="920px">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/d/d2/HQ_information_groningen2016.jpg">
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<h3><a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Groningen"> Groningen 2016  </a></h3>
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<h4>CryptoGERM: Encode it, keep it</h4>
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The world’s silicon supply won’t be able to cover the demand for data storage by 2040. However, nature has been encoding enormous amounts of information in DNA for billions of years. By introducing a sequence into DNA of bacterial spores, one of the most resistant-to-harsh-conditions forms of life, “CryptoGERM” tries to combine storing information and transferring it in a safe way. The goal is to safely send a key and an encrypted message in two separate spore systems of Bacillus subtilis. Digital and biological protection layers will prevent this information from being captured by unauthorized parties. The message is protected by computational encryption, while the sensitive key can only be accessed from the spores with the right growing conditions. For example, light-switchable antibiotics have to be activated by the correct frequency of light. If the recipient fails, the sequence will be destroyed and the message is lost forever.
  
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<strong>Project abstract:</strong>
 
In our project, we propose to create E. coli that mimic some of the qualities of Japan’s ancient ‘ninja’ warrior-spies. A ninja must receive and pass on correct information at all times. A mistake will be fatal. We have created a circuit that avoids crosstalk between two signals in cell-to-cell communication, and we are also looking into applications for it. Ninjas are also known for their star-shaped ‘shuriken’ throwing knives. Our E. coli ninja has a similar weapon, an M13 phage which it releases to infect other E. coli, injecting plasmid DNA into them. Finally, ninja must harmonize with the natural environment, so their relationship to it is very important. Plant hormones help plants to grow efficiently, and we are attempting to construct a circuit that synthesizes two plant hormones depending on the soil environment.
 
 
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<h3>Winning Information Processing project in 2013 Overgrad: Colisweeper</h3>
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<h3><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich">ETH Zurich</a></h3>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/be/HQ_information_epfl2016.jpg">
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<h3><a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:EPFL"> EPFL 2016  </a></h3>
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<h4>IntelliGene</h4>
  
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c3/ETH_2013_Screen_Shot_2014-02-11_at_10.22.32_AM.png" width="920px">
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Intelligent design is becoming ever more important in the world of biology. Designing cells to match researchers' needs exactly has important therapeutic and diagnostic applications. To be able to conveniently harness this technology, new and straightforward tools are required. In light of this, our project aims to develop an innovative CRISPR-dCas9 system in yeasts, capable of regulating genetic transcription and creating robust synthetic circuits. Our model is based around a scaffold guide RNA. This scaffold allows us to recruit transcriptional activators, repressors, and dCas9, as well as direct the complex to a given locus in the genome. In addition, the presence of both activators and repressors in our system would permit a modularity previously unseen in CRISPR-dCas9 based systems. Furthermore, we aspire to improve on Cello, a software that takes a user-given circuit and predicts a plasmid that could recreate it in vivo.
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<strong>Project abstract:</strong>
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Colisweeper is an interactive, biological version of the Minesweeper computer game, based on luxI/luxR quorum sensing and chromogenic enzymatic reactions. The goal is to clear an agar “minefield” without detonating mines. Genetically engineered Escherichia coli colonies are used as sender-cells (mines) and receiver-cells (non-mines). Mines secrete the signaling molecule N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (OHHL) whereas non-mines process the signal. To distinguish between OHHL-levels, a library of PLuxR promoters with various sensitivities was created through site-saturation mutagenesis. High-pass filters were constructed to control the expression of different orthogonal hydrolases in non-mines, depending on the number of surrounding mines. Additionally, the mines express their own hydrolase. A spatiotemporal reaction-diffusion model was established to evaluate and improve the system. To play Colisweeper, a colorless substrate solution is pipetted onto a colony of choice. The result is a defined color change within minutes, allowing identification of the played colony and the number of mines surrounding it.
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<h3>Winning Information Processing project in 2012: "Romeo and Juliet" by <i>E. coli</i> cell-cell communication</h3>
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<h3><a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Tokyo_Tech">Tokyo Tech</a></h3>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/d/dc/HQ_information_UCSF2015.jpg">
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<h3><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:UCSF"> UCFS 2015  </a></h3>
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<h4>Talk Alpha to Me </h4>
  
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/thumb/d/de/Tokyotechlogo2012.png/950px-Tokyotechlogo2012.png" width="920px">
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Cellular communities exhibit both asocial and social behaviors through sensing and secreting the same extracellular molecule, eliciting population-wide behaviors such as quorum sensing, cell differentiation, and averaging. Drawing inspiration from collective behaviors and cellular decision-making in biological systems, our team aims to engineer a synthetic model to understand the factors that play into reshaping community phenotypes. We have engineered novel sense-and-secrete circuits in yeast by repurposing the endogenous mating pathway and using fluorescent reporters to read out individual and community responses to a stimulus. We aspire to understand how intercellular signaling can shepherd noisy individual responses into robust community level behaviors. Particularly, we hope that by tuning parameters such as receptor level, secretion rate, signal degradation, and spatial retention, we will be able to customize communication to model natural systems and elicit distinct community phenotypes.
 
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<strong>Project abstract </strong>:
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A love story contains several processes. Two people fall in love and their love burning wildly. However, no forever exists in the world, in most occasions, love will eventually burn to only a pile of ashes of the last remaining wind drift away. In our project, we have recreated the story of "Romeo & Juliet" by Shakespeare vividly by two kinds of Escherichia coli. We aim to generate a circuit involving regulatory mechanism of positive feedback rather than commonly-used negative feedback to control the fate of E.coli by signaling between two types of E.coli. Besides, Rose represents love. We will challenge to be the first iGEM group ever to synthesize PHA (a kind of bio-plastics) from glucose using the whole PHA gene sequence to represent rose.
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<h3>Winning Information Processing project 2011: SmoColi</h3>
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<h3><a href ="https://2011.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich">ETH Zurich</a></h3>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/0/01/HQ_information_tokyotech2016.jpg">
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<h3><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Tokyo_Tech"> Tokyo Tech 2015  </a></h3>
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<h4>Prisoner’s Dilemma</h4>
  
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We want to replay the Prisoner’s Dilemma, a well-known game analysed in game theory, by using E. coli.
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This game involves dilemma between cooperation and defection. Although each prisoner knows both player's cooperation mutually benefits each other, one will always defect when the individual is pursuing his or her own benefit. We will express this dilemma by using a genetic circuit centering in quorum sensing. We will also provide various strategies and aim to determine the best strategy in this game. By combining the idea with synthetic biology, we demonstrated this game among students. We also made our own pay-off matrix.
<strong>Project abstract:</strong>
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In our project we will focus on the prisoners’ emotions as well. The metaphoric usage of cherry blossoms appears in countless Haikus and Tankas, and expresses the heart of the Japanese. Therefore, we will express the prisoners’ emotions using E. coli, which will mimic the characteristics of cherry blossoms.
SmoColi is a bacterio-quantifier of acetaldehyde concentration that can be used as a passive smoke detector. Acetaldehyde is a toxic and carcinogenic component of cigarette smoke. It has a boiling point of 20.2C and is very volatile, thus can be used as an information carrier through air. The SmoColi cells are immobilized in an agarose-filled microfluidic device. The test solution is fed on one end of a microfluidic channel, in which an acetaldehyde gradient is established by synthetic cellular degradation. The cells are engineered to sense acetaldehyde by a synthetically re-designed fungal acetaldehyde-responsive transactivator. The sensor is linked to a band-pass filter that drives GFP expression. This allows establishment of an input-concentration-dependent, spatially located fluorescent band displaying quantitative information about acetaldehyde. Finally, if the acetaldehyde concentration exceeds the threshold of malignance, a quorum-sensing-based mCherry alarm system springs into action, turning the whole device red.
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Latest revision as of 21:50, 6 February 2017

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Information Processing Track

Information Processing in iGEM covers a diverse range of projects. Like the Foundational Advance track, Information Processing teams are not trying to solve a real world problem with practical applications, but to tackle an interesting problem that might otherwise not attract attention. Teams enter this track if they are attempting projects such as building elements of a biological computer, creating a game using biology or working on a signal processing challenges.

Engineering ways to make biological systems perform computation is one of the core goals of synthetic biology. We generally work at the DNA level, engineering systems to function using BioBricks. In most biological systems, protein-protein interactions are where the majority of processing takes place. Being able to design proteins to accomplish computation would allow for systems to function on a much faster timescale than the current transcription-translation paradigm. These are some of the challenges that face teams entering projects into the Information Processing track in iGEM.

You will find images and abstracts of the winning Information Processing teams from 2013 to 2015 in the page below. Also, follow the links below to see projects from all the Information Processing track teams.

Groningen 2016

CryptoGERM: Encode it, keep it

The world’s silicon supply won’t be able to cover the demand for data storage by 2040. However, nature has been encoding enormous amounts of information in DNA for billions of years. By introducing a sequence into DNA of bacterial spores, one of the most resistant-to-harsh-conditions forms of life, “CryptoGERM” tries to combine storing information and transferring it in a safe way. The goal is to safely send a key and an encrypted message in two separate spore systems of Bacillus subtilis. Digital and biological protection layers will prevent this information from being captured by unauthorized parties. The message is protected by computational encryption, while the sensitive key can only be accessed from the spores with the right growing conditions. For example, light-switchable antibiotics have to be activated by the correct frequency of light. If the recipient fails, the sequence will be destroyed and the message is lost forever.

EPFL 2016

IntelliGene

Intelligent design is becoming ever more important in the world of biology. Designing cells to match researchers' needs exactly has important therapeutic and diagnostic applications. To be able to conveniently harness this technology, new and straightforward tools are required. In light of this, our project aims to develop an innovative CRISPR-dCas9 system in yeasts, capable of regulating genetic transcription and creating robust synthetic circuits. Our model is based around a scaffold guide RNA. This scaffold allows us to recruit transcriptional activators, repressors, and dCas9, as well as direct the complex to a given locus in the genome. In addition, the presence of both activators and repressors in our system would permit a modularity previously unseen in CRISPR-dCas9 based systems. Furthermore, we aspire to improve on Cello, a software that takes a user-given circuit and predicts a plasmid that could recreate it in vivo.

UCFS 2015

Talk Alpha to Me

Cellular communities exhibit both asocial and social behaviors through sensing and secreting the same extracellular molecule, eliciting population-wide behaviors such as quorum sensing, cell differentiation, and averaging. Drawing inspiration from collective behaviors and cellular decision-making in biological systems, our team aims to engineer a synthetic model to understand the factors that play into reshaping community phenotypes. We have engineered novel sense-and-secrete circuits in yeast by repurposing the endogenous mating pathway and using fluorescent reporters to read out individual and community responses to a stimulus. We aspire to understand how intercellular signaling can shepherd noisy individual responses into robust community level behaviors. Particularly, we hope that by tuning parameters such as receptor level, secretion rate, signal degradation, and spatial retention, we will be able to customize communication to model natural systems and elicit distinct community phenotypes.

Tokyo Tech 2015

Prisoner’s Dilemma

We want to replay the Prisoner’s Dilemma, a well-known game analysed in game theory, by using E. coli. This game involves dilemma between cooperation and defection. Although each prisoner knows both player's cooperation mutually benefits each other, one will always defect when the individual is pursuing his or her own benefit. We will express this dilemma by using a genetic circuit centering in quorum sensing. We will also provide various strategies and aim to determine the best strategy in this game. By combining the idea with synthetic biology, we demonstrated this game among students. We also made our own pay-off matrix. In our project we will focus on the prisoners’ emotions as well. The metaphoric usage of cherry blossoms appears in countless Haikus and Tankas, and expresses the heart of the Japanese. Therefore, we will express the prisoners’ emotions using E. coli, which will mimic the characteristics of cherry blossoms.