Team:BostonU HW/Contribution

BostonU_HW

Attributions
Contribution

Our Contribution

Through Project MARS, the BostonU HW Team has provided three key contributions towards increasing ease of accessibility and use of microfluidics in the synthetic biology community.

MARS Repository

The MARS repository benefits the greater synthetic biology community through hosting the designs of nine chips that are designed to perform essential synbio procedures.

These chips are:
  • Fabricated using a standardized rapid prototyping system
  • Separated into three categories (isolation, modification and quantification) which come together to replicate complex synthetic biology protocols
  • Provided to the user with full documentation and usage protocols

This provides a highly accessible and relevant platform for synthetic biologists to access, fabricate, test and integrate microfluidics into their lab workflow.

While these microfluidic devices have only been tested with colored water and oil, they provide a framework that can be built upon by future iGEM teams to allow for biological testing and optimization.

Fluid Functionality

Our fluid functionality checklist allows synthetic biologists to grade microfluidic devices fabricated from the MARS archive or designed using our software workflow. Through creating and introducing a standardized method of analyzing device functionality, synthetic biologists interested in utilizing microfluidics can quantitatively and qualitatively rate their chips prior to utilizing them in laboratory procedures.

Microfluidics 101

In order to overcome the knowledge barrier that exists between synthetic biology and microfluidics, MARS hosts a variety of educational materials aimed at synbio researchers interested in using our workflow.

Microfluidics 101 focuses on:
  • Increasing ease of access to basic educational materials regarding microfluidics
  • Providing clear and relevant material regarding our continuous flow microfluidics devices
  • Including detailed video tutorials and written protocols outlining fabrication using Makerfluidics

All three components of MARS come together to help make microfluidics a more accessible and practical tool for synthetic biology labs.


Our End Product

After 560 hours in the lab per team member working on:
  • Over 100 design iterations
  • 85 milled and tested chips
  • 340 fluid tests
  • 80 hours editing video and written content

We are proud to present our project MARS in its entirety. Please feel free to navigate our Wiki to learn more about each branch of the project and how it applies to the synthetic biology community at large.