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Art Project: Circadia Synthetica

This painted triptych is an exploration of circadian rhythms in organisms. The first half of the project takes place on Earth with naturally occurring organisms fit to the 24 hour day. The second half of the project takes place on Mars with synthetically modified organisms who have had their circadian rhythms optimized to a Martian 25 hour day. We aim to display this project in areas of Boston where various groups of people with different ideas and knowledge of synthetic biology can view and respond to it. Below is a description of each panel of the triptych, followed by an image of the painting.

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Panel 1: Bacteria

Earth (left): Naturally bioluminescent aquatic cyanobacteria produce light at night, but not during the day.

Mars (right): Mars has a sparse atmosphere unsuitable for human life, when compared to that of Earth's.

Scenario: Genetically-modified bacteria will ingest elements from the surface of Mars during the day. The bacteria will convert the materials that have been taken up into gases. These gases will be released at night to modify the Martian atmosphere, such that it will be able to provide a suitable environment for future human inhabitants.

Panel 2: Plants

Earth (left): In 2014, scientists at UC Davis modified a species of flower, Petunia circadia, to change color over the course of the day.

Mars (right): The surface of Mars is a dry, inhospitable desert punctuated by ice caps at its poles. Water is known to exist underground, but is currently inaccessible.

Scenario: A genetically-modified prickly pear cactus will pull water from the ground on Mars during the day. This water will be stored in sacs that are enclosed within its flower petals. At night, the flower will open up, providing access to the water that previously was trapped underground.

Panel 3: Humans

Earth (left): Humans have a built-in biological clock, which drives our sleep patterns and metabolic functions. This circadian clock is based on the 24-hour day-night cycle on Earth.

Mars (right): Mars has a 25-hour day-night cycle. Future human inhabitants on Mars may face metabolic and other health problems in this new environment, a change analogous to being jet-lagged every day.

Scenario: A Martian-born human baby has been modified in utero to have its circadian clock reset to the 25-hour Martian day-night cycle. The baby's biological functions will now be synchronized perfectly with those of its new home planet.

Outreach: Summer Pathways

In June, we partnered with STEM Pathways and the BostonU Hardware team to host Summer Pathways, a synthetic biology Workshop for high school girls interested in STEM fields. We organized and led four interactive activities to introduce them to synthetic biology.

Our activities included a bioethics forum, a plasmid design activity, gel electrophoresis with food coloring, and a microfluidic design activity. The bioethics forum was led by Steve, Sophia, and Manu. They held a fishbowl discussion about controversial issues in synthetic biology such as CRISPR and germline gene editing. The forum allowed us to hear opinions about synbio from those outside the field.

Thomas and Jason, a member of STEM Pathways,led a plasmid design activity in which they introduced the girls to plasmids, primers, and restriction enzymes. After the participants constructed plasmids using construction paper and scissors, Thomas and Jason demoed Benchling, the software we use to design plasmids in our lab.

The third station, gel electrophoresis with food dye, was adapted from William and Mary's 2013 Synthetic Biology K-12 curriculum. In this activity, Abbey, Sai, and Madeline discussed the basic biology and protocol of gel electrophoresis. Each participant then loaded a sample of food dye into a gel with a disposable pipette. The final activity, microfluidic design, was led by the BostonU Hardware team. The team first gave a basic overview of what microfluidics are and what applications they have in synbio. The participants were then given a basic protocol for E. coli transformation and challenged to design their own microfluidic chip on cardboard to perform the procedure.

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Industry Visits

In August, we visited Ginkgo Bioworks in Boston's Seaport District. We toured their lab facilities, and were impressed by their automated workflow. We were shown some projects relating to synthetic fragrances and toured the workbench of Natzai Audrey Chieza, Ginkgo's current artist-in-residence, who uses bacteria to dye fabrics. Afterwards, we had a discussion with Ginkgo's creative director Christina Agapakis about Ginkgo Bioworks' interfaces of art and synthetic biology, and her experiences collaborating with artists and creating topical art herself. Our discussion inspired us to approach art that interfaced with the future of synthetic biology as the mainstay of our human practices project.

We also visited the Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation with BostonU_Hardware to inform our collaboration towards a microfluidic platform for RNA detection. They provided us with a wealth of knowledge about the considerations needed to translate a biological protocol to a microfluidic device at scale. More information about this collaboration can be found here.

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Critically-Acclaimed JoVE Video

While making our cellfree transcription-translation system we used a modified version of the Noireaux Lab TX-TL protocol. Their JoVE videosupplemented our understanding of the protocol. After utilizing the JoVE protocol video throughout the process of making our own TX-TL system, we realized the utility of step-by-step protocol videos that are easily accessible. In order to add to the JoVE video collection focused on the TX-TL system, we decided to enter the JoVE Film your research contest.In our video, we detail how we test our constructs in the TX-TL system and provide a theoretical understanding of how the TX-TL system works on a molecular level. Our video was ranked among the top 15 Critically Acclaimed, and our video was one of only two undergraduate produced videos to be recognized in the competition.