Difference between revisions of "Team:Georgia State/HP/Silver"

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<h1 class="media-heading">The Plight of the Horseshoe Crab</h1>
 
<h1 class="media-heading">The Plight of the Horseshoe Crab</h1>
 
<p class="last"> Horseshoe crabs aren’t just used for bait.  If you have every had a flu shot, known someone with a pacemaker or joint replacement, or given your pet a rabies vaccination, a debt of gratitude is owed to the horseshoe crab. All of these devices are quality checked for safety using a test that comes from the blood of the horseshoe crab. The blood of the crab is very sensitive to endotoxins, the blood from the crab is used commercially to  develop the LAL and TAL test. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL)test and was commercialized in the United States in the 1970s and  in Asia, there is a similar test called TAL which takes its name from an Asian species of crab, Tachypleus tridentatus. Each year, almost half a million living horse crabs are use in  the development of these pharmaceuticals- for  these tests 30 percent or more of the blood of the horseshoe crab is taken. It is estimated that 10-15% of 500,000 crabs harvested on the Atlantic coast do not survive the bleeding process. The market for LAL is approximately $50 million, and since no synthetic substitute has the same accuracy as LAL, crab blood must be used it is just to important not to use.</p>
 
<p class="last"> Horseshoe crabs aren’t just used for bait.  If you have every had a flu shot, known someone with a pacemaker or joint replacement, or given your pet a rabies vaccination, a debt of gratitude is owed to the horseshoe crab. All of these devices are quality checked for safety using a test that comes from the blood of the horseshoe crab. The blood of the crab is very sensitive to endotoxins, the blood from the crab is used commercially to  develop the LAL and TAL test. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL)test and was commercialized in the United States in the 1970s and  in Asia, there is a similar test called TAL which takes its name from an Asian species of crab, Tachypleus tridentatus. Each year, almost half a million living horse crabs are use in  the development of these pharmaceuticals- for  these tests 30 percent or more of the blood of the horseshoe crab is taken. It is estimated that 10-15% of 500,000 crabs harvested on the Atlantic coast do not survive the bleeding process. The market for LAL is approximately $50 million, and since no synthetic substitute has the same accuracy as LAL, crab blood must be used it is just to important not to use.</p>
−
<h3>Commercial Fishing </h3>
+
 
−
<p class="last"> The best bait to attract eel and whelk, best known as conch, is horseshoe crabs. During the 1990s, harvest of the horseshoe crab increased coastwide, with a peak of nearly six million pounds in 1997. This swift increase in harvesting lead to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission representing 15 states  from Maine to Florida to develop a horseshoe crab management  plan. The ASMFC plan, was meet with vigorous opposition from commercial fishers, the plan, supported by conservation groups, was implemented in 2001. The plan established a state-by-state harvest quotas and establish a 1500-square mile federal horseshoe crab sanctuary in Delaware Bay. Despite restrictive measures taken in recent years, populations are not showing immediate increases. Mainly, because horseshoe crabs do not breed until they reach nine or more years of age, so as of now there has been no measurably increase.
+
 
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</p>
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/div>
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<h3>Biomedical Use </h3>
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            <div class="container">
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<p class="last"> Horseshoe crabs aren’t just used for bait.  If you have every had a flu shot, known someone with a pacemaker or joint replacement, or given your pet a rabies vaccination, a debt of gratitude is owed to the horseshoe crab. All of these devices are quality checked for safety using a test that comes from the blood of the horseshoe crab. The blood of the crab is very sensitive to endotoxins, the blood from the crab is used commercially to  develop the LAL and TAL test. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL)test and was commercialized in the United States in the 1970s and in Asia, there is a similar test called TAL which takes its name from an Asian species of crab, Tachypleus tridentatus. Each year, almost half a million living horse crabs are use in the development of these pharmaceuticals- for these tests 30 percent or more of the blood of the horseshoe crab is taken. It is estimated that 10-15% of 500,000 crabs harvested on the Atlantic coast do not survive the bleeding process. The market for LAL is approximately $50 million, and since no synthetic substitute has the same accuracy as LAL, crab blood must be used it is just to important not to use.</p>
+
                <div class="tabs">
−
<h1 class="media-heading">Environmental Impact </h1>
+
                    <ul id="myTab" class="nav nav-tabs">
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<p class="last"> Limuli play a vital role in the ecology of estuarine and coastal communities. Horseshoe crabs utilize  autochthonous and allochthonous  production from pelagic and benthic food webs. The horseshoe crab is an important part of many vertebrate predators diet. Benthic fish feed on horseshoe crab eggs and larvae, sharks feed on the smaller juveniles, and sea turtles feed on adults (Botton et al. 2003). Horseshoe crabs are dietary generalists, and adult crabs are ecologically important bivalve predators in some locations. The most notable predator–prey relationship involving horseshoe crabs is the migratory shorebird–horseshoe crab egg interaction.Eleven species, such as the more familiar red knot and the dowitcher, rely on horseshoe crab eggs for sustenance during their migration along the Atlantic Flyway. It is estimated  that migrating birds may require 539 metric tons of eggs to full the trip to the Arctic summer range. Horseshoe crabs link an array of prey (bivalves and polychaete worms) and predators (fish, turtles, and birds), utilizing both autochthonous and allochthonous production from pelagic and benthic food webs.
+
                      <li class=""><a href="#ASF" data-toggle="tab"> Atlanta Science Festival</a></li>
−
</p>
+
                      <li class=""><a href="#STEM" data-toggle="tab">Accessibility In STEM</a></li>
 +
<li class=""><a href="#More" data-toggle="tab">SBC Speaker Series</a></li>
 +
                                        </ul>
 +
                    <div id="myTabContent" class="tab-content">
 +
                      <div class="tab-pane fade active in" id="ASF">
 +
                        <div class="row-fluid">
 +
                            <div class="span6 ruler-right ruler-bottom">
 +
                                <div class="block">
 +
                                <p class="last">We were requested to come back to ASF for 2017 due to how successful our Bio Brick activity was the previous year. We provided children and parents alike with a better understanding of the goals, applications and importance of synthetic biology by utilizing the bio brick activity and the glow fish display. This year, we educated many students and parents on synthetic biology and how to create a BioBrick construct using legos. The BioBrick activity utilizes colorful lego pieces to explain to attendees how to create a biobrick. This process involves selecting a plasmid base, promote sequence, ribosomal binding site and a coding sequence. This year used glow fish to relate how fluorescent proteins are utilized in real life. Glow fish are technicallyGMO’s that are appreciated in everyday life as a result of introducing the coding sequence from jellyfish and put it into the embryo of fish to produce a fluorescent glow. We also took some time to explained previous iGEM projects and their benefits to
 +
society. Lastly, we gave out a survey to get a better understanding of how many people are aware of the properties and benefits of CBD oil.</p>
 +
                                </div>
 +
                            </div>
 +
                            <div class="span6">
 +
                                <div class="block no-spacing-l">
 +
                                <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/3/3d/T--Georgia_State--AtlantaSci_Poster.png" class="spacing-b no-spacing-l" alt="">
 +
                                </div>
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                            </div>
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                        </div>
 +
                      </div>
 +
                      <div class="tab-pane fade" id="STEM">
 +
                        <div class="row-fluid">
 +
                            <div class="span10 ruler-bottom">
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                                <div class="block">
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<h3>GCDHH</h3>
 +
                                <p class="last">Over the summer the Georgia Center of the Death and Hard-of-Hearing (GCDHH) reached out to our GSU iGEM team to learn about synthetic biology and how they could be a part of the researching world. Without knowing how to approach the obstacle of communicating with one another, we reached out to our Department of Education to find out the best way to present our information to the incoming students. Putting the guidelines we received, we hosted a successful open lab day for the GCDHH students. We had interpreters signing as we were explaining the basics of our lab and the undergraduate research that iGEM has to offer. When we initially agreed to hosting the students, we had no idea how much it would impact our view of synthetic biology. We believe that the knowledge and experience we gain from being a part of iGEM should be accessible to everyone that has an interest. Furthermore, we have created our presentation to be more accessible and have gotten an opportunity to learn sign language. </p>
 +
<br></br>
 +
</div>
 +
                         
 +
<div class="row-fluid">
 +
<div class="span4">
 +
<div class="media">
 +
<div class="media-body"><img class="rotateimg90" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/b0/T--Georgia_State--STEMcamp5.jpg"  alt="">
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
<div class="span4">
 +
<div class="media">
 +
<div class="media-body"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/0/0a/T--Georgia_State--STEMcamp2.jpg" class="spacing-b no-spacing-l" alt="">
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
<div class="span4">
 +
<div class="media">
 +
<div class="media-body"><img  class="rotateimg90" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/4/4c/T--Georgia_State--STEMcamp4.jpg" height="auto" width="auto" alt="">
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
</div>
 +
<div class="ruler-bottom"></div>
 +
<h3> Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club</h3> 
 +
<p>For one of our outreach activities, the members for the iGEM team visited the salvation army boys and girls club. Here we had the pleasure of meeting with the young and curious minds. The day began with meeting all these young scientists and introducing our team and the agenda for our meetup.</p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/2/29/T--Georgia_State--boysandgirlsclubgroupphotos.jpg" align="left" hspace="20" class="spacing-b" alt="">
 +
<p>Our basic idea was to spark interest and enthusiasm into these young minds and help them learn the importance of science in our daily life and, why it is important to the community. The meetup began with the team explaining our 2017 iGEM project in a very simple and elementary format for the kids to relate. After the explanation the team gave an elaborate breakdown of how our project can be explained and be understood in a more hands on manner using Legos. The Legos were used for the sole purpose of explaining how various BioBricks are integrated into our project.</p><div class="container"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/3/37/T--Georgia_State--boysandgirlsclubplaying.jpg" align="left" hspace="20" class="spacing-b" alt=""></div><p>The activity was wrapped up with a quick Q&A session between the students and out team where they were asked about their thoughts and reflection on how the activity shaped their understanding and if they would be interested in joining the sciences in their future endeavors or not. The meeting was finally concluded with our team handing out the fruit snacks for the kinds and thanking them for their time and patience to help us work with them.</p>
 +
<br>
 +
<h3>NGM/W</h3><br><p>Over the summer members of our iGEM team had an opportunity to meet with a few students from Next Generation Men and Women. NGM/W is a nonprofit Organization established to provide underrepresented students with professional exposure, leadership development, community service and personal support. Through our partnership with the group, we take on the responsibility of exposing the students to a day as a synthetic biologist. On our day, the students got to run through a typical lab day. We started off the day by autoclaving trash and loading the dishwasher with dishes. Then, we went to check on our tobacco plants; this involved testing the water level, adding food, and turning on the sun lamps in the lab. Once, the plants were taken care of; the students got to run PCR samples on a gel. While the gel ran the students got to see how to purified GFP from E.coli using hydrophobic interaction chromatography, so the students got to see GFP fluorescence. They thought this was cool, so we scored some points there! This process lasted long enough for the gel to run, and the students then got to image the gel and take a picture. This was the last bit of lab work, so we cleaned up and went to lunch. The day ended with a Q&A where we addressed any questions or doubts the students may have had about college.  We also advised the students on how to apply for scholarships, and how to fill out college applications, and how to replicate these experiments in high school. Holly and Cara, also went a step further to elaborate the diverse applications of our iGEM lab by explaining how the lab has not only a scientific component where we perform critical research but also an artistic element where students design research posters of our articulated data and present them at STEM conference. Hence providing them with an overall view of the life of an undergraduate student in STEM, and the life of an iGEMer. </p> 
 +
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/c/ca/W.jpeg" class="spacing-b no-spacing-l" alt=""> 
 +
        </div>
 +
                        </div>
 +
                    </div>
 +
<div class="tab-pane fade" id="More">
 +
                        <div class="row-fluid">
 +
                            <div class="span6 ruler-right">
 +
                                <div class="block">
 +
<h3> Interactions in Biological Systems: What are they up to? </h3> 
 +
                                <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/3/37/T--Georgia_State--bhammer.jpg" align="left" hspace="20" class="spacing-b" alt="">
 +
 
 +
                                <p class="last">We hosted a lecture by microbiologist Dr. Hammer. Dr. Hammer studies cell signaling in the bacterial pathogen Vibrio cholerae, and during his talk, Dr. Hammer discussed how he uses genetic engineering for his research. His lab studies microbial interactions at scales that span genes and genomes, regulatory networks, cells, populations, and communities. Harmful and beneficial bacteria are genetically encoded with regulatory networks to integrate external information that tailors gene expression to particular niches. Bacteria use chemical signals to orchestrate behaviors that facilitate both cooperation and conflict with members of the communities they inhabit. His work focuses on the waterborne pathogen Vibrio cholera, which causes the fatal diarrheal disease cholera in humans and also resides in aquatic settings in association with other animals and surfaces like crab shells and zooplankton molts composed of chitin.</p>
 +
<hr>
 +
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/a/ac/T--Georgia_State--Aeisen.jpg" class="spacing-b" align="right" hspace="20" alt="">
 +
<h3> CRISPER, GATTACA, and the end of the world! </h3>  
 +
<p class="last">Arri Eisen is a Professor of Pedagogy in biology and in the Graduate Institute for Liberal Arts; he is also the Teaching Coordinator for FIRST, a National Institutes of Health-supported
 +
postdoctoral fellowship program in research and teaching. Dr. Eisen received his undergraduate
 +
degree in 1985 in biology with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill and his PhD in Biochemistry from
 +
UW-Seattle in 1990. In addition to being on the Center faculty, Arri Eisen is a Professor of
 +
Pedagogy in Biology and in the Institute for Liberal Arts; he is also the Teaching Coordinator for
 +
FIRST, a National Institutes of Health-supported postdoctoral fellowship program in research
 +
and teaching, and a leader of the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, which has been working over
 +
the last decade with the Dalai Lama to educate Tibetan monks and nuns in science. Dr. Eisen
 +
received his undergraduate degree in 1985 in biology with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill and his
 +
PhD in Biochemistry from UW-Seattle in 1990. He has been teaching at Emory since then and
 +
joined the Center in the late 90’s where his main responsibilities now include teaching in the
 +
Center&'s Master of Arts in Bioethics and in Emory's Master of Science in Clinical Research
 +
programs. Dr. Eisen publishes in the peer-reviewed literature in science, science education, and
 +
bioethics, as well as in the popular literature. His most recent book is The Enlightened Gene:
 +
Biology, Buddhism and the Convergence that Explains the World. Dr. Eisen spoke about
 +
CRISPR technology and the future of creating human babies without certain medical conditions
 +
and specific preferred traits.</p>
 +
 
 +
                                </div>
 +
                            </div>
 +
                            <div class="span6">
 +
                                <div class="block no-spacing-l">
 +
<div class="featured-blocks"> <h2><i><font style="text-transform: none;">Our Synthetic Biology Club hosted a speaker series on campus during the spring semester.</font></i></h2></div>
 +
<br>
 +
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/b1/T--Georgia_State--mstyczynski.jpg" class="spacing-b" align="right" hspace="20" alt="">
 +
<h3> Learn to Engineer Bacterial Biosensors! </h3>
 +
<p class="last">The primary focus of Dr. Styczynski research is the experimental and computational study of the
 +
dynamics and regulation of metabolism, with ultimate applications in metabolic engineering,
 +
biotechnology, and biosensors/diagnostics. He spoke of the importance of micronutrient
 +
deficiencies and the importance of having an accessible and affordable way to measure
 +
deficiencies. Micronutrient deficiencies are a significant healthcare concern across the globe.
 +
Significant even in some developed nations, micronutrient deficiencies are more severe in the
 +
developing world and locally in the wake of major disasters. These conditions, though easily
 +
treated, remain a problem because they are often difficult to recognize and diagnose, requiring
 +
lab tests that are prohibitively expensive in both material and human resources for those in
 +
developing or remote areas. As obligate consumers of the same micronutrients, bacteria possess
 +
cellular machinery to control intracellular micronutrient levels and have corresponding
 +
regulatory mechanisms to respond to varying concentrations in their environment. His lab is
 +
developing a novel medical test based on bacterial sensors using designed genetic circuitry to
 +
direct existing or minimally engineered cellular machinery to trigger specific changes in color in
 +
response to defined micronutrient levels. Such a test would be cheap, requiring no complex
 +
equipment and minimal medical training to administer and interpret. This would obviate the
 +
logistical problem of laboratory access and sample transport in remote and low-resource
 +
environments, allowing on-site diagnosis of micronutrient deficiencies in the populations most at
 +
risk.</p>
 +
                             
 +
                                </div>
 +
                            </div>
 +
                        </div>
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                      </div>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
<h1 class="media-heading">Sources</h1>
 
<h1 class="media-heading">Sources</h1>

Revision as of 14:09, 1 November 2017

The Plight of the Horseshoe Crab

Horseshoe crabs aren’t just used for bait. If you have every had a flu shot, known someone with a pacemaker or joint replacement, or given your pet a rabies vaccination, a debt of gratitude is owed to the horseshoe crab. All of these devices are quality checked for safety using a test that comes from the blood of the horseshoe crab. The blood of the crab is very sensitive to endotoxins, the blood from the crab is used commercially to develop the LAL and TAL test. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL)test and was commercialized in the United States in the 1970s and in Asia, there is a similar test called TAL which takes its name from an Asian species of crab, Tachypleus tridentatus. Each year, almost half a million living horse crabs are use in the development of these pharmaceuticals- for these tests 30 percent or more of the blood of the horseshoe crab is taken. It is estimated that 10-15% of 500,000 crabs harvested on the Atlantic coast do not survive the bleeding process. The market for LAL is approximately $50 million, and since no synthetic substitute has the same accuracy as LAL, crab blood must be used it is just to important not to use.

/div>

We were requested to come back to ASF for 2017 due to how successful our Bio Brick activity was the previous year. We provided children and parents alike with a better understanding of the goals, applications and importance of synthetic biology by utilizing the bio brick activity and the glow fish display. This year, we educated many students and parents on synthetic biology and how to create a BioBrick construct using legos. The BioBrick activity utilizes colorful lego pieces to explain to attendees how to create a biobrick. This process involves selecting a plasmid base, promote sequence, ribosomal binding site and a coding sequence. This year used glow fish to relate how fluorescent proteins are utilized in real life. Glow fish are technicallyGMO’s that are appreciated in everyday life as a result of introducing the coding sequence from jellyfish and put it into the embryo of fish to produce a fluorescent glow. We also took some time to explained previous iGEM projects and their benefits to society. Lastly, we gave out a survey to get a better understanding of how many people are aware of the properties and benefits of CBD oil.

GCDHH

Over the summer the Georgia Center of the Death and Hard-of-Hearing (GCDHH) reached out to our GSU iGEM team to learn about synthetic biology and how they could be a part of the researching world. Without knowing how to approach the obstacle of communicating with one another, we reached out to our Department of Education to find out the best way to present our information to the incoming students. Putting the guidelines we received, we hosted a successful open lab day for the GCDHH students. We had interpreters signing as we were explaining the basics of our lab and the undergraduate research that iGEM has to offer. When we initially agreed to hosting the students, we had no idea how much it would impact our view of synthetic biology. We believe that the knowledge and experience we gain from being a part of iGEM should be accessible to everyone that has an interest. Furthermore, we have created our presentation to be more accessible and have gotten an opportunity to learn sign language.



Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club

For one of our outreach activities, the members for the iGEM team visited the salvation army boys and girls club. Here we had the pleasure of meeting with the young and curious minds. The day began with meeting all these young scientists and introducing our team and the agenda for our meetup.

Our basic idea was to spark interest and enthusiasm into these young minds and help them learn the importance of science in our daily life and, why it is important to the community. The meetup began with the team explaining our 2017 iGEM project in a very simple and elementary format for the kids to relate. After the explanation the team gave an elaborate breakdown of how our project can be explained and be understood in a more hands on manner using Legos. The Legos were used for the sole purpose of explaining how various BioBricks are integrated into our project.

The activity was wrapped up with a quick Q&A session between the students and out team where they were asked about their thoughts and reflection on how the activity shaped their understanding and if they would be interested in joining the sciences in their future endeavors or not. The meeting was finally concluded with our team handing out the fruit snacks for the kinds and thanking them for their time and patience to help us work with them.


NGM/W


Over the summer members of our iGEM team had an opportunity to meet with a few students from Next Generation Men and Women. NGM/W is a nonprofit Organization established to provide underrepresented students with professional exposure, leadership development, community service and personal support. Through our partnership with the group, we take on the responsibility of exposing the students to a day as a synthetic biologist. On our day, the students got to run through a typical lab day. We started off the day by autoclaving trash and loading the dishwasher with dishes. Then, we went to check on our tobacco plants; this involved testing the water level, adding food, and turning on the sun lamps in the lab. Once, the plants were taken care of; the students got to run PCR samples on a gel. While the gel ran the students got to see how to purified GFP from E.coli using hydrophobic interaction chromatography, so the students got to see GFP fluorescence. They thought this was cool, so we scored some points there! This process lasted long enough for the gel to run, and the students then got to image the gel and take a picture. This was the last bit of lab work, so we cleaned up and went to lunch. The day ended with a Q&A where we addressed any questions or doubts the students may have had about college. We also advised the students on how to apply for scholarships, and how to fill out college applications, and how to replicate these experiments in high school. Holly and Cara, also went a step further to elaborate the diverse applications of our iGEM lab by explaining how the lab has not only a scientific component where we perform critical research but also an artistic element where students design research posters of our articulated data and present them at STEM conference. Hence providing them with an overall view of the life of an undergraduate student in STEM, and the life of an iGEMer.

Interactions in Biological Systems: What are they up to?

We hosted a lecture by microbiologist Dr. Hammer. Dr. Hammer studies cell signaling in the bacterial pathogen Vibrio cholerae, and during his talk, Dr. Hammer discussed how he uses genetic engineering for his research. His lab studies microbial interactions at scales that span genes and genomes, regulatory networks, cells, populations, and communities. Harmful and beneficial bacteria are genetically encoded with regulatory networks to integrate external information that tailors gene expression to particular niches. Bacteria use chemical signals to orchestrate behaviors that facilitate both cooperation and conflict with members of the communities they inhabit. His work focuses on the waterborne pathogen Vibrio cholera, which causes the fatal diarrheal disease cholera in humans and also resides in aquatic settings in association with other animals and surfaces like crab shells and zooplankton molts composed of chitin.

CRISPER, GATTACA, and the end of the world!

Arri Eisen is a Professor of Pedagogy in biology and in the Graduate Institute for Liberal Arts; he is also the Teaching Coordinator for FIRST, a National Institutes of Health-supported postdoctoral fellowship program in research and teaching. Dr. Eisen received his undergraduate degree in 1985 in biology with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill and his PhD in Biochemistry from UW-Seattle in 1990. In addition to being on the Center faculty, Arri Eisen is a Professor of Pedagogy in Biology and in the Institute for Liberal Arts; he is also the Teaching Coordinator for FIRST, a National Institutes of Health-supported postdoctoral fellowship program in research and teaching, and a leader of the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, which has been working over the last decade with the Dalai Lama to educate Tibetan monks and nuns in science. Dr. Eisen received his undergraduate degree in 1985 in biology with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill and his PhD in Biochemistry from UW-Seattle in 1990. He has been teaching at Emory since then and joined the Center in the late 90’s where his main responsibilities now include teaching in the Center&'s Master of Arts in Bioethics and in Emory's Master of Science in Clinical Research programs. Dr. Eisen publishes in the peer-reviewed literature in science, science education, and bioethics, as well as in the popular literature. His most recent book is The Enlightened Gene: Biology, Buddhism and the Convergence that Explains the World. Dr. Eisen spoke about CRISPR technology and the future of creating human babies without certain medical conditions and specific preferred traits.

Our Synthetic Biology Club hosted a speaker series on campus during the spring semester.


Learn to Engineer Bacterial Biosensors!

The primary focus of Dr. Styczynski research is the experimental and computational study of the dynamics and regulation of metabolism, with ultimate applications in metabolic engineering, biotechnology, and biosensors/diagnostics. He spoke of the importance of micronutrient deficiencies and the importance of having an accessible and affordable way to measure deficiencies. Micronutrient deficiencies are a significant healthcare concern across the globe. Significant even in some developed nations, micronutrient deficiencies are more severe in the developing world and locally in the wake of major disasters. These conditions, though easily treated, remain a problem because they are often difficult to recognize and diagnose, requiring lab tests that are prohibitively expensive in both material and human resources for those in developing or remote areas. As obligate consumers of the same micronutrients, bacteria possess cellular machinery to control intracellular micronutrient levels and have corresponding regulatory mechanisms to respond to varying concentrations in their environment. His lab is developing a novel medical test based on bacterial sensors using designed genetic circuitry to direct existing or minimally engineered cellular machinery to trigger specific changes in color in response to defined micronutrient levels. Such a test would be cheap, requiring no complex equipment and minimal medical training to administer and interpret. This would obviate the logistical problem of laboratory access and sample transport in remote and low-resource environments, allowing on-site diagnosis of micronutrient deficiencies in the populations most at risk.

Sources

Botton ML Shuster CN Jr Keinath J . 2003. Horseshoe crabs in a food web: Who eats whom. Pages. 33-153. in Shuster CN Jr, Barlow RB, Brockmann HJ, eds. The American Horseshoe Crab . Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.

Carmichael RH Rutecki D Annett B Gaines E Valiela I . 2004. Position of horseshoe crabs in estuarine food webs: N and C stable isotopic study of foraging ranges and diet composition. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology . 299: 231-253.

Castro G Myers JP . 1993. Shorebird predation on eggs of horseshoe crabs during spring stopover on Delaware Bay. The Auk . 110: 927-930.

“Species Profile.” ASMFC Fisheries Focus. Vol 17, Issue 5. July 2008. .