We have accomplished many things throughout this project. See how our work meets the bronze, silver and gold medal criteria below!
| Bronze Medal Criteria | Pages that Contribute | How |
|---|---|---|
| Competition Deliverables | Judging Form | We have completed all the deliverables required for the competition. |
| Attributions | Attributions page | We wrote an attributions page which gives credit to everyone that has contributed to the project. |
| Project description | Project Description | We wrote a summary of our project that describes our major goals and achievements. |
| Contribution | Contribution page | We improved the characterisation of Part: BBa_K3814004, we measured the absorbance spectrum and used it to calculate the theoretical absorbance spectrum of 1 mg/mL fuGFP and compared it to sfGFP. Additionally we calculated the extinction coefficient of fuGFP. |
| Silver Medal Criteria | Pages that Contribute | How |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering success | Engineering Success page | We completed a design-build-test-learn cycle in our work on the construction of our cellulose binding domain fuGFP fusion protein. The result of this cycle was the new parts which were contrasted and shown to possess improved expression, fluorescence and binding capability as a result of the addition of a linker. |
| Collaboration | Collaboration page | We collaborated with the University of Washington team on a Human Practices podcast. We collaborated with the University of Washington team on Modelling. We collaborated with the Kings High School team and the University of New South Wales team for our wiki. We attended the Downunder iGEM meetup in early October. |
| Human practices | Human Practices page | Throughout the process of iGEM we have researched and reflected on the wider impacts of our project, as reflected in our Human Practices writeup. We have generated surveys, and reached out to local stakeholders, such as Rapid Antigen Test manufacturing companies. We created a podcast in collaboration with the University of Washington team discussing the impacts of our projects in each others’ differing contexts and healthcare systems. |
| Proposed implementation | Implementation page | We documented how our project could be implemented in the real world. |
| Gold Medal Criteria | Pages that Contribute | How |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated human practices | Human Practices page | The feedback we received from interviews with an emergency department head physician and an A/Prof of Philosophy of Microbiology have been integrated into our work, both in the wetlab and in the drylab. |
| Improvement of an existing part | Parts page | Based on the existing fuGFP part (BBa_K3814004), we created a variant (fuGFPb) (BBa_K4488017) that has an excitation spectra that allows it to be used with standard GFP filtersets, while still maintaining the same emission spectra. |
| Project modelling | Modelling page |
We used molecular dynamics simulations to model the docking of GFPs to
nanobodies, two important proteins in our project. This allowed us to
create visualtions of nanobody-GFP complexes, and compare binding
afinities between different combinations of nanobodies and GFPs.
As well as improving our understanding of processes which are central to our project, our modelling allowed us to verify experimental results, as we were able to compare binding affinities tested in the lab to those modelled in simulations. We also used our modelling to help choose which nanobodies to order and use in our project, and without this we may have ended up with proteins which did not effectively bind, making our project near impossible. |
| Education and communication | Education and Communication page | Our laboratory workshop for Indegenous highschoolers introduced students with an interest in science to basic concepts and lab skills in microbiology. In addition, the materials we developed for our National Science Week booth at the Australian Museum introduced an array of students (both primary and secondary school) to concepts in synthetic biology like heterologous expression and fluorescent proteins. |
See Education and Communication page for more details.
Our laboratory workshop for Indegenous highschoolers introduced students with an interest in science to basic concepts and lab skills in microbiology. In addition, the materials we developed for our National Science Week booth at the Australian Museum introduced an array of students (both primary and secondary school) to concepts in synthetic biology like heterologous expression and fluorescent proteins.
See Inclusivity page for more details.
As a part of our education and communication we devised and ran a lab microbiology activity for Indigenous students in their final year of high school, designed to promote interest in microbiology tertiary education pathways. This program was a part of the Tahgara Winter Programme at our University. Indigenous students are underrepresented in tertiary education in Australia, and programmes such as the Tahgara Winter Programme have a proven impact - our own team member Kawana Crowe once participated when she was herself in high school. Decolonisation of science is incredibly pertinent in the Australian context, where scientific institutions have directly contributed to the systemic subjugation of Indigenous Australians in its history, and research often continues to be carried out without appropriate cultural consultation.
We have included alt.text for all figures in our webpage. This is useful for people who may have impaired vision, as this allows for a read-aloud function to communicate what is pictured in our figures.
Our webpage can also be accessed with only a keyboard without the need for a mouse by navigating through ‘Tab’ and ‘Enter’.
A transcript has been provided for both our promotional video and podcast. Our podcast transcript includes tone indicators to better communicate the tone of our sentiments and conversation as a whole.
See Human Practices page for more details.
The feedback we received from interviews with an emergency department head physician and an A/Prof of Philosophy of Microbiology have been integrated into our work, both in the wetlab and in the drylab. We expanded our range of free-use fluorescent proteins fused to cellulose binding domains, and expanded our scope and range of potential applications, as reflected in our wiki. In response, we have considered the ethics and equity considerations of our project, and the extent to which we can influence what is done with the technology that we create. We have focussed our efforts on ensuring our technology can be applied to help underserved remote communities lacking access to healthcare.
See Modelling page for more details.
We used molecular dynamics simulations to model the docking of GFPs to nanobodies, two important proteins in our project. This allowed us to create visualtions of nanobody-GFP complexes, and compare binding afinities between different combinations of nanobodies and GFPs.
As well as improving our understanding of processes which are central to our project, our modelling allowed us to verify experimental results, as we were able to compare binding affinities tested in the lab to those modelled in simulations. We also used our modelling to help choose which nanobodies to order and use in our project, and without this we may have ended up with proteins which did not effectively bind, making our project near impossible.
Part Number: BBa_K4488017 (fuGFPb)
Our new basic part fuGFPb, comes with all the same benefits of the open-source fuGFP. In addition, because of its altered excitation spectra, it can be used with the same filter sets that are standard for GFPs and are widely available.
Part Numbers:
Our collection of fluorescent proteins (fuGFP, fuGFPb, fuGFPy, fuBFP, and fuGFPa) fused with cellulose binding domain (CBD) allows for the immobilisation of a wide variety of free-use fluorescent proteins onto cellulose.
Part Number: BBa_K4488013 (fuGFP-linker-CBDcipA)
Our fuGFP and cellulose binding domain (CBD) fusion protein allows for the immobilisation of fuGFP onto cellulose while maintaining its fluorescent properties. This has potential in a variety of applications including our proposed rapid antigen test implementation.