Team:BostonU

BostonU 2018 is characterizing and optimizing a pair of light-inducible promoters, LOV2 & PhiReX, in S. cerevisiae for use in eukaryotic transcriptional control and in industrial fermentation. Light-inducible promoters lend synthetic biologists greater spatiotemporal control over transcription than small molecule-inducible promoters, and represent an expansion of tools for transcriptional control. Further, LOV2 is activated by blue light and PhiReX by red, allowing for multiple layers of control. We are characterizing these light-inducible promoter systems using the eVOLVER, a novel cell culturing platform developed by Brandon Wong at Boston University’s Khalil Lab. The eVOLVER allows us to fully characterize our systems across an expansive parameter space, as well as multiplex across strains while retaining control of individual cultures. Using the eVOLVER, we will be able to rapidly gather data on the optimal conditions under which PhiReX and LOV2 operate, which will allow us to improve light-inducible tools for transcriptional control. Optimizing light-inducible transcriptional control can be applied to multiplexed control of gene expression, as well as to the finely-tuned expression required for effective biofuel production. By improving light-inducible control of eukaryotic transcription, BostonU 2018 will make a significant contribution to the range of tools available to synthetic biologists.