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| | <p>Through outreach, NUSGEM aimed to raise more awareness about synthetic biology, iGEM and our project to the public focusing greatly on high school and university students. Although synthetic biology research and development is growing in Singapore, it is not being emphasized to students. We feel it is important that students are exposed to the basics of synthetic biology early on to help them open to newer career options. | | <p>Through outreach, NUSGEM aimed to raise more awareness about synthetic biology, iGEM and our project to the public focusing greatly on high school and university students. Although synthetic biology research and development is growing in Singapore, it is not being emphasized to students. We feel it is important that students are exposed to the basics of synthetic biology early on to help them open to newer career options. |
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| − | <p> This year, the Committee aims to discover if it is possible to reduce lab-to-lab variability in fluorescence measurements by normalizing to absolute cell count or colony-forming units (CFUs) instead of optical density (OD). For this, we were required
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| − | to measure the cell density of Escherichia coli (<i>E. coli</i>) DH5⍺ cells using the methods below.
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| − | </p>
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| − | </div>
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| − | <div class="column right" style="background-color:white;">
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| − | <p> <i> Method 1: Converting between absorbance of cells to absorbance of a known concentration of beads </i>
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| − | </p>
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| − | <p> In the first method, silica beads are used to estimate the actual amount of cells during fluorescence measurement. These beads are modeled after a typical <i> E. coli </i> cell and are thus expected to scatter light in a similar way to <i> E. coli </i> cells. As a sample of these silica beads gives a consistent and known absorbance measurement at 600 nm, absorbance measurements from a sample’s cell density can be converted into an “equivalent concentration of beads” measurement that should
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| − | be more universal and comparable between different labs.</p>
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| − | <br>
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| − | <p> <i>Method 2: Counting colony-forming units (CFUs) from the sample</i></p>
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| − | <br>
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| − | <p> In the second method, cell concentration is approximated is by plating a known volume of the sample and letting bacterial colonies grow. As each bacterial colony is assumed to represent a single cell (for cells that do not stick together), the
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| − | cell concentration in the sample is then directly proportional to the number of CFUs. Using a scaling factor computed from negative and positive control CFUs, a conversion factor from absorbance to CFU can be computed.</p>
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| | </div> | | </div> |
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| − | <h1> EXPERIMENTS </h1>
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| − | <button class="accordion"> PLATE READER SETUP </button>
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| − | <div class="panel" style="line-height: 17em;">
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| − | <table>
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| − | <td style="padding:0;">
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| − | <h3><i>Abs<sub>600</sub></i></h3>
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| − | </td>
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| − | <ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 1em; text-align:left; border-left: .5px solid black">
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| − | <li> Wavelength: 600nm </li>
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| − | <li> Read Speed: Normal </li>
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| − | <li> Delay: 100 msec </li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </td>
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| − | </tr>
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| − | </table>
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| − | <table>
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| − | <tr>
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| − | <h3><i>Fluorescence</i></h3>
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| − | </td>
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| − | <td>
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| − | <ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 1em; text-align:left; border-left: .5px solid black">
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| − | <li> Excitation: 485 </li>
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| − | <li>Emission: 525</li>
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| − | <li>Optics: Top</li>
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| − | <li>Gain: 50</li>
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| − | <li>Light Source: Xenon Flash</li>
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| − | <li>Lamp Energy: High</li>
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| − | <li>Read Speed: Normal</li>
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| − | <li>Delay: 100 msec</li>
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| − | <li>Read Height: 7 mm</li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </td>
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| − | </tr>
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| − | </table>
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| − | </div>
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| − | <div style="margin-left: 12px;">
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| − | <h1>OVERVIEW</h1>
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| − | <p style="text-align: justify">Singapore has set its sights on becoming a global powerhouse in synthetic biology. The government is pouring money into a new research programme and is encouraging scientists to make synthetic microorganisms, or redesign natural ones, that can be used to produce food, electronics, medicine and energy.
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| − | </p>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Yet after looking at biology syllabuses, we found that there aren’t many opportunities to learn about synthetic biology in tertiary education</li>
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| − | <li>Insert pictures of biology syllabuses</li>
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| − | <li>engineering biology in NUS n NTU – limited modules, also not a compulsory module…?</li>
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| − | <li>There is a gap we can address because tertiary education is the best stage to attract/introduce people to synthetic biology</li>
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| − | <li>We expect to be more relatable to such a target group as well</li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </div>
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| − | <div class="clear"></div>
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| − | <div style="margin-left: 12px;">
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| − | <h2>ORGANIZED A TERTIARY-LEVEL OUTREACH EVENT</h2>
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| − | <p></p>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Lab tour</li>
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| − | <li>Lectures</li>
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| − | <li>Discussion of career prospects</li>
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| − | <li>Development of a gene circuit design primer and educational game</li>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>READY TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM</li>
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| − | <li>USE THE SURVEYS TO SEE HOW TO IMPROVE THE GAME </li>
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| − | <li>USE THE SURVEYS TO SAY THAT STUDENTS ENJOYED THE GAME</li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <li>Discussion of survey results</li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </div>
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| − | <div class="clear"></div>
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| − | <div style="margin-left: 12px;">
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| − | <h2>UNIVERSITY-LEVEL OUTREACH EVENTS</h2>
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| − | <p><i>RC Teas</i></p>
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| − | <br>
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| − | <p>RCs are themed, meant to attract people who feel very strongly about those themes. Can try targeting such people, perhaps their passion makes them more predisposed towards synthetic biology (reasoning to be firmed up a la PW)</p>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Tembusu – women in synthetic biology </li>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Encourage girls to join STEM fields – why not encourage them to join synthetic biology?</li>
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| − | <li>Inspiring</li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <li>RVRC – environmental conservation</li>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Show them the potential of synthetic biology to solve problems, give them another cognitive tool
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| − | </li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </div>
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| − | <div class="clear"></div>
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| − | <div style="margin-left: 12px;">
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| − | <h2>SOCIAL MEDIA</h2>
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| − | <p><i>Best way to directly communicate to our target audience</i></p>
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Demographics</li>
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| − | <li>Show continuous effort to engage with our audience</li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | </div>
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| − | </div>
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