Team:IIT-Madras/Chassidex
While iGEM teams and the synthetic biology community has mostly focussed on developing DNA parts called ‘BioBricks’ for use in biological systems, the parts have to be ultimately used in an organism called host or sometimes even ‘chassis’. For most projects, researchers try to stick with using a few familiar model organisms such as Escherichia coli for the host system requirements. Lack of experience is often a reason to avoid unfamiliar yet apt organisms for the project at hand. To explain this with an analogy, imagine Taxi-hailing apps being available only for desktop computers because the developers do not know how to develop applications that run on mobile phones. Hence, in the 2017 edition of iGEM, Team IIT Madras worked on developing a database of host organisms called ChassiDex that aimed to curate different organisms along with all the information about them that is relevant in the context of synthetic biology. The idea of having such a database was very well received by the synthetic biology community that attended the iGEM Giant Jamboree in 2017. We have continued working on the project and revamping it with suggestions received, with the hope to improve this project and create a team to manage the database.