Overview

Our Aims

After developing our idea for electronic control of gene expression we found a previous method was developed by Tschirhart et al. (2017). Although several barriers prevent this systems general use in synthetic biology. It only functions in anaerobic conditions, did not demonstrate spatial control, used an expensive electrochemical set-up, was not assembled modularly, provided no parts to modify the biological response.
Throughout our wet lab experiments we aimed to overcome these problems to generate a modular, affordable and aerobic electrogenetic control system capable of patterning cells capable of achieving spatial patterning.

General Circuit Design

Circuit Construction

We constructed electrogenetic circuits and characterised their activity in various chemical redox conditions.

Electrochemistry Testing

We used an affordable electrochemical set-up to determine how we can use electrical pulses to convert between redox states.

Integration

We proved that electric pulses can be used to induce spatial patterning by controlling our electrogenetic circuit via changes in the local redox environment. We also developed a library of electrogenetic parts to allow for modification of the system which we used to build an application device.

Team:Imperial College/Wetover