Team:Michigan/Description

Description

Tell us about your project, describe what moves you and why this is something important for your team.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is used to directly edit the DNA of an organism. It is bacteria’s immune system against bacteriophages. Bacteria incorporate fragments of the virus genome and use them as a defense mechanism. Once the bacteria encounter the same virus, a guide RNA locates a specific section of the DNA and signals for the Cas9 protein to lock onto the DNA. The Cas9 then breaks both strands of DNA and can then be used to disable a gene or insert a new gene. This system allows for easier and faster modification of the genome than current methods; this technology can help scientists and the public in many ways, such as finding cures for genetic therapy, understanding the role of proteins within cell, cell function, and genetic diseases.Our goal is to design and characterize an assay that allows scientists to measure the binding efficiencies of separate CRISPR Cas9 systems. Our model relies on competition between two Cas9s from two separate bacterial species. In each experiment, one Cas9 will be active, while the other will deactivated. Binding of the active Cas9 will cleave the testing plasmid, which instructs the cell to make Green Fluorescent Protein. Better binding of the active Cas9 will thus lead to degradation of the plasmid, making cells less green. Better binding by the deactivated Cas9 won’t affect the plasmid, but it will prevent the active Cas9 from binding and causing the plasmid to degrade, so the cells will stay green.

What should this page contain?

• A clear and concise description of your project.
• A detailed explanation of why your team chose to work on this particular project.
• References and sources to document your research.
• Use illustrations and other visual resources to explain your project.

Inspiration

See how other teams have described and presented their projects:

• 2016 Imperial College
• 2016 Wageningen UR
• 2014 UC Davis
• 2014 SYSU Software

Advice on writing your Project Description

We encourage you to put up a lot of information and content on your wiki, but we also encourage you to include summaries as much as possible. If you think of the sections in your project description as the sections in a publication, you should try to be concise, accurate, and unambiguous in your achievements.

References

iGEM teams are encouraged to record references you use during the course of your research. They should be posted somewhere on your wiki so that judges and other visitors can see how you thought about your project and what works inspired you.