Competitive Student Design of Synthetic Biological Finite State Machines

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Under this project a novel course on the design and fabrication of engineered, synthetic biological systems will be disseminated and co-taught at five universities (MIT, UT Austin, Boston University, Caltech, and Princeton). This effort is analogous to the initial proliferation of VLSI design courses that took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In specific, during the project period faculty from each school will spend one week at MIT refining and planning the course, students at each school will spend a summer competing (across schools) to design and build genetically-encoded finite state machines, after which all students and faculty will attend a project-wide jamboree whereat each school's project will be evaluated and design prizes awarded. In addition, during the competition students at each school will be supported by a project-wide Registry of Standard Biological Parts. This multi-school, multi-project design competition is the first multi-site test of such a Registry, and will result in the creation of an open, community-wide resource supporting research and education on synthetic biology. Also resulting from this effort will be (i) an initial set of teachers who are capable of expanding the scope and scale of educational programs that support the engineering of biological systems, (ii) a set of students who have practical experience with the current state and limitations in biological systems design, and (iii) an expanded set of standard biological parts, from which many more schools and researchers will be able to draw upon in support of their own educational initiatives and research.