Surveying of the Synthetic Biology Community and Improvement of the iGEM Plant Registry
Department
Biological Sciences
Major
Chemistry
Research Advisor
Westenberg, David J.
Advisor's Department
Biological Sciences
Funding Source
Student Activity Funding Board, Missouri S&T College of Arts, Science, and Business
Abstract
International Genetically Engineered Machines, or iGEM, is an international community of synthetic biology scientists around the world. Teams strive to add to an ever expanding registry of standardized parts. Last year, our team completed a project in the model organism Arabidposis thaliana. We consistently struggled with utilizing the plant portion of the registry, as it is both limited and poorly documented. While at Jamboree last year, we spoke with teams around the world who had similar issues with the projects being limited by the scope of the plant registry. Our plan for the next year is to play a part in improving the documentation and content of the plant registry. My specific portion of this project will be to survey teams across the world and compile their responses on ways that the iGEM plant registry can be improved. This may entail increasing the number of promoters of varying strengths, having a larger variety of reporters that function well in plants, or just better documenting those that already exist. I will then design the parts that should be added to the registry by identifying them in plants or in existing research, while also compiling a list of parts which require data analytics and modeling completed.
Biography
Erin Nischwitz is a junior Chemistry major from Wildwood, MO pursuing an emphasis in pre-med and minors in Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering. She has been involved in the iGEM Student Design Team for 3 years and has served as their president for two terms. She is also Vice President for Omega Sigma Service Organization. She intends to continue her education by attending medical school.
Presentation Type
OURE Fellows Proposal Oral Applicant
Document Type
Presentation
Award
2016-2017 OURE Fellows recipient
Location
Turner Room
Presentation Date
17 Apr 2018, 1:40 pm - 2:00 pm
Surveying of the Synthetic Biology Community and Improvement of the iGEM Plant Registry
Turner Room
International Genetically Engineered Machines, or iGEM, is an international community of synthetic biology scientists around the world. Teams strive to add to an ever expanding registry of standardized parts. Last year, our team completed a project in the model organism Arabidposis thaliana. We consistently struggled with utilizing the plant portion of the registry, as it is both limited and poorly documented. While at Jamboree last year, we spoke with teams around the world who had similar issues with the projects being limited by the scope of the plant registry. Our plan for the next year is to play a part in improving the documentation and content of the plant registry. My specific portion of this project will be to survey teams across the world and compile their responses on ways that the iGEM plant registry can be improved. This may entail increasing the number of promoters of varying strengths, having a larger variety of reporters that function well in plants, or just better documenting those that already exist. I will then design the parts that should be added to the registry by identifying them in plants or in existing research, while also compiling a list of parts which require data analytics and modeling completed.
