Download What are mitochondria? Mitochondria are the

We approached our human practices project as a multifaceted education plan with
two goals in mind:
1)
educate the public about the potential of synthetic biology
2)
create resources to improve access to synthetic biology at Queen’s U
What are inteins?
Inteins are amino acid
sequences capable of removing
themselves from proteins
through a self-catalyzed splicing
reaction. We believe that inteins
represent an exciting and
underutilized tool to alter protein
characteristics in a switchable
way.
Science Quest
At the public school level, we engaged
students with simple but highly visual ways of
showcasing the hidden world of genetics, and
letting them speculate on the future of
synthetic biology.The children were then given
the opportunity to isolate DNA from bananas
by themselves, which they took home after
workshops on what biology means to them.
Figure 1: Overview of Intein Mechanism
Figure 3: Chassis Design
What are mitochondria?
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of
the cell, and retain a minimal genome
consisting of the information needed to
produce components of the electron
transport chain (ETC)
Why do we care?
Shad Valley
Figure 2: Mutated Membrane
Protein
At the high school level, we worked with Shad
Valley, a well-known Canadian not-for-profit
educational organization, to produce workshops
aimed specifically on synthetic biology and
problem solving through real life applications.
We presented a forensic case based on
synthetic biology, as well as teaching students
about common techniques used in the lab and
allowed them to crack the case themselves
using what they had learned.
Figure 4: Final Designed BioBrick
Part
Mitochondrial diseases involving the ETC are difficult to treat for two reasons:
1) these genes are inherited from the mother through the cytoplasm of the
ovum and have high penetrance
2) mitochondrial ETC transmembrane proteins are too hydrophobic to be
allotopically expressed in the nucleus and then imported via a transit sequence
Conclusion:
Parts shown below were documented for
the competition. Future steps include
characterization of the part and efficiency
assays. Following preliminary
characterizations, the part would be
transferred in a shuttle vector into Yeast
where assays would determine the
effectiveness of the entry into the
mitochondria as well as ETC recovery
We wish to test inteins as a tool with which limitations of organelle localization
can be overcome, by altering the hydrophilicity and size of protein fragments.
Our goal is to characterize inteins as a multifaceted tool
that bring control of protein production and function to a posttranslational level.
Contributors: Matthew C, Rishad K,
Denisha P, Emily T, Jonathan A,
Kersh T, Henry B, Matthew B,
Yuming W, Adrina Z,
Advisors: Dr. J Allingham (PI), Dr. S
Archer, Dr. M Petkovitch, Dr. K Ko,
Dr. Fox
Additional Support: Dr. C Frazer,
Amr Omer
Figure 5: Final gel
characterizing the size Top: Two
bands, 2000 bp (vector) and 700
bp (insert)
Bottom: Two bands; 2000 bp
(vector) and 1500 bp (insert)
Figure 6: Predicted size and characteristics
of BioBrick parts
Political Outreach
This summer we got in touch with our
local member of parliament, Ted Hsu, the
liberal party’s critic for science and
technology. We discussed the importance
of accessibility of information regarding
synthetic biology, and our program
reached over 10 000 in the Kingston
community, reaching more than 442
minutes of screentime.
Educational Leadership in Synthetic Biology
Our team has collaborated with professors at
Queen’s University to introduce thinking, teaching,
and learning about synthetic biology at Queen’s U.
QGEM members will give “spotlight’ lectures and
design problem based learning tutorials to help
students explore the cutting edge of bioinformatic
techniques and how to apply molecular biology to
a wide variety of scientific disciplines.