Brainstorming biology

Abstract

The NCBS iGEM 2006 team grew out of a three month interdisciplinary workshop on synthetic biology, built around teamwork and brainstorming. Our emphasis was on the development of a design process, not merely on a successful outcome. We worked on three projects: (1) converting a transient stimulus to a sustained response; (2) two-dimensional regulation of bacterial chemotaxis; and (3) synchronising bacterial cell cycles. Common to all these projects was the idea of modifying an existing complex biological system in order to achieve some desired behaviour. Here we share our experimental successes and failures, the lessons we learned about the practice of synthetic biology, and our thoughts about the special role synthetic and open-source biology might play in India.