Difference between revisions of "An Introduction to BioBricks"

Revision as of 19:23, 8 July 2006

What is a BioBrick?

The BioBrick logic family is a set of interchangable components, designed with a view to building biological systems in living cells. The members of this family are designed to be compatible, composible, interchangeable and independent; in this way a new generation of biological engineers are building novel devices much in the way their electronically-orientated collegues might piece together transistors, resistors and capacitors.

A BioBrick represents a unique sequence of DNA; it might be a gene that codes a protein or a switch triggered by an external input, it also has a unique name. Whatever its function, a biobrick comes packaged in a plasmid, ready to be assembled into useful devices & systems.

Building BioBrick Systems

Physical parts in the DNA Repository have been designed to be assembled into systems using normal cloning techniques based on restriction enzymes, purification, ligation, and transformation - with a twist: BioBrick parts are composable. The result of assembling two parts is a new part that may be used in future assemblies.

Standard Assembly

The classical method of BioBrick assembly, done at the lab bench.

Insert pic of std assembly

Automated Assembly

Automated assembly, currently in late stage development at iGEM labs.

Insert pic of auto assembly

How do I make a BioBrick?

At the bench

Pic of biobrick flanked by coding seq

Methods:

• Synthesis
• PCR

More information on putting sequence into standardized Biobrick form can be found here

Adding the part to the registry

This protocol is quick and easy. A comprehensive guide can be found here