Difference between revisions of "An Introduction to BioBricks"

BioBricks are a set of interchangable parts, designed with a view to building biological systems in living cells. The picture to the left shows BioBrick part BBa_0034 within a plasmid. The brick is flanked by a standard biobrick prefix (P) and suffix (S). The yellow arrow represents the plasmid's antibiotic resistance gene and the green arrow, its origin of replication. Click the image to find out more or alternatively see:

• BioBrick Names
• Types of BioBrick
• Plasmids Introduction

BioBrick parts can be assembled to form useful devices, through a process often refeed to as 'Standard Assembly' This uses normal cloning techniques based on restriction enzymes, purification, ligation, and transformation. BioBrick parts are composable; allowing endless numbers of biobricks to be pieced together to form higher systems.

The assembly to the left shows 3 BioBricks assembled to create a simple device. You can learn more about this device by following the link to its associated page in the registry. You may like look into:

• Standard Assembly - The classical method of BioBrick assembly, done at the lab bench
• BioBrick Restriction Enzymes
• Rolling Assembly
• Automated assembly - currently in late stage development at iGEM labs