Biomaterials

Mimicking the heart's microenvironment

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Mimicking the heart's microenvironment Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/11/2019 - 00:00

Trent Knoss

CU Boulder engineers and faculty from the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation (CFReT) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus have teamed up to develop biomaterial-based “mimics” of heart tissues to measure patients’ responses to an aortic valve replacement procedure, offering new insight into the ways that cardiac tissue re-shapes itself post-surgery.

Aortic valve stenosis (AVS), a progressive disease characterized by heart valve tissue stiffening and obstructed blood flow from the heart, is known as a “silent killer,” affecting 12.4 percent of the population over 75 years old with a mortality range of 2-5 years if left untreated. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures, which place an artificial valve at the site of the blockage, have been widely and successfully adopted as a remedy in recent decades.

Details of the broader biological reaction to the valve replacement have remained largely unknown, but nevertheless hold significant ramifications for quantifying the quality of recovery, the risk of complications and the assessment of overall patient outcomes.

During AVS disease progression, tissue-specific cells known as fibroblasts transition into myofibroblasts, which promote tissue stiffening. The researchers were interested in understanding how and why, post TAVR, myofibroblasts revert to the more benign fibroblasts.

“Previous studies have shown significant remodeling of cardiac tissues post-intervention,” said Dr. Brian Aguado, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher in CU Boulder’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “Our hypothesis was that perhaps there are biochemical cues in a patient’s blood that may revert myofibroblasts back to fibroblasts.”

Modeling such a transformation in the lab is one thing, Aguado said, but the key to the new study was obtaining blood samples from real AVS patients and then using biomaterials to replicate the microenvironment of the heart.

“The heart is not made of plastic like a petri dish is,” he said. “We needed to engineer materials that could reflect the various stiffnesses of both healthy and diseased valve and cardiac tissue.”

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Research here could speedup clinical trials around Type 1 diabetes

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Research here could speedup clinical trials around Type 1 diabetes Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/06/2018 - 00:00

Josh Rhoten

Researchers at CU Boulder have developed virtual clinical trials for an artificial pancreas that could significantly improve treatments for those with Type 1 diabetes by tailoring medical devices and speeding up trials.

The work was done through a four-year, $600,000 award from the National Science Foundation and was headed at the CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science by Sriram Sankaranarayanan, an associate professor and the Roubos Engineering Endowed Faculty Fellow in the Department of Computer Science. Sankaranarayanan said the project has led to research papers in journals and conferences across many disciplines and created numerous areas of collaboration between his group, chemical engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, biologists and physicians focused on the treatment of Type 1 diabetes.

“Type 1 diabetes is one of the few diseases where the treatment could be technological, so it sits at the convergence of health, human behavior, computer science and mathematics. It’s a really interesting sweet spot for us to explore and a field that has grown a lot since we started the work,” he said.

There were many collaborators on the project, including other faculty at CU Boulder, researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York, the Barbara Davis Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the Stanford University Medical Center. The project also involved CU computer science PhD student Taisa Kushner.

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Shape-shifting material can morph, reverse itself using heat, light

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Shape-shifting material can morph, reverse itself using heat, light Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/24/2018 - 00:00

Trent Knoss

A new material developed by CU Boulder engineers can transform into complex, pre-programmed shapes via light and temperature stimuli, allowing a literal square peg to morph and fit into a round hole before fully reverting to its original form.

The controllable shape-shifting material, described today in the journal Science Advances, could have broad applications for manufacturing, robotics, biomedical devices and artificial muscles.

“The ability to form materials that can repeatedly oscillate back and forth between two independent shapes by exposing them to light will open up a wide range of new applications and approaches to areas such as additive manufacturing, robotics and biomaterials”, said Christopher Bowman, senior author of the new study and a Distinguished Professor in CU Boulder’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CHBE).

Previous efforts have used a variety of physical mechanisms to alter an object’s size, shape or texture with programmable stimuli. However, such materials have historically been limited in size or extent and the object state changes have proven difficult to fully reverse.

The new CU Boulder material achieves readily programmable two-way transformations on a macroscopic level by using liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), the same technology underlying modern television displays. The unique molecular arrangement of LCEs make them susceptible to dynamic change via heat and light.

To solve this, the researchers installed a light-activated trigger to LCE networks that can set a desired molecular alignment in advance by exposing the object to particular wavelengths of light. The trigger then remains inactive until exposed to the corresponding heat stimuli. For example, a hand-folded origami swan programmed in this fashion will remain folded at room temperature. When heated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, however, the swan relaxes into a flat sheet. Later, as it cools back to room temperature, it will gradually regain its pre-programmed swan shape.

The ability to change and then change back gives this new material a wide range of possible applications, especially for future biomedical devices that could become more flexible and adaptable than ever before.

“We view this as an elegant foundational system for transforming an object’s properties,” said Matthew McBride, lead author of the new study and a post-doctoral researcher in CHBE. “We plan to continue optimizing and exploring the possibilities of this technology.”

Additional co-authors of the study include Alina Martinez, Marvin Alim, Kimberly Childress, Michael Beiswinger, Maciej Podgorski and Brady Worrell of CU Boulder and Lewis Cox and Jason Killgore of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The National Science Foundation provided funding for the research.

[video:https://vimeo.com/286537992]

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The Founders of Biomaterials

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 06:00:00 +0000

The Founders of Biomaterials Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/10/2017 - 00:00

Aaron Aziz

The Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting has been a regular stop during my Ph.D. career. From my first attendance at the 2014 conference in Denver to my most recent experience this year in Minnesota; it has become a very familiar place to me. I still remember the first time I attended, walking into the Colorado Convention Center eyes wide open, trying my best to withhold the eagerness that was ready to pounce at the first opportunity to start talking research with a fellow scientist. It was a brand new experience to me, and with the allure built up from senior graduate students in my lab, I could barely contain myself. I was nervous, worried whether I would have the chops to kick it with the big players, but more so excited, not only since it was my first conference but also because I would be giving my first oral presentation. I got to meet new people, listen to great speakers, network, hear groundbreaking research, enjoy stimulating company, and all the other things that come with a conference. Looking back, my first experience was a grand slam in a sense.

Returning to the conference in following years felt natural. It wasn’t anything ‘earth-shattering’ for my Ph.D. experience like the first time. Yes, there were the incremental advances in research, with a few new techniques being implemented or directions taking root in the field. But overall it felt like a lot ‘more of the same’. I felt well versed on ranges of topics, much of which was very different than my specific area of focus. I began to recognize faces of colleagues from other campuses, institutions and even countries I have never visited. Even the conversations felt a little less stimulating and a little more like I was going through the motions. Had I experienced everything there was? Networked with everyone I could? Could I ever reach the initial ‘high’ again?

In reality, I was sure that was not possibly the case. For some time I just could not come to terms with the feeling and more or less just pushed it aside. I think it was only this most recent trip where I was able to bring everything full circle. It happened on the first day during the award presentation at the opening ceremony, when Jeffrey Hubbell received the Founders Award. Hubbell was not anyone new to me; he was one of those people with whom I had become all too familiar. I had read dozens of papers that he published and chapters he had co-authored. He was a staple in my field and, ironically titled, deserved the Founders Award in every right. He stepped onto the stage, accepted his award, posed for the obligatory pictures, and then stepped to the podium and began his acceptance speech, “This Society has become a home for me…”

I’m sure to most it may have been something minor or meaningless, but I began to fixate on that as he continued to elaborate. He explained how it was at the annual meetings that he met his pioneers in biomaterials as a young scientist, asked the hard questions, received some tough love, began to bring his students to the meetings and watch as they progressed in the field and brought their students along. It was a great metaphor, and almost every awardee that followed alluded to it. And it put into words pretty well the exact things I felt as I became familiar with the annual meetings. I went through the conference with a different outlook, being very observant and intentional with my actions, perhaps because of the renewed spirit. On the last day, I got to hear plenary talks from Alan Hoffmann and Buddy Ratner, the two recognized as laying the cornerstones for the field that we now know as biomaterials. It was a great way to end the conference, probably the last one I’ll attend as a graduate student. As I stand hopeful, at the cusp of my Ph.D. career, unsure what path I may take, I have a feeling, like my role models, I will be returning to my home at the Society for Biomaterials.

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CU Competes in International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 06:00:00 +0000

CU Competes in International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/13/2016 - 00:00

BioFrontiers

The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, or iGEM, is an annual synthetic biology competition that pits teams from schools from all over the world against each other with the goal of winning one of many possible awards. CU Boulder has been a participant for the last couple years, 2015 being no different.

Our research project last year was the development of an E. coli based biosensor that could be used to detect naphthalene, a common additive to fracking fluid which is also harmful to people’s health. We had a small team that managed to achieve a lot, and learn a massive amount in the research process.

In September the team members landed in Boston late the night before the opening ceremony of the 2015 iGEM Giant Jamboree. We had to give our presentation the next day, but luckily we weren’t scheduled to do so at 9:00 a.m., meaning we didn’t have to give up our much-desired sleep time on finishing our presentation.

After waking up early the next morning to go to the opening ceremony we hurried back to our rooms to start working on the final touches to our presentation, and get in some much needed practice. Despite making changes and not getting to run through the final version of the presentation until less than two hours before we had to present to the judges, our presentation went well and then we were free to watch other presentations and enjoy what else the Jamboree had to offer.

There were many presentations, and as the Jamboree came to a close the judges spent plenty of time deliberating on which teams were the best of the best in each category. The overall winner of the competition was a surprising one in the team from the College of William and Mary. Their project was the development of a new parameter, “noise” that could be used in the characterization of the biological parts used by every team who participates in iGEM.

In the end, we were awarded a silver medal for our efforts, and some of our members were actually mentioned in a paper that was published using data collected for the iGEM interlab study.

CU is fielding an iGEM team again this summer, this time our project is focusing on integrating photosensitive non-canonical amino acids into Bacterial Microcompartments (BMCs) so that they can be broken apart and put back together on command, possibly for use in fields such as drug delivery.

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CU Boulder Wins Silver at 2014 iGEM

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 07:00:00 +0000

CU Boulder Wins Silver at 2014 iGEM Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/29/2015 - 00:00

BioFrontiers

CU-Boulder Student Team Wins Silver at Premiere Biology Competition

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) event is the top synthetic biology competition in the world and the CU-Boulder team wanted to make an impact at this year’s competition in Boston. Last year’s 2013 Buffs iGEM team was successful, winning a North American Regional award for best new BioBrick and publishing their research in ACS Synthetic Biology. The 2014 Buffs iGEM team was confident they could compete at the international level. Unlike previous years, this year the iGEM competition (called a Jamboree) had no regional qualifying round, creating formidable competition: 2,500 undergraduate and graduate synthetic biology researchers from 245 universities across 32 countries. In the end, the CU scientists came home with a Silver medal and an interlab study distinction.

“Hard to believe I had never heard of iGEM until earlier this year,” says Leighla Tayefeh, a CU senior with a double major in MCD biology and neuroscience. “But the idea of synthetic biology’s vast potential to benefit society enticed me to join the team. We wanted to stand out and work with new technology, so this led us straight to the endogenous CRISPR-Cas9 system and the clinical need for an alternative to antibiotics.”

The CU iGEM team wanted to tackle the serious problem of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, like MRSA and tuberculosis, in a way that didn’t damage the body’s healthful bacteria colonies at the same time. They focused on phage therapy, which is a virus that uses bacteria’s cellular resources to reproduce until the host bacteria’s cell is eventually destroyed. CRISPR-Cas9 is a phage system that is able to more specifically target the DNA of a bacterial infection, resulting in cell death. What made the CU-Boulder team’s efforts even more valuable was their development of a delivery system for the phage therapy. The result is that the CRISPR-Cas9 phage binds to part of the DNA in the cell and cuts the DNA strand, killing the bacteria cell.

iGEM promotes educational outreach as part of their team projects. The CU team used the opportunity over the summer to host a camp from Heritage High School in Littleton, Colo. to teach them DNA basics. The high school students extracted their own DNA from saliva and examined differences between pathogenic and healthy DNA fragments. The CU team also collaborated with Colorado State University’s iGEM team to validate some of their findings during the project.

“The 2014 CU iGEM team was successful at making progress on a difficult scientific problem, namely alternatives to fight antibiotic resistance, but also at impacting the local community. The high school students who came to visit have written raving about their experiences,” says Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and BioFrontiers faculty member, Robin Dowell who served as the CU iGEM mentor for the last two years.

iGEM, which began in 2003, provides each team with a kit of biological parts -- like promoters that respond to particular stimuli, genes, or regulators -- at the beginning of each summer. Students then use these parts, or parts of their own design, in their projects. The iGEM Giant Jamboree was held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, October 30 through November 3.

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CU is heading to Boston for the iGEM Jamboree

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 07:00:00 +0000

CU is heading to Boston for the iGEM Jamboree Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/29/2015 - 00:00

BioFrontiers

In just a few days, members from our team will be boarding a plane to Boston. When we arrive, we are participating in an annual synthetic biology competition against both foreign and domestic teams at an international conference, held by the International Genetically Engineered Machines Foundation (iGEM). There we will present our synthetic biology project designed and executed over the summer.

Despite being named a “Jamboree”, the competition is not a free for all. A specific set of criteria must be met in order to participate, including design of a wiki for the project , concept originality, benefit to society, and proof of concept. Each year, teams identify a clinical and/or societal need and synthesize a biological system to address the issue. The iGEM competition is a forum for undergraduates in molecular biology, advised by graduate students and faculty, to gain hands-on experience working in a lab on a synthetic biology project that we (the undergrads) designed.

Hard to believe I had never heard of iGEM until earlier this year. But the idea of synthetic biology’s vast potential to benefit society enticed me to join the team. As intimidated as I was to embark upon something new, I began meeting with several other prospective iGEMers weekly to decide upon this years’ project. We wanted to stand out and work with new technology, so this led us straight to the endogenous CRISPR-Cas9 system. Now, we needed to decide how we would apply this technology. We chose the clinical need for an alternative to antibiotics.

At that point, our project took off like bacteria without antibiotic selection ….

We broke up into teams across three labs, one on main campus and two in JSCBB. This way productivity would be at its peak each and every week. With only a short time to reach our project goals, we needed all the motivation (coffee and late nights) we could get. A few came with experience but most didn’t. Regardless, each of us gained unique, hands on experience and learned to problem solve when something went wrong—which happened quite often. More importantly, we pulled together from different stages of life and completed a project we could call our own.

We have engineered a novel phage therapy utilizing the endogenous CRISPR-Cas9 system from Streptococcus pyogenes packaged into non-replicating phage. CRISPR-Cas9 systems target 20-32 nucleotide DNA sequences within the bacterial genome. Successful CRISPR targeting to the genome leads to a Cas9-mediated DNA double strand break and subsequent cell death. By cloning targeted CRISPR sequences into the endogenous CRISPR-Cas9 system and introducing this system into Escherichia coli by transformation or through phage infection, we have demonstrated sequence specific killing of bacteria in a heterogeneous bacterial population. The broad ranging applications of such an adaptable and cost effective antibiotic therapy range from healthcare to agriculture, and represent the future of antibacterial research.

With research that can change the future of medicine, my team and I are ready to go to Boston. We hope that the judges find our work exciting and we take home a gold medal. Wish us luck on this journey, and I can’t wait to tell you all about our adventure once we return home.

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CU at the World iGEM Jamboree

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 07:00:00 +0000

CU at the World iGEM Jamboree Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/29/2015 - 00:00

Leighla Tayefeh

Just a few weeks ago, we boarded a plane destined for Boston and the 2014 World iGEM Jamboree. Once we arrived, we were racing to the hotel to put some finishing touches onto our power point presentation. Our team was selected as one of the first teams to present at 9am Friday morning. This meant our presentation needed to be perfected in just a few short hours. Members of the team sat in the hotel lobby practicing and correcting the presentation. We finally decided to call it a night at 4am. After three hours of sleep, we grabbed some coffee and headed to our presentation. Even with the lack of sleep and butterflies in our stomachs, the presentation was great and most exciting of all, it was over!

As much as I would have liked to have our day come to an end, it was not over yet. We still had a poster session ahead of us. During the day we got to see several other teams present, and felt the stakes increased. The other teams had costumes, candy, flyers, and stickers. Although we didn’t come with fancy eye-catchers, we still drew a wide audience. Here we realized we were not the only ones working with Crispr-Cas9. Several other teams took a similar approach to utilizing this gene editing technology. At each poster session, our team was able to talk and connect with teams from around the world.

We spent the rest of the weekend watching presentations by our peers. Our team was able to see Calgary present on a diagnostic tool that’s a novel, nucleic acid-based, rapid point-of-care device capable of diagnosing multiple infectious diseases in parallel. Then we watched the undergraduate grand prize winners from Heidelberg. Their team designed a universal toolbox for modifying proteins post-translationally. This toolbox can specifically change whole amino-acid sequences; therefore regulating proteins via assembly or protein cleavage. This enables circularization of enzymes rendering them thermodynamically stable and resistant to exoproteases. However, the team that stood out the most was Sumbawagen, who took home the Chairman’s award. Despite have rolling power outages and not even a proper lab space, they managed to create a novel circuit to measure the concentration of glucose in honey by calibrating the color of E. coli medium using an android-based mobile phone. This blew our team members away, how amazing.

Competition this year was fierce, and unfortunately, we did not take home a trophy, but it was not a total loss. We won a Silver medal for our achievements and an interlab study designation. I couldn’t be more proud of our team. We all worked so hard to come to Boston and it was an experience none of us will forget.

We’ll see you next year, Boston.

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BioFrontiers partners with Avery Brewing

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:00:00 +0000

BioFrontiers partners with Avery Brewing Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/31/2014 - 00:00

BioFrontiers

BioFrontiers partners with world’s oldest biotech industry: Breweries

In the basement of the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building on CU-Boulder’s East Campus sits a machine that can sequence roughly 6 billion DNA segments in about a week.

By comparison, human DNA consists of roughly 3 billion bases, and it took more than a decade for the first human genome to be sequenced by an international team of scientists.

The machine, an Illumnia HiSeq2000, is the centerpiece of the BioFrontiers Institute’s Next-Gen Sequencing Facility, and it has become a critical piece of equipment for researchers across campus. But it’s also an important resource for the Front Range’s thriving biotech industry, which routinely relies on the facility for sequencing work.

The facility has partnered with all kinds of local biotech big hitters, including a company that makes biofuels and another that makes tests for genetic mutations. But in 2013, the Next-Gen Sequencing Facility forged a new relationship with a well-loved but less-obvious local biotech company: Boulder-based Avery Brewing.

“I would argue that brewing and brewing chemistry is one of the oldest biotechnologies in the world,” said Jim Huntley, director of CU-Boulder’s sequencing facility. “They do a lot of analysis on the quality of their product. Any biotech company does that. I don’t care if you’re making beer or you’re making an enzyme that’s used to catalyze some reaction; there’s always a degree of quality control.”

Huntley and Robin Dowell, an assistant professor at BioFrontiers, are helping Avery find a way to maintain its much-lauded beer quality less expensively by sequencing the genomes of six of the yeast strains used at Avery during the fermentation process.

An IPA that tastes like an IPA

The problem Avery wants to fix is the possible cross-contamination of yeast strains. Unlike large brewing operations, microbreweries use the same equipment to brew multiple types of beer using more than one yeast strain, which can occasionally lead to the yeast strains growing where they don’t belong.

The yeast used in the brewing process feeds on sugar to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. But along the way, the yeast produces other products that affect the flavor of the beer, including fruity esters, buttery ketones and spicy phenolics. Different strains of yeast produce different flavors, and so using the correct yeast is key to brewing the desired beer.

“For example, our IPA is fermented with a different strain of yeast than our Belgian wit,” said Dan Driscoll, Avery’s staff microbiologist. “We occasionally see our Belgian wit yeast is growing in an IPA tank and that’s a problem because that yeast is incredibly phenolic so the resulting beer smells clovy and spicy. In the interest of consistency, we can’t call our IPA our IPA if it tastes and smells different than the last batch.”

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=4yehwrdKRGM]

Though it’s rare, when cross-contamination occurs, the entire tank of beer, typically about 240 barrels, has to be flushed.

In the past, Avery has uncovered cases of cross-contamination by sampling the beer while it’s in the fermentation tanks, streaking the sample on an agar plate, putting the plate in an incubator and waiting 48 hours for the yeast to grow.

“What I said, being a microbiologist, when I first got here was, ‘It would be great if we could find a way to both identify this cross-contamination sooner and determine how severe it needs to be in order for us to start picking up on those off flavors,’ ” Driscoll said.

Driscoll, a veteran of the more traditional biotech industry, knew that Avery could purchase a machine that would allow it to quickly differentiate the yeasts based on their genetic codes. But there was a catch: the genetic codes were not known.

Through a connection in the biotech industry, Driscoll got in contact with Huntley, who said he might be able to help Avery with its problem.

“Since we get funding from the state to maintain and operate the facility and purchase equipment, we really want to engage with the local biotech communities and other regional research organizations to provide them access to cutting-edge instrumentation,” Huntley said.

Because Avery uses commercially available yeast strains, and because the microbrew industry has a culture of openly sharing techniques and tools, working with Avery could benefit Colorado’s entire brewing industry, which has a total annual economic benefit to the state of more than $400 million.

‘Think globally, sequence locally’

Avery provided Huntley with six of its yeast strains, including its house ale yeast, which is used in a half dozen of the brewery’s beers. At the Next-Gen Sequencing Facility, Huntley loaded the samples into the HiSeq 2000, which works by shredding multiple copies of the yeast’s DNA into tiny little pieces and then sequencing all those overlapping pieces at the same time to produce a coherent picture of its entire genetic code.

But just knowing the genetic code isn’t enough to solve Avery’s problem. Driscoll also needs to know exactly how the yeasts’ genetic codes differ from each other to be able to tell the yeast strains apart—which is where BioFrontiers researcher Robin Dowell comes in.

Dowell’s lab specializes in differences between yeasts, though she doesn’t typically study the strains that are used to brew beer.

“We focus on two strains that, from a genetic perspective, are about as different as any two random people,” Dowell said. “We look at inter-strain differences all the time, and what Avery really cares about is identifying strain differences they can actually leverage to say, ‘This strain is this one and that strain is that one.’ ”

Once the differences in the strains have been identified, Avery Brewing Company will be able to determine if a tank is contaminated with the wrong kind of yeast in a matter of hours rather than days. The contaminated beer will still have to be flushed, but the test will make it possible for Avery to free up the tank sooner, allowing them to start brewing another beer that they can actually sell.

For the Next-Gen Sequencing Facility, the continued partnership with Avery is just part of what they are charged to do—help strengthen the local biotech community.

“When the local biotech community is stronger, it allows for more startups and more product development, which brings more jobs to the area,” Huntley said. “As I always quip, ‘Think globally, but sequence locally.’ ”

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CU Boulder to go to iGEM

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 06:00:00 +0000

CU Boulder to go to iGEM Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/17/2013 - 00:00

BioFrontiers

CU-Boulder Student Team Wows Judges at Premiere Biology Competition

When this year’s iGEM team at the University of Colorado Boulder began meeting early this year, they wanted to take what they knew about biology, and use it to build something entirely new. iGEM, or International Genetically Engineered Machine, is the top synthetic biology competition in the world and after a foundation-building first year, the CU-Boulder team wanted to make an impact in 2013.

Thirty CU undergraduate and graduate students from a wide range of science and engineering departments worked together to design their project: “DIY Synthetic Biology,” taking apart and reconstructing lab techniques and tools and improving them. Over the summer, six students completed the project. Then, these students boarded a plane to Montreal, Canada with their faculty mentor, practiced their presentation until 2:00 a.m., and competed with 52 North American teams, earning an iGEM special award and their place in the upcoming iGEM World Competition in Boston this November.

“There probably aren’t many people in North America who get pumped up about new methods of low-cost enzyme purification or hacking miniprep columns,” says MCDB Graduate Student and iGEM Team Leader, Joe Rokicki. “But the attendees at the regional competition were riveted. Now our next challenge is figuring how we are going to get to Boston.”

“There probably aren’t many people in North America who get pumped up about new methods of low-cost enzyme purification or hacking miniprep columns,” says MCDB Graduate Student and iGEM Team Leader, Joe Rokicki. “But the attendees at the regional competition were riveted. Now our next challenge is figuring how we are going to get to Boston.”

The judges were, in fact, so riveted, that the team was awarded the “Best New BioBrick Part or Device, Engineered” for cloning and characterization of a protein tag that reversibly precipitates in the presence of calcium. The BioBrick award for a part or device is only given to one team at the North American regional competition.

“There were a lot of proposals in the competition, but CU delivered an actual product,” says CU iGEM Team Mentor Robin Dowell, who is an assistant professor in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and a faculty member at the BioFrontiers Institute. “The team used a lot of ingenuity; slick lab techniques that make it cheaper and easier to conduct important research. They really gave the judges a lot to talk about.”

CU-Boulder's 2013 iGEM team

iGEM, which began in 2003, provides each team with a kit of biological parts – like promoters or specific genes - from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts at the beginning of each summer. Students then use these parts, or parts of their own design, in their projects. iGEM’s regional competitions are held in North America, Latin America and Asia. The CU-Boulder team is one of 50 teams from around the world to qualify for the world competition on November 2 through 4.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this team,” says BioFrontiers Institute Director Tom Cech. “They earned their place in the world competition, but they also learned a lot of valuable lab and life experience. We will all be rooting for them in November.”

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