BMS657 Designing a Synthetic Biological Device for Insect Pest Control | APU

Introduction

A team of students is working on a project to develop a biological device to control insect pests. The idea is to generate a biodevice that will release a pheromone. This pheromone will attract insects to a trap. The trap incorporates another device that can release either a pesticide to kill the insect or an enzyme (such as chitinase) to digest the trapped insects. Producing a model is necessary before building the bio-device through recombinant DNA experiments. This involves searching the right genetic elements (biopart; biobrick) and drawing the circuit(s). The safety procedures related to the production of the synthetic bio-device are evaluated to ensure the biosafety and biosecurity aspects of the device.

Task

Recommend a Model of Bio-Device That Will Attract, Trap and Kills Insect

i) A report must be sent to describe the newly designed bio-device model.

ii) The proposed model of the biosensing device(s) is intended to be inserted into E. coli cells.

iii) The circuit or device must consist of all the genetic elements needed for it to be functional. – The vector map of the device must be shown. – You can use ApE software (https://jorgensen.biology.utah.edu/wayned/ape/) to design the map.

iii) The circuit and devices MUST be portrayed using SBOL symbol as described during the course lectures.
– The model MUST consist of bioparts/biobricks from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts (http://parts.igem.org). Show the Biobrick ID of the bioparts (example ID: BBa_K216002).
– Explain the rationale for using the parts. The molecular biology techniques used to assemble the BioBrick parts into the device and/or system MUST be summarised.

iv) Consider the safety procedures to ensure that the lab experiments will be conducted safely. The biosafety and biosecurity aspects related to using the bioparts proposed during conducting the experiments and when applying the fully developed biodevice must be explained.

Instruction (1):

• This is a group assignment, so the report must be produced by a group of 4 students. However, one group will contain 5 members.
• The whole group will be penalized (e.g. marks deduction) if you disobey this instruction.
• The report must be in English.
• The assignment MUST include illustrations with descriptions and citations of its source.
• The report MUST be prepared using Times New Roman, font 12, Alignment Justify, 1.5 spacing. Each margin is 2.5 cm. Page numbers must be placed at the centre of each page (excluding cover page and rubric), in the same font as the body text.
• You must use the cover page template provided as a cover page for the assignment.
• You must include the assignment rubric in the final report for submission. The rubric must be inserted next to the cover page.
• The report must be submitted in PDF format.

Instruction (2) :

• Only one submission is allowed from each group; therefore, a representative must submit by uploading the work in ufuture@uitm before the deadline.
• Hand in your work by uploading it to Assignment@ufuture.uitm.edu.my.
• The deadline for the report submission is 29 Jan 2025, at 11.55pm. (Wed, CNY).
• This assignment is 40% of overall assessment marks.