A Queueing Framework for Synthetic Circuits in E. coli

大肠杆菌合成电路的排队框架

• 批准号: 1330180
• 负责人: William Mather
• 金额: $ 96.13万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1330180&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Queueing; Framework; Synthetic; Circuits; E.

Intellectual Merit: Biological cells can cope with processing bottlenecks and also leverage the dynamics of bottlenecks to robustly control cellular behavior. This realization prompts a re-evaluation of the fundamental design principles believed to govern biological circuits. This project will investigate synthetic and native circuits in E. coli that are known to experience bottlenecks stemming from the competition of basic cellular components (created, modified, or degraded) for the shared molecular machinery. The experimental data combined with the theoretical predictions will allow the development and validation of queueing theoretical principles relevant to biological systems. Queueing theory is commonly applied to resolve performance limitations in traffic and communications systems. Fluorescence microscopy, microfluidics, and synthetic biology will be combined with quantitative modeling to probe protein degradative mechanisms and stress response pathways in terms of queueing theory in E. coli. Successful accomplishment of this project will lead to effective strategies for the synthesis and understanding of biological circuits that either avoid or exploit processing bottlenecks to perform specific tasks. The successful demonstration of the biological queueing theory is likely to impact also the more traditional disciplines, including telecommunication networks, call centers and transportation systems.Broader Impacts: Part of this project will lead to the construction of new content for elementary school STEM education with a specific emphasis on the interdisciplinary aspect of science. This will be done largely through close collaboration with Kids' Tech University (KTU), a successful elementary school program at Virginia Tech with the single goal to create "the future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by sparking kids' interest in these fields." This collaboration will result in the generation, presentation, and distribution of interactive booths to illustrate interdisciplinary phenomena related to this project. Graduate and undergraduate students will be mentored in service learning to ensure effective outreach and to provide these students with teaching experience. Undergraduates will be supported to construct modules for Virtual KTU, which freely provides interactive web-based demonstrations of STEM topics to students of all ages and educators.

智力优势：生物细胞可以科普处理瓶颈，也可以利用瓶颈的动态来鲁棒地控制细胞行为。这一认识促使人们重新评估被认为是支配生物回路的基本设计原则。本计画将探讨E.大肠杆菌中，已知经历瓶颈源于竞争的基本细胞成分（创建，修改，或降解）的共享分子机制。实验数据与理论预测相结合，将允许开发和验证与生物系统相关的嵌入式理论原理。嵌入理论通常用于解决交通和通信系统中的性能限制。荧光显微镜、微流控技术和合成生物学将结合定量建模，根据E.杆菌该项目的成功完成将导致有效的策略，用于合成和理解生物电路，避免或利用处理瓶颈来执行特定任务。生物进化理论的成功演示也可能影响到更传统的学科，包括电信网络，呼叫中心和运输系统。更广泛的影响：该项目的一部分将导致小学STEM教育的新内容的构建，特别强调科学的跨学科方面。这将在很大程度上通过与弗吉尼亚理工大学的一个成功的小学项目儿童科技大学（KTU）的密切合作来实现，该项目的唯一目标是通过激发孩子们对这些领域的兴趣来创造“科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的未来劳动力”。“这种合作将导致互动展台的生成，展示和分发，以说明与该项目有关的跨学科现象。研究生和本科生将在服务学习辅导，以确保有效的推广，并为这些学生提供教学经验。 将支持本科生构建虚拟KTU的模块，该模块免费为所有年龄段的学生和教育工作者提供STEM主题的交互式网络演示。