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SUMMARY:Contributed Talk 4: Optimization-based tools for bacterial ecology
  design - Ortiz\, M (Harvard University)
DTSTART:20141127T170500Z
DTEND:20141127T172000Z
UID:TALK56411@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Bacteriophage-based cell-cell communication allows users to cr
 eate genetically dynamic bacterial ecologies by transmitting DNA molecules
  between E. coli cells. In previous work\, I demonstrated how such a syste
 m could be used to transmit DNA messages having different functionalities 
 to develop ecologies over hours-long time courses in liquid or over solid 
 media. If well-designed\, such ecologies have the ability to compute\, amp
 lify\, or report state as a population.\n \nOne immediate problem encounte
 red in designing stable bacterial ecologies is that relatively small diffe
 rences in individual growth rates can impact the resulting population mix 
 in little time. As such\, we have focused on developing optimization-based
  tools for relating the initial and final states of heterogeneous baterial
  ecologies. We have created a scalable model of the phage-based communicat
 ion platform to aid development of more complex engineered bacterial ecolo
 gies. By inputting few experimental parameters as well as an arbitrary des
 ired output behavior\, users can easily obtain the necessary inputs to the
 ir engineered system. As phage-based communication via DNA transmission in
 herently creates genetically distinct species as phage infection proceeds\
 , this tool also enables the user to design and optimize for time-varying 
 behaviors. Overall\, it is hoped that such tools will enable greater compl
 exity of heterogeneous bacterial mixtures\, help us better understand ec o
 logies\, and allow us to narrow the gap between natural and synthetic syst
 ems.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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