November 3, 2008

Purdue students compete in contest to build a better bacteria

The event, known as the iGEM Competition Jamboree, will this year involve more than 80 teams from around the world and will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. The main objective is to teach undergraduate and graduate students how to engineer biological devices to solve challenges.

The Purdue team created a computer model of a device to engineer bacteria that can sense ultraviolet radiation, such as that produced by the sun. The goal of their research is to develop a real-time device to measure DNA damage caused by UV radiation, which has been directly linked to skin cancer.

There are products on the market that measure UV radiation -- such as chemically based sensors like color-changing sunscreen that allow the user to check their level of UV protection -- but none that measure DNA damage due to the sun.

 Each team in the competition is given a list of standard biological parts, which are DNA sequences of defined structure and function. The students are allowed to begin work on their projects in the summer before the contest.

Purdue students participating in this year's competition are Craig Barcus, Erin Rosswurm and Janie Stine, undergraduate students in agricultural and biological engineering; and Jessamine Osborne, an undergraduate student in biological sciences. Project advisers are Jenna Rickus, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering; Kari Clase, assistant professor of industrial technology; and David Jaroch, a graduate student in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu

Sources: Kari Clase, (765) 494-4649, klclase@purdue.edu

Jenna Rickus, (765) 494-1197, rickus@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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