BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit
Hands-on demonstrations greatly enhance the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts and foster engagement and exploration in the sciences. While numerous chemistry and physics classroom demonstrations exist, few biology demonstrations are practical and accessibl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117564 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8711-8233 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0319-5416 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5560-8246 |
| _version_ | 1811077898327556096 |
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| author | Nguyen, Peter Q. Stark, Jessica C. Donghia, Nina Ferrante, Tom Hsu, Karen J. Dubner, Rachel S. Pardee, Keith Jewett, Michael C. Huang, Ally Takahashi, Melissa Kimie Dy, Aaron James Collins, James J. |
| author2 | Institute for Medical Engineering and Science |
| author_facet | Institute for Medical Engineering and Science Nguyen, Peter Q. Stark, Jessica C. Donghia, Nina Ferrante, Tom Hsu, Karen J. Dubner, Rachel S. Pardee, Keith Jewett, Michael C. Huang, Ally Takahashi, Melissa Kimie Dy, Aaron James Collins, James J. |
| author_sort | Nguyen, Peter Q. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Hands-on demonstrations greatly enhance the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts and foster engagement and exploration in the sciences. While numerous chemistry and physics classroom demonstrations exist, few biology demonstrations are practical and accessible due to the challenges and concerns of growing living cells in classrooms. We introduce BioBits™ Explorer, a synthetic biology educational kit based on shelf-stable, freeze-dried, cell-free (FD-CF) reactions, which are activated by simply adding water. The FD-CF reactions engage the senses of sight, smell, and touch with outputs that produce fluorescence, fragrances, and hydrogels, respectively. We introduce components that can teach tunable protein expression, enzymatic reactions, biomaterial formation, and biosensors using RNA switches, some of which represent original FD-CF outputs that expand the toolbox of cell-free synthetic biology. The BioBits™ Explorer kit enables hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge science that are inexpensive and easy to use, circumventing many current barriers for implementing exploratory biology experiments in classrooms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:50:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/117564 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:50:02Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1175642022-09-30T23:22:01Z BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit Nguyen, Peter Q. Stark, Jessica C. Donghia, Nina Ferrante, Tom Hsu, Karen J. Dubner, Rachel S. Pardee, Keith Jewett, Michael C. Huang, Ally Takahashi, Melissa Kimie Dy, Aaron James Collins, James J. Institute for Medical Engineering and Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering Huang, Ally Takahashi, Melissa Kimie Dy, Aaron James Collins, James J. Hands-on demonstrations greatly enhance the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts and foster engagement and exploration in the sciences. While numerous chemistry and physics classroom demonstrations exist, few biology demonstrations are practical and accessible due to the challenges and concerns of growing living cells in classrooms. We introduce BioBits™ Explorer, a synthetic biology educational kit based on shelf-stable, freeze-dried, cell-free (FD-CF) reactions, which are activated by simply adding water. The FD-CF reactions engage the senses of sight, smell, and touch with outputs that produce fluorescence, fragrances, and hydrogels, respectively. We introduce components that can teach tunable protein expression, enzymatic reactions, biomaterial formation, and biosensors using RNA switches, some of which represent original FD-CF outputs that expand the toolbox of cell-free synthetic biology. The BioBits™ Explorer kit enables hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge science that are inexpensive and easy to use, circumventing many current barriers for implementing exploratory biology experiments in classrooms. 2018-08-27T19:42:51Z 2018-08-27T19:42:51Z 2018-08 2018-03 2018-08-27T17:12:50Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2375-2548 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117564 Huang, Ally et al. “BioBits™ Explorer: A Modular Synthetic Biology Education Kit.” Science Advances 4, 8 (August 2018): eaat5105 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8711-8233 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0319-5416 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5560-8246 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat5105 Science Advances Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ application/pdf American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Advances |
| spellingShingle | Nguyen, Peter Q. Stark, Jessica C. Donghia, Nina Ferrante, Tom Hsu, Karen J. Dubner, Rachel S. Pardee, Keith Jewett, Michael C. Huang, Ally Takahashi, Melissa Kimie Dy, Aaron James Collins, James J. BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit |
| title | BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit |
| title_full | BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit |
| title_fullStr | BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit |
| title_full_unstemmed | BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit |
| title_short | BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit |
| title_sort | biobits™ explorer a modular synthetic biology education kit |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117564 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8711-8233 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0319-5416 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5560-8246 |
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