Contributed Talk 4: Optimization-based tools for bacterial ecology design

Duration: 18 mins 54 secs
Share this media item:
Embed this media item:


About this item
Image inherited from collection
Description: Ortiz, M (Harvard University)
Thursday 27 November 2014, 17:05-17:20
 
Created: 2014-12-02 11:46
Collection: Understanding Microbial Communities; Function, Structure and Dynamics
Publisher: Isaac Newton Institute
Copyright: Ortiz, M
Language: eng (English)
Distribution: World     (downloadable)
Explicit content: No
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Screencast: No
Bumper: UCS Default
Trailer: UCS Default
 
Abstract: Bacteriophage-based cell-cell communication allows users to create genetically dynamic bacterial ecologies by transmitting DNA molecules between E. coli cells. In previous work, I demonstrated how such a system 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, amplify, or report state as a population.

One immediate problem encountered in designing stable bacterial ecologies is that relatively small differences 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 communication platform to aid development of more complex engineered bacterial ecologies. By inputting few experimental parameters as well as an arbitrary desired output behavior, users can easily obtain the necessary inputs to their engineered system. As phage-based communication via DNA transmission inherently 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 complexity of heterogeneous bacterial mixtures, help us better understand ec ologies, and allow us to narrow the gap between natural and synthetic systems.
Available Formats
Format Quality Bitrate Size
MPEG-4 Video 640x360    1.89 Mbits/sec 268.19 MB View Download
WebM 640x360    606.1 kbits/sec 83.98 MB View Download
iPod Video 480x270    522.15 kbits/sec 72.28 MB View Download
MP3 44100 Hz 249.84 kbits/sec 34.62 MB Listen Download
Auto * (Allows browser to choose a format it supports)