Gene Expression and Molecular Circuits
Mike Klymkowsky - MCDB

Professor Klymkowsky has proposed that ETH students Stephan Zednik, Stephanie Wilson, Timsy Bir and Jimmy Bollinger create a series of components that will introduce his undergraduates to techniques for engineering genes in bacteria. The computer simulation of a genetic engineering process will enable Prof. Klymkowsky to make accessible genetic engineering lab exercises, which normally require some training and experience to complete successfully as well as specially equipped laboratories, to students at an earlier point in their academic careers.

Using the genetic engineering software, Professor Klymkowsky’s students will be able to combine genes and insert them into virtual plasmids that serve as vehicles for transporting new genes into bacteria. The ETH students will create a database that can store these plasmids so that the biology students can share their creations with each other. They will also program "vColi", a virtual bacterial cell, which Professor Klymkowsky describes as “a mathematical and scientifically realistic model of cellular and gene dynamics that interprets the behavior of plasmids within cells.” By looking through a virtual microscope, students will observe the complex and idiosyncratic behavior of the vColi as they go through their life cycle and learn about the effects of the regulatory components on cell behavior.