Date Thesis Awarded
5-2023
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Biology
Advisor
Margaret Saha
Committee Members
Sarah Day
Mark Forsyth
Dana Willner
Abstract
Orthogonality - or a lack of interactions between two biomolecules - is a key tenet of synthetic biology. It is crucial to optimal and predictable synthetic genetic circuit functioning. While orthogonality often is not assessed in the literature, many researchers are starting to focus on the importance of host-circuit orthogonality assessment. This project is the first step towards the design of a low-cost orthogonality measurement tool. In order to design this tool, there needs to be a comprehensive understanding of how the host cell is impacted when a genetic circuit is introduced. The goal of this project is to identify genes that are commonly differentially expressed in response to a genetic circuit. These genes serve as “markers” of a lack of orthogonality and thus could be used to measure and evaluate circuit orthogonality levels. In order to find these differentially expressed genes, our group conducted our own RNA-seq experiments and performed a comprehensive analysis of similar experiments in the literature to determine which genes are commonly differentially expressed when a genetic circuit is added to a host cell.
Recommended Citation
Bradley, Avery, "Assessing the Orthogonality of Synthetic Genetic Circuits" (2023). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 2039.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/2039
