Freiburg University 2006

Welcome! We are Alife Mutants.

This term was invented by Martin Schneider on the Rule 110 Winter Workshop in 2004 [1]. We play without rules. We discover the rules that govern life, the universe and everything to exploit these rules and to create Artificial Life. Our short-time aim was the trip to Boston in November 2006 to take a prize in the iGEM. The long term goal now is to REALLY do it in 2007!

The poster presentation at Jamboree iGEM2006 - "Barbie Nanoatelier: Open Source DNA-nanotechnology" [click]

Summary

• we organized a new branch of Biobrick depository for DNA-origami parts, devices, and systems;
• following Paul Rothemund we created an universal DNA-platform for a patterning on the nanometer scale that will allow to organize chemical reactions, assembling and qbits;
• we proposed a correlation spectroscopy/microscopy for the investigation of DNA folding;
• we designed the tetrahedral nanobot NAUTILUS, which is a 3D-DNA building block for a hierarchical assembly, nanoswarm, and amorphous computing;
• we suggested DNA-origami cryptography;
• we emphasized aesthetic principles of AL-design; and
• we founded Barbie Nanoatelier: Open Source DNA-nanotechnology!

The hive #101

The Freiburg Team (well, at least half of it...) from left to right: Irina Petrova, Andrei Kouznetsov, Daniel Hautzinger.

• Origami Man
• Daniel Hautzinger
• Olga Soboleva
• Irina Petrova
• Yutthaphong Phongbunchoo
• Mona Klein

• Andrei Kouznetsov
• Tamara Ulrich (ambassador, ETH Zurich)

• Svetlana Santer
• Jan Korvink

Projects

No.1 - The Pipe

PipeLife

The idea is to design a strand of DNA such that it wraps into a specific shape.

There are three different stages for this project: First, the DNA should fold into a two-dimensional rectangular sheet. Secondly, this sheet should wrap itself up into the shape of a short pipe. And last, these little pipes should hook themselves up to each other such that they form one single long pipe (more details).
The DNA sequence for the Pipes design can be found here, design picture is here, the set of staples is here. We’ll put the AFM pictures on the wiki as soon as we receive the DNA from the company...

No.2 - Haute Couture: Barbie Nanoatelier

Barbie Nanoatelier: Open Source DNA-nanotechnology

Once the process of DNA folding into 3D structures is understood, shapes can be chosen arbitrarily. The idea of the Barbie Nanoatelier is that the DNA should wrap into a 3D T-Shirt, 3D Pants, etc.

"sea of parts"

We need a library of molecular primitives that could be interchanged in the desirable way for a bottom-up design on the nanometer scale. Registry of DNA molecular parts and standardization is an actual question of bionanotechnology. We just put first examples of a new class of BioBricks - ORIGAMI BioBriks into depository and publish basic ideas [2], [3], [4]. We try to merge a ‘dead DNA’ with an ‘alive DNA’ [*].

Surrealistic Science

We also try to pump some aesthetic principles and rules (symmetry, periodic patterns, recursion, and plasticity) into our creatures. We like it because it needs a huge of imagination and really very difficult. Nobody can build a bra! - von Neumann's self-reproducing ... bra :))

Sketches - T-Shirt

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Olga Soboleva, presentation in Bremen

The DNA sequence for the T-Shirt design can be found here, the picture is here, and the staples are here there.

Hey, venture capitalists, where are you? The price of all of 50 billion T-Shirts would be only 7200bases x €0.17/base = €1224. Don’t miss the chance. It could be a great business tomorrow!

Ladies and Gentlemen, please, visit the demonstration of last Nike nano collection. (Enter) Oh, aroma of the podium music

Jobs: Still looking for catwalk models!!

No.3 - Individual projects

Other projects and prices could be found on individual Mutant's pages (Real iPod nano, Spy). In addition, you can find some hot information on ‘GEM Freiburg Fellow 2006’ page. The other toys will be unconventional computing, cryptography, nanoelectronics, nanooptics, drug delivery systems, smart nanomaterials, nanoswarm, eventually an artificial life and Origami Man. Time is money!

Club

• Manifesto, Self-education program
• GEM Freiburg Fellow 2006
• News

SB Preliminary

• DNA plug-and-play platform 24.05.06 27.06.06
• Very Large-Scale Integration design in Biology
• Genetic systems design from the DNA modules

• Life with a price of 6000 €
• Argo-machine, especially for hackers (presentation in Jena)

The easy and serious way

• George Church CONSTRUCTIVE BIOLOGY - a nice paper about the challenges of modern biology
• The webcasts from SB2.0 and SB1.0

These people do great things

Albert Libchaber [5] Carlos Bustamante's lab [6] David Deamer [7] Eric Kool’s group [8] Erik Winfree [9] Fred Menger’s group [10] Jack Szostak’s lab [11] Norman Packard’s Protolife [12] Pier Luigi Luisi’s group [13] Radhika Nagpal [14] Steven Benner’s group [15]

Local

An Analysis of Synthetic Biology Research in Europe and North America [16] SB database [17] DNA synthesis: ATG-Biosynthetics [18] febit [19] 'Spiegel' about iGEM competition on August 14, 2006 [20] 'Neue Zürcher Zeitung' about SB on August 23, 2006 [21] New GEM on the simiki wiki page [22]