Best New Application, Best Model and Best New Composite Part
Opticoli: Microscopes have been around for hundreds of years and the technology behind these devices has been quickly developing over the past centuries. Microscopy has already helped us to image cells into great detail, which is essential for the identification of mechanisms behind diseases such as Alzheimer’s, of which we still don’t know the exact mechanism, but also for developing synthetic biology even further. In this age, the technology and knowledge of microscopy is no longer limiting for making detailed images of the cell; it’s the cells itself. When using fluorescence microscopy, a fluorescent cell only emits a limited number of photons, a part of this will not reach the detector. 2016 iGEMTU Delft team used synthetic biology with the aim of improving fluorescence microscopy. There were two research lines: producing biological lenses and inventing a bacterial laser.