Homework

Weekly homework submissions:

• Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices

  Class Assignment Week 1 HW 1. First, describe a biological engineering application or tool you want to develop and why. Programmable LINE-1–based gene insertion for safe, locus-specific genome engineering The biological engineering tool I am developing as part of my research is a programmable LINE-1 (L1)–based gene insertion system that enables targeted, large-payload integration into mammalian genomes without relying on double-strand breaks. This system builds on the natural target-primed reverse transcription (TPRT) mechanism of LINE-1 retrotransposase, combined with programmable Cas9 nickases to direct integration toward predefined genomic loci.

• Week 2 HW: DNA Read, Write, & Edit

  Part 1: Benchling & In-silico Gel Art For this exercise, I imported the lambda DNA reference sequence on Benchling, and performed in-silico restriction digests using the required enzymes: EcoRI, HindIII, BamHI, KpnI, EcoRV, SacI, and SalI. Using Benchling’s digestion simulation tool, I iteratively tested different enzyme combinations to generate fragment patterns with distinct size distributions. I attach below the image of the resulting gel electrophoresis: