Homework
Weekly homework submissions:
Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices
A Living Anti-Corrosion System for Ocean Infrastructure:
Week 2 HW: DNA - read, write and edit
Part 1- Benchling & In-silico Gel Art Simulating Restriction Enzyme Digestion with the following Enzymes: .EcoRI .HindIII .BamHI
Week 2 pre HW: DNA Read, Write and Edit
Homework Questions from Professor Jacobson: Nature’s machinery for copying DNA is called polymerase. What is the error rate of polymerase? How does this compare to the length of the human genome. How does biology deal with that discrepancy? Ans: DNA polymerase has an inherent error rate of approximately 1 in 10⁶ bases. Given the human genome size of about 3.2 billion base pairs, this would lead to thousands of mutations each time a cell divides if left uncorrected. To maintain genomic stability, cells use a multi-layered error-correction system. First, DNA polymerase performs immediate proofreading through its exonuclease activity. This is followed by post-replication mismatch repair (MMR) mechanisms. Together, these processes greatly enhance replication accuracy, reducing the final error rate to roughly 1 in 10⁹–10¹⁰, meaning fewer than one error typically occurs per genome duplication.
PAPER - Semiautomated Production of Cell-Free Biosensors Journal: ACS Synthetic Biology (2025) PMID: 40073441 Biosensors are biological systems that detect specific chemicals for example, if a substance is present, they might change color or glow. These can be used for: