Homework

Weekly homework submissions:

• Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices

  title: ‘Smart Packaging: Biosensors to Reduce Food Waste’ #h6 Heading ‘Describe a biological engineering application or tool you want to develop and why’ I would be looking to develop bio-responsive materials by including engineered biosensors into food packaging. Using engineered E. coli or B. subtilis with a color-changing sensor that detect spoilage, microbial growth, or pH changes, the packaging will provide a clear visual indicator to help consumers gauge food freshness. Using plant-based polymers like PLA or PHA will ensure the packaging is biodegradable. For example, this could be applied to plastic wraps on meat, prepared foods, etc. This tool would make it easier for companies and consumers to make informed choices about food freshness, safety, and nutrition, supporting sustainability and reducing waste #h6 Heading ‘Governance and policy goals ensuring its contribution to an ethical future’ A key governance goal would be to ensure consumer safety by regulating biosensor accuracy, preventing false positives/negatives that could lead to consumer harm or food waste. Sub-goal would be informed of environmental imapct of the entire life cycle of the packaging, ethical sourcing of the biodegradable polymers (e.g., PLA, PHA), and labeling transparency for companies and consumers. #h6 Heading ‘Potential governance actions by considering: Purpose, Design, Assumptions, Risks of Failure and Success’ Does the option: Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Enhance Biosecurity • By preventing incidents x • By helping respond x Foster Lab Safety • By preventing incident x • By helping respond x Protect the environment • By preventing incidents x • By helping respond x Other considerations • Minimizing costs and burdens to stakeholders x • Feasibility? x • Not impede research x • Promote constructive applications x

• Week 2 Lecture Prep: DNA, Read, Write, and Edit

  h1 Heading ‘Assignment W2 Lecture Prep’ h4 Heading ‘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? It depends on the species and cell type, but DNA polymerases exhibit an error rate of approximately 10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ errors per nucleotide during DNA replication. With the help of other proofreading enzymes they can reduce it to ~10⁻⁸ to 10⁻¹⁰ errors per nucleotide, increasing its accuracy, additional repair mechanisms pathways exist to correct these errors and maintain genomic integrity. The human genome contains roughly 3 billion base pairs (3x10⁹), so even with an error rate of 10⁻⁸, there could be several errors during each DNA replication event.