Alternate Text

Control Theory

Control Theory is a branch of engineering mainly concerned with the ways in which we can control the output of dynamic systems with single or multiple inputs. The concept of feedback is commonly used as a way to control the system. For example, in a water heating system, the input is the water temperature reading from the sensor and the output is the power of the heating element. This system senses the water temperature; if it is too high, the heating is switched off, allowing it to drop. If the recorded temperature is too low, the heating is turned back on. This is a very basic control system.

Control of Gene Expression

By using control theory, we can further understand gene expression. For example, excess blood sugar stimulates the production of insulin. The production of insulin can be seen as the system output. There also exists feedback, as seen in a closed-loop control system, since the action of insulin reducing blood sugar levels affects the input. Most biological processes can be understood from this viewpoint.

We attempt to apply this knowledge to improve current genetic processes. This field is known as synthetic biology. By controlling how a biological system handles its input, we can control the system to achieve a desired output. This is one of the main foundations of the latter sections of our report. A technique used to simplify control of gene expression is modular biology where we break the biological process into its individual blocks of genetic gates.

Recombinant DNA Technology

This technique touches on how a new set of DNA can be synthesized through splicing of available DNA. One major application of this is insulin producing bacteria. The DNA strand responsible for creating insulin is spliced (cut) from a human donor cell and inserted into a bacteria. The bacteria (E.coli) then produces this insulin, which is used to help treat diabetes sufferers.