Develop instrumentation amplifier and signal conditioning system for detection of extremely low level fluorescence signals obtained from DNA molecules during capillary electrophoresis. Must address noise due to other photonic sources and interference from high voltage switching power supply.
(Last year’s project consisted of the design and construction of a 30kV, 100uA switching power supply with instantaneous voltage, current and power controllable by a personal computer. Elaborate safety features were required as were measures to reduce electromagnetic interference.)
Design and implement a state machine using DNA. Most of the effort would consist of the creation of models on a conventional computer where these models would then be used in your design of a state machine. Final design would be implemented and demonstrated in the laboratory.
DNA microarrays feature 10000 fluorescently labeled spots on what is essentially a microscope slide. Research systems employ a very expensive laser confocal microscope to read out the array with a very large dynamic range. Students will propose and investigate alternative readout schemes with lower cost and sensitivity as might be appropriate for clinical use. The most promising scheme will be investigated through proof of concept implementation and experimentation.
A very small robot is required for use in DNA sequencing. This robot would be used to enhance the repeatability of experiments and to permit mechanical manipulation in high voltage environments.
PCR provides us with a molecular copying machine for replicating DNA. A thermocycler takes the sample through a cycles of three temperatures, doubling the amount of DNA with each cycle. A real-time thermocycler provides a fluorescence monitoring capability that permits assessing the amount of DNA present at the end of each cycle.
Supervisor: Prof. S.W. Davies
stephen.davies@utoronto.ca
www.ecf.utoronto.ca/~sdavies
Bioinformatics: DNA sequencing, hybridization arrays; signal processing: signal modeling, detection, estimation and array processing; communications: sequential
detection, wireless systems.