View source for CAGEN: Critical Assessment of Genetically Engineered Networks

The Critical Assessment for Genetically Engineered Networks (CAGEN) is a competition intended to drive new approaches to designing robust, synthetic biological circuits.  The competition involves teams of established researchers designing circuits that implement a given function and the assessment of their circuit's performance across a set of multiple operating environments.  More information is available on the  [[http:www.openwetware.org/wiki/CAGEN|CAGEN web site]] (on OpenWetWare). __NOTOC__

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Current participants:
* {{Clarmyra Hayes}}
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Previous participants:
* {{Shaunak Sen}}
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== Project Overview ==
We propose to develop and prototype a new competition designed to
improve the robustness and performance of human-designed biological
circuits and devices operating in cells.  The Competitive Assessment for
Genetically Engineered Networks (CAGEN, pronounced "cajun") will
bring together leading research groups in biological circuit design
to compete to demonstrate their abilities at designing circuits that
perform in a prescribed manner in a variety of cellular contexts.
Each year, a steering committee will propose a challenge problem that
involves the design of an increasingly complex set of biological
functions in a range of environments.  Teams must submit their
sequences, plasmid DNA implementing their circuit and data characterizing
the performance of their system against a specified test suite.  The
top 3-5 designs will be submitted to the NSF BIOFAB (run by Adam
Arkin and Drew Endy) for final characterization, and the winner will
be selected based on a set of quantifiable metrics.

As part of this proposal, we plan to implement one iteration of the
competition, including selecting the challenge problem, implementing a
set of reference test protocols, announcing and publicizing the
competition, implementing the selection process and choosing a winner.
If successful, we believe that the competition can be proposed for
continued funding from other sources and that over the medium term
(5-10 years) CAGEN could lead toward a more robust set of biological
design methods that allow human-designed circuits and devices to
perform at levels closer to their biological
counterparts.

== Publications ==
* {{sm12-cdc}}

[[Category:Completed projects]]
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