3. Background
SYNMOD…
• is funded by the European Science Foundation
• applies a synthetic biology approach to the design and
production of novel antibiotic molecules
• aims to produce novel antibiotics from existing peptide
modules
4. The story
• Define and re-combine lantibiotic peptide modules to
detect novel antibiotic activities.
• Assemble post-translational machinery of reduced
complexity to incorporate in any microorganism.
• Implement the machinery in Staphylococcus carnosus to
produce preparative quantities of a variety of novel
lantibiotics.
5. SYNMOD GAME
Target audience:
-high school students
-everyone interested in synthetic biology, medicine and biology
Aim of the game:
-help players memorize the names and 1-letter codes of 20 standard
amino acids;
-provide additional information on the structure, functions, interactions,
and the biological role of the amino acids
-explain the modularity of lantibiotics synthesis
-provide a “first-hand” experience in the synthesis of biologically active
molecules with real-life outcomes
-stimulate interest to synthetic biology and motivate players to learn
more about it
6. Game design
Implementation:
Biofaction
Idea
Dr Markus Schmidt
Graphic design
Camillo Meinhart
Programming
Gerold Meisinger
Game elements:
Drag-and-drop
Technical form:
2D graphic
Number of players: 1 player at a time
Levels:
5
Time to complete
1 level:
15-20 min
Time to complete
the game:
80-120 min
Distribution:
Play
Available for free download at AppStore and Google
7. Game environment
Slot machine environment
-question marks to indicate peptide
modules
-several pre-assembled modules provided
-a bug to kill
-TEST button to test a lantibiotic
-RESET button to reset the whole game
Amino acid environment
-a set of amino acids to assemble a
module
-shapes-hints to place amino acids
correctly
-BACK button to return to the slot machine
environment
8. Future work
• add a 30-seconds introductory film
• add hints on how to play (for the 1st level)
• introduce level-by-level progression and progress screen
• introduce gradual difficulty
• add introductory screen for each bug
• conduct the 2nd playability and usability evaluation study
• conduct the study to test the knowledge acquisition
