Framsticks Artificial Life vs CRISPR Cutout Usage & Stats
This app lets you play with simple simulated creatures and their evolution. It features a few genetic representations ("languages"), where each symbol in a genotype defines some characteristic of a creature (a "phenotype"). Each genetic representation has its own methods of mutation (modifying small parts of a genotype) and crossover (exchanging genes of two parents to produce an offspring).
The performance of each creature is evaluated in terms of speed on land, speed in water, and height of its center of mass. These criteria can be set as fitness. Since you have mutation and crossover available to change genotypes randomly, you can run an evolutionary process and see how fitness in the population increases.
You can also guide evolution according to your preferences by making creatures you like reproduce and generate their random variations.
If you understand a genetic language, you can even edit genes manually by deleting and adding genetic symbols, and this way build a creature you want or improve an existing one.
The app features some quests to help you familiarize with genetic languages and the properties of evolution such as convergence, diversity, selection pressure, the influence of mutation rate, or the population size. Advanced users can even try their own formulas for fitness, for example to maximize both height and speed simultaneously, or to add even more criteria.
Some demonstrations are included as well that show the concepts of directed (external fitness) and undirected (internal fitness) evolution, mutation, swarming, and communication.
This app is based on the Framsticks simulator. You can learn more at http://www.framsticks.com/
- Apple App Store
- Free
- Education
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CRISPR Cutout™ is the fourth in a series of mobile educational games developed by the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease at Drexel University College of Medicine. CRISPR Cutout introduces the molecular mechanisms of a cutting-edge genome editing technology called ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’, or CRISPR for short. The player will create a gene-editing tool and use it in a cell to cut out a sequence of HIV DNA. The game has two guides called Crispy and G that will teach you how CRISPR is created and how it can be used in editing DNA to cure disease. Please visit our other games Hep B-Ware™, Malaria Invasion™, and CD4 Hunter™ to learn more about infectious diseases.
Stay tuned for more games about other microbes that threaten our health.
Follow us on Twitter: @Drexel_IMMID, #IMMID, #CD4Hunter
Visit our website: www.drexelmed.edu/immid
Game Features:
CRISPR Cutout is a fun, educational mini-game in which players create a gene-editing tool and use it in a cell to cut out a sequence of HIV DNA. The game has two guides called Crispy and G that will teach you how CRISPR can be used in editing DNA to cure disease. By immersing real science within simple gameplay, users learn about how a new and exciting gene editing tool can be used to cure infectious diseases using HIV as an example.
Download CRISPR Cutout for free to:
• Learn complex science through fast-paced and addictive gameplay.
• Learn how guide RNAs (gRNA) seek out and remove unwanted HIV from cells.
Learning Goals:
CRISPR Cutout is the fourth in a series of mini games to be developed by the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease at Drexel University College of Medicine, to introduce players to the world of gene editing. CRISPR Cutout was designed for non-scientists and science students. This app is awesome for use in the biomedical science curriculum in high school or in higher education. CRISPR Cutout focuses on meeting the following learning objectives:
1. Identify the nucleotides that makeup RNA and DNA.
2. Match correct nucleotides between RNA and DNA.
3. Identify Cas9 as an enzyme that can cut DNA.
4. Define gRNA.
5. Describe how Cas9 and gRNA work together to remove unwanted DNA.
Credits:
Executive Producer and Consultant
Brian Wigdahl, PhD
Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology (M&I); and Executive Director, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease (IMMID), Drexel University College of Medicine
Project Director:
Mary Ann Comunale Ed.D, M.S.
Assistant Professor (M&I); and Director, the Center for Science Communication and Outreach, Drexel University College of Medicine
Game Designers:
Mary Ann Comunale Ed.D., M.S.
Colin Page
Programmer:
Colin Page
Co-op student at M&I and IMMID, Computer Science Program, Drexel University College of Computing and Informatics
Animator and Artist:
Julia DeBenedetto
Co-op student at M&I and IMMID, Animation and Visual Effects, Drexel University College of Media Arts and Design (Class of 2018)
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Subject Matter Experts
William Dampier, PhD; Michael Nonnemacher,
Beta Testers:
Microbiology and Immunology Department graduate students
*** Please help us improve this game by reporting any bugs to IMMID@Drexelmed.edu. We welcome feedback and suggestions for upgrades and improvements. ***
©2023 Drexel University
- Apple App Store
- Free
- Education
Store Rank
- -
Framsticks Artificial Life VS. 
CRISPR CutoutNovember 29, 2024