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Bactomithril
Spider dragline silk is an exceptionally strong and elastic fiber and is an ideal material for numerous biomedical and industrial applications. In this secondary project we developed a novel secretion system that allows to export proteins to the extracellular medium and added the first spider-silk biobrick to the Registry. This biobrick contains the synthetic silk gene ADF-3 from the orb weaving spider Araneus diadematus.
Cyanolux
Synthethic biology aims to quantitatively design, control and predict complex spatiotemporal cell behavior, and to do so by developing standarized and engineerable genetic tools. Nevertheless, to date, no synthetic genetic circuit has acomplished the task of exhibiting a robust and constant (i.e phase and amplitude in a week period) time oscillation. We want to take advantage of more than 2000 million years of evolution of cyanobacteria and use their endogenous circadian rhythm to assemble a time-controlled metabolic pathway. As a proof of concept we want to engineer the first light-rechargeable biological lamp: Synechocystis PCC 6803 cells that emit light only by night while recovering and producing the substrates in the day.
