Team:Caltech

From Biofilms to Biofuel

The iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) competition started with a handful of teams competing at MIT, and has expanded to involve over one hundred and thirty college groups developing and implementing new applications of synthetic biology. Over the summer, teams from each school utilize BioBricks supplied by MIT. BioBricks are genetic libraries of promoters and genes that can be easily incorporated into other organisms’ genomes. This allows for relatively quick manipulation of organisms to express a certain product or perform a new function. For example, the 2008 Caltech iGEM team, which won third place, manipulated E. coli (a beneficial resident of the intestine) to produce anti-pathenogenic products in addition to its typical functions in the body. The genetically engineered E. coli supplemented its typical role in the gut to mimic white blood cells’ anti-pathenogenic properties elsewhere in the body (1). Caltech’s 2012 iGEM team aims to manipulate bacteria to degrade stable organic polymers such as lignin and alginate; to use these substrates to synthesize biofuels, specifically biodiesel; and to direct their ATP synthesis mechanism to rely on proteorhodopsin as the source of the proton gradient, freeing NADH to interact in the synthetic pathway instead. We will develop the three facets of the project in different strains of E. coli. Depending on our success in each area, we will then splice the manipulated sequences into one new organism.

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