Team:Bielefeld-Germany

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<h1 align=center> Our Project - Abstract</h1>  
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The birth control pill is a widespread contraception method. However, large amounts of these modified estrogens leave the body again in urine. The conventional methods in sewage treatment plants are unable to treat waste water sufficiently because the most frequently used estrogen ethinylestradiol is very difficult to break down. As a result, the hormone finds its way into rivers and lakes and accumulates in drinking water with serious consequences for fish and other aquatic life. These range from reproductive and severe developmental disorders to the formation of female sexual characteristics in males. The long-term consequences of increasing estrogen pollution for human beings are still largely unknown. Nonetheless, declining sperm counts and thereby increasing infertility in men living in industrial nations may well relate to this hormonal pollution. In addition, testicular and prostate cancers as well as osteoporosis could be a consequence of overly high concentrations of estrogen in the human body.<br><br>
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The goal of Bielefeld’s iGEM team is to develop a biological filter using immobilized laccases to purify municipal and industrial wastewater from synthetic estrogens and other aromatic compounds. Laccases are copper-containing oxidase enzymes found in many organisms, and one of their properties is the ability to break down a wide range of aromatic and phenolic compounds. For this purpose, genes of various bacterial and eukaryotic laccases should be isolated and expressed in Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris. The team is aiming to manufacture this enzyme economically and safely with the help of methods from synthetic biology. It should also be possible to extend the concept to other, in part poisonous and carcinogenic pollutants in drinking and waste water, as well as into industrial application, such as in paper and textile industries or even for bioremediation of contaminated soil. </p>
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                                Our Plan
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TOXIC COMPOUNDS IN NATURAL WATER - A CASE FOR LACCASE <br>
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                            Our goal is to develop a biological filter using immobilized laccases to purify municipal and industrial wastewater from synthetic estrogens and other aromatic compounds.
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                            <p><a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-Germany/Project/Appoach">
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                            Click here to read more</a> about our project
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<h1 align="center">Introducing the iGEM Team Bielefeld 2012</h1>
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                              The Realization
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To realize our goal we first produced the laccases in different clades and purified them. After that, we immobilized them and tested their acitivity.
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                            <p><a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-Germany/Results/Summary">
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                            Click here to read more </a> about our methods...
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                                The Potential
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Upon working with two different sewage treatment plants, we confirmed that our project has the potential to solve problems of micro contaminations in sewage water.   
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                            <p><a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-Germany/Sewage_treatment_plant">
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                            Click here to read more</a> about microcontaminents and about the application of our project in clarification plants...</p>                     
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            <div class="calendar_day">26</div>
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            <div class="calendar_month">October</div>
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                                Laccases - Our Teammate
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                            Laccases have the ability to oxidize phenolic and nonphenolic lignin related compounds as well as highly recalcitrant environmental pollutants. This makes them very useful for applications concerning several biotechnological processes.
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                            <p><a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-Germany/Project/Background#3">
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                            Click here to read more</a> about laccases...
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            <div class="calendar_title">Public Discussion</div>
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             <div class="calendar_text">We had the great opportunity to present ourselves and our project in a café in Bielefeld to the general public. There, about 100 interested visitors listened to Prof. Dr. Alfred Pühler's introduction to synthetic biology and to our talk about iGEM and our MARSS project. The feedback was awesome! Prof. Dr. Pühler and we answered loads of questions of the curious audience concerning both technical and ethical aspects of our research.</div>
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                Welcome
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The birth control pill is a widespread contraception method. However, large amounts of these modified estrogens leave the body again in urine. The conventional methods in sewage treatment plants are unable to treat waste water sufficiently because the most frequently used estrogen ethinyl estradiol is very difficult to break down. As a result, the hormone finds its way into rivers and lakes and accumulates in drinking water with serious consequences for fish and other aquatic life. These range from reproductive and severe developmental disorders to the formation of female sexual characteristics in males. The long-term consequences of increasing estrogen pollution for human beings are still largely unknown. Nonetheless, declining sperm counts and thereby increasing infertility in men living in industrial nations may well relate to this hormonal pollution. In addition, testicular and prostate cancers as well as osteoporosis could be a consequence of overly high concentrations of estrogen in the human body.<br><br>
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            <div class="calendar_day">19</div>
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The goal of Bielefeld’s iGEM team is to develop a biological filter using immobilized laccases to purify municipal and industrial wastewater from synthetic estrogens and other aromatic compounds. Laccases are copper-containing oxidase enzymes found in many organisms, and one of their properties is the ability to break down a wide range of aromatic and phenolic compounds. For this purpose, genes of various bacterial and eukaryotic laccases should be isolated and expressed in <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Pichia pastoris</i>. The team is aiming to manufacture this enzyme economically and safely with the help of methods from synthetic biology. It should also be possible to extend the concept to other, in part poisonous and carcinogenic pollutants in drinking and waste water, as well as into industrial application, such as in paper and textile industries or even for bioremediation of contaminated soil. </p>
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             <div class="calendar_month">October</div>
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                A Case for Laccase!
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<iframe width="550" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dSUzhVJtUQw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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            <div class="calendar_title">Waffles!</div>
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             <div class="calendar_text">As the deadline is pretty close and time is rare, we decided to bake some waffles. Besides making about 1000 delicious waffles, we took the chance to present our iGEM-project to the local students and folks of our university. Combining food and public relations was very successful... and tasty!</div>
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                iGEM Team Bielefeld 2012
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            <div class="calendar_day">15</div>
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                Achievements
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            <div class="calendar_title">Public Talk on October 26th</div>
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            <div class="calendar_text">On October 26th the iGEM Team Bielefeld will give a public talk about the comoetition and the project. After a brief introduction in Synthetic Biology by Prof. Dr. A. Pühler we are going to explain our iGEM approach. The Event is hosted by Bielefeld Marketing.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bio-owl.de/pdf/Science Cafe Bielelfeld _ Bakterien 101014.pdf" target="_blank">Donwload the Flyer here.</a></div>
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Goldmedaillie.png‎|100px|left]]
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            <div class="calendar_day">11</div>
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            <div class="calendar_title">Radio interview on WDR5 - part 2</div>
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            <div class="calendar_text">And the show is going on. There is another interview about iGEM and our team available at the science broadcast of WDR5, called "Leonardo".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wdr5.de/sendungen/leonardo/s/d/11.10.2010-16.05/b/leo-2-go-lange-winkelheide-unterwegs-101011.html" target="_blank">Listen to the german podcast here.</a></div>
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:::Gold medal at the Europe Regional Jamboree
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            <div class="calendar_day">8</div>
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Qualified_stemp.png‎‎|100px|left]]
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            <div class="calendar_title">TV team number 1</div>
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            <div class="calendar_text">Today we had a TV team in our lab - they were shooting some scenes and interviews with us. The coverage about our team will be in the science broadcasting "nano" on 3sat (german TV station) during the Jamboree in november. </div>
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:::Qualified for the World Championship
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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            <div class="calendar_day">24-26</div>
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:Production of four active bacterial laccases
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            <div class="calendar_month">September</div>
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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            <div class="calendar_title">Meet the iGEM team from Odense<br />(SDU Denmark)</div>
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:Design and assembly of a shuttle vector for site-directed integration in ''P. pastoris''
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            <div class="calendar_text">We visited the iGEM team from the SDU Denmark in Odense this weekend. We had a lot of fun (there will be some photos soon) and agreed upon broadening our cooperation for the remaining iGEM competition (e.g. test each others BioBricks).</div>
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:Production of an active fungal laccase (TVEL5).
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            <div class="calendar_day">13</div>
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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            <div class="calendar_month">September</div>
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:Successful characterization of the activity of four bacterial laccases regarding the oxidization of ABTS under different conditions.
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            <div class="calendar_title">Radio interview on WDR5 - part 1</div>
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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             <div class="calendar_text">A short radio coverage in the science broadcast of WDR5 "Leonardo" about our iGEM team is broadcasted today. <a href="http://www.wdr5.de/sendungen/leonardo/s/d/13.09.2010-16.05.html" target="_blank">Link's here</a> and <a href="http://gffstream-3.vo.llnwd.net/c1/m/1284390840/radio/leonardo/wdr5_leonardo_20100913.mp3" target="_blank"/>here's the podcast</a></div>
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:Successful immobilization of the ''Trametes versicolor''-laccase (named TVEL0) and measurement of its activity.
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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:Successful immobilization of four bacterial laccases and measurement of their activity.
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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:Successful creation of a model which simulates the required laccase amount to degraded harmful substances under real sewage plant conditions.
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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:Feasibility study of our project.
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]] 
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:Creation of a database to organize our samples.
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[[File:Bielefeld-Germany2012_Check.jpg|20px|left]]
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:Improvement of a BioBrick by clarifying its true function.
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              Our Partners
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            <div class="calendar_day">30</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_month">August</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_title">Interview with our team on biotechnologie.tv</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_text">Here is a short interview with our team in today's broadcast of biotechnologie.tv: <a href="Here is a short interview with our team in today's broadcast of biotechnologie.tv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2SA-bTERR4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2SA-bTERR4</a></div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_day">4</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_month">August</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_title">Leading article in Westfalen-Blatt</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_text">A two-sided leading article about our team and synthetic biology was published in today's edition of the newspaper Westfalen-Blatt. </div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_month">August</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_title">Team up with the iGEM crew of Odense</div>
 
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            <div class="calendar_text">Today we attended a video conference with the iGEM-Team of the SDU. We plan to cooperate with them by sharing knowledge and - more important - we plan to get to know the people personally and to have some fun together. </div>
 
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Latest revision as of 17:59, 14 June 2013

  • Our Plan
    TOXIC COMPOUNDS IN NATURAL WATER - A CASE FOR LACCASE
    Our goal is to develop a biological filter using immobilized laccases to purify municipal and industrial wastewater from synthetic estrogens and other aromatic compounds.

    Click here to read more about our project

  • The Realization
    To realize our goal we first produced the laccases in different clades and purified them. After that, we immobilized them and tested their acitivity.

    Click here to read more about our methods...

  • The Potential
    Upon working with two different sewage treatment plants, we confirmed that our project has the potential to solve problems of micro contaminations in sewage water.

    Click here to read more about microcontaminents and about the application of our project in clarification plants...

  • Laccases - Our Teammate
    Laccases have the ability to oxidize phenolic and nonphenolic lignin related compounds as well as highly recalcitrant environmental pollutants. This makes them very useful for applications concerning several biotechnological processes.

    Click here to read more about laccases...

Welcome

The birth control pill is a widespread contraception method. However, large amounts of these modified estrogens leave the body again in urine. The conventional methods in sewage treatment plants are unable to treat waste water sufficiently because the most frequently used estrogen ethinyl estradiol is very difficult to break down. As a result, the hormone finds its way into rivers and lakes and accumulates in drinking water with serious consequences for fish and other aquatic life. These range from reproductive and severe developmental disorders to the formation of female sexual characteristics in males. The long-term consequences of increasing estrogen pollution for human beings are still largely unknown. Nonetheless, declining sperm counts and thereby increasing infertility in men living in industrial nations may well relate to this hormonal pollution. In addition, testicular and prostate cancers as well as osteoporosis could be a consequence of overly high concentrations of estrogen in the human body.

The goal of Bielefeld’s iGEM team is to develop a biological filter using immobilized laccases to purify municipal and industrial wastewater from synthetic estrogens and other aromatic compounds. Laccases are copper-containing oxidase enzymes found in many organisms, and one of their properties is the ability to break down a wide range of aromatic and phenolic compounds. For this purpose, genes of various bacterial and eukaryotic laccases should be isolated and expressed in Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris. The team is aiming to manufacture this enzyme economically and safely with the help of methods from synthetic biology. It should also be possible to extend the concept to other, in part poisonous and carcinogenic pollutants in drinking and waste water, as well as into industrial application, such as in paper and textile industries or even for bioremediation of contaminated soil.

A Case for Laccase!
iGEM Team Bielefeld 2012
Achievements

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Goldmedaillie.png


Gold medal at the Europe Regional Jamboree


Bielefeld-Germany2012 Qualified stemp.png


Qualified for the World Championship


Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Production of four active bacterial laccases

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Design and assembly of a shuttle vector for site-directed integration in P. pastoris

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Production of an active fungal laccase (TVEL5).

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Successful characterization of the activity of four bacterial laccases regarding the oxidization of ABTS under different conditions.

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Successful immobilization of the Trametes versicolor-laccase (named TVEL0) and measurement of its activity.

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Successful immobilization of four bacterial laccases and measurement of their activity.

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Successful creation of a model which simulates the required laccase amount to degraded harmful substances under real sewage plant conditions.

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Feasibility study of our project.

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Creation of a database to organize our samples.

Bielefeld-Germany2012 Check.jpg
Improvement of a BioBrick by clarifying its true function.

Our Partners

120px Logo merck.jpg BioCircle.JPG Bielefeld2012 Evonik.jpg Bielefeld2012 Baxter.png
Logo knauer.jpg Logo iit.jpg Logo biometra.jpg Bielefeld2012 BIEKUBA.jpg Bielefeld2012 Logo ERASynbio.jpg
Logo bio-nrw.png Bielefeld-Germany-CeBiTec.jpg IgemBielefeld 2011 Logo uni.jpg IgemBielefeld Logo biofak.jpg 100px


About our Wiki

Fifteen students from different fields of study from the Bielefeld University aspired to complete a project called TOXIC COMPOUNDS IN NATURAL WATER - A CASE FOR LACCASE. In this Wiki we document our approach and our achievements.

Contact Us

Universität Bielefeld
Universitätsstraße 25
D-33615 Bielefeld

info(at)igem-bielefeld.de

Navigate our Wiki

Start

Team

Project

Results

Since Regionals

Human Practice

Safety

Judging

Partner

Retrieved from "http://2012.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-Germany"