Caltech’s 2012 iGEM team aims to manipulate bacteria to stable organic polymers such as lignin and alginate; to use these substrates to , specifically ethanol; and to direct their ATP synthesis mechanism to rely on 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. We will then splice the manipulated sequences into one new organism.