Adjustable Multi-Enzyme to Cell Surface Anchoring Protein

There are a plethora of enzymes that occur in the natural world which perform reactions that could be immensely useful to humans. Unfortunately, the efficiency of some of these reactions may render their applications logistically unrealistic. The cellulosome scaffolding protein produced by Clostridium thermocellum has been shown to significantly increase the efficiency of cellulose degradation. The scaffolding protein can be reduced in size and adapted for the cell surface of Escherichia coli. Different cohesion sites on the new cell surface display protein can also be introduced to allow for attachment of desired enzymes. Future applications would include producing a collection of distinct versions of the scaffolding protein for unique arrangements and concentrations of enzymes, enabling construction of an extra-cellular assembly line for a variety of multi-enzymatic reactions. This would lay the foundation for making previously infeasible applications of reactions possible through increased efficiency.

Team History:

We are the Missouri Miners from Missouri University of Science and Technology. Our team formed in 2007 with just a handful of people working on iGEM projects. Now our team has grown to nearly 30 members working hard and learning new things in the lab.
Our team is a recognized student organization at S&T and just recently became a member of the Student Design Team, which is a highly respected tradition here on our campus. Our most recent accomplishment is forming a basic lab training program to get our new members more familiar in the lab and ready to work on future projects.