Post-Regional Accomplishments

Our team has had many accomplishments since the regional jamboree!

In our Human Practices project, we...

• Returned to industry experts to see if we accomplished our goals and what the next steps should be.

• Characterized the functionality of our previously submitted Prha promoter using GFP fluorescence.

• Tested an additional complete kill switch device using the Prha promoter with our S7 kill gene.

• Further characterized our previously validated magnesium riboswitch kill gene construct.

In terms of FRED, we...

• Electrochemically characterized an inducible lacz circuit, replacing a faulty existing circuit in the registry containing a frameshift.

• Electrochemically characterized a constitutive bglX generator in terms of its electrochemical activity.

• Characterized and demonstrated how 3 different hydrolase-producing circuits can be used simultaneously in order to create a multiplex biosensor.

• Tested one of our transposon library hits with our electrochemical reporter, showing that we can use our system to detect toxins electrochemically.

In terms of OCSAR, we...

• Obtained additional characterization data in validation of our flux-variability analysis model.

• Characterized the ability of our novel amidase BioBrick to remove nitrogen atoms from ring structures with remarkeable efficiency, turning them into a substrate that the Petrobrick (BBa_K) can likely convert into hydrocarbons.

• Tested out our bioreactor and it’s ability to grow cells containing the PetroBrick as well as extract the hydrocarbon layer produced using our belt skimmer