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From 2012.igem.org

Motivational drive

Natural cycles have always fascinated mankind, probably due to the mysterious mechanisms involved in them and the power they exert in our everyday life. Since the dawn of synthetic biology, engineering oscillatory systems has been a recurrent topic, being Ellowitz's represillator a classical example. Nevertheless, to date no iGEM team has accomplished the implementation of a robust oscillatory system. That will be our challenge for this year's iGEM project.

To reach our goal we designed a synthethic circuit that links to the endogenous circadian rhythm of synechocystis PCC6803. As a proof of concept we are going to engineer the first light-rechargeable biological lamp: Synechocystis PCC 6803 cells that emit light only by night while recovering and producing the substrates in the day. We strongly believe this will serve as an enabling tool to any project requiring time control over a biological behaviour independently of the user's input.

Furthermore, the characterization of this chasis is a fundamental step to explore new systems with minimal inputs to replace E. coli, for example, in the biotechnological industry in order to achieve greener processes.