GMU:Synthetic Biology/Product Screening: Difference between revisions

"Pico Plumber", a strand of bacteria that can find leaks and corrosion in pipes, reaching them by chemotaxis (although how this would work in realife is not clear from their wiki, since the bacteria need an attractant. would need to be some kind of chemical that is released from pipes when they break). Upon reaching high density at the leaking site, they start producing a glue enzyme (not really specified, they mention tropoelastin, a protein that makes blood vessels elastic. can't tell from their wiki if that's their "glue"). Can be something you can use on a small scale at home for your water pipes.

A naturally occuring bacterium in the human nasal flora, Staphylococcus epidermidis, is used as a vehicle for the delivery of an anti-allergic drug that is produced only upon allergic reaction. This would come in the form of a nasal spray, I assume.  

A biosenser for the recognition and removal of water pollutants (Trihalomethanes, Nitrite, Nitrate and orthophosphate ions), i.e. chloroform. The biosensor runs in E. coli or yeast and has (for detection purposes) a GFP fluorescent protein as output. This product could be used in order to perform an easy water-quality test at home and thereby to minimize health-risks.

They planned to program mammalian cells to perform a certain movement according to chemical gradients. They call it nano-bot in robot analogy. As future product possibilities they state: "Imagine, for example, therapeutic nanorobots that could home to a directed site in the body and execute complex, user-defined functions (e.g., kill tumors, deliver drugs, guide stem cell migration and differentiation)."

This team envisions a medical product for curing Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease is the disease where people are unable to digest gliadin, a protein present in gluten. So they have to stick to a strong gluten-free diet. The team wants to engineer a microorganism able to produce the enzyme for digesting gliadin. Therefor they work on <br />

a) an enzyme secrition part

b) a pH detection part in order to limit the production of the enzyme to the stomach, where the digestion should be performed

Development of a synbio-Glu produced by an engineered E. coli strain. This project takes advantage of a natural, bacterial glu, that has the following properties:

a) 3 times stronger than actual glus

b) glu that is able to strongly bind a wet surface

Production of Ethanol from waste, i.e. toxic left over during cheese production. In general the approach to produce energy (i.e. ethanol) from engery-rich waste (i.e. plants, natural products) is one big goal of synthetic biology and would have a huge impact on energy production and the energy market.

Beating obesity by approaching the topic as follows: Our goal is to engineer a strain of Lacobacillus to express the enzymes required for the synthesis of cellulose (a biopolymer which is non-toxic and non-digestable for humans) from glucose (sugar) in an attempt to reduce the caloric intake of obese individuals.  

Biofuel (ethanol, butanol) production from sun light. Approach: using cyanobacteria (being able to use ligth as energy source) for the production of those biofuels.

a) dot-size is equal to the size of single cells (super-high resolution)

b) no electricity needed for color production --> energy saving

c) cells have interesting properties (can move etc.), which may leady to new possibilities in computer-screen engineering

please adress questions according to those projects to Dominik

'''''please, always fill in <br />

a) Team name linked to the 2009er Team Homepage <br />

b) product name/short description <br />

c) add a longer comment or an explanation if necessary <br />