Team:Washington

From 2011.igem.org

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(Make it or Break it: Diesel Production and Gluten Destruction, the Synthetic Biology Way)
(Make it or Break it: Diesel Production and Gluten Destruction, the Synthetic Biology Way)
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Synthetic biology holds great promise regarding the production of important compounds, and the degradation of harmful ones. This summer, we harnessed the power of synthetic biology to meet the world’s needs for fuel and medicine.   
Synthetic biology holds great promise regarding the production of important compounds, and the degradation of harmful ones. This summer, we harnessed the power of synthetic biology to meet the world’s needs for fuel and medicine.   
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'''Make It: Diesel Production'''  We constructed a strain of Escherichia coli that produces a variety of alkanes, the main constituents of diesel fuel, by introducing a pair of genes recently shown convert fatty acid synthesis intermediates into alkanes.   
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'''Make It: Diesel Production'''  We constructed a strain of ''Escherichia coli'' that produces a variety of alkanes, the main constituents of diesel fuel, by introducing a pair of genes recently shown convert fatty acid synthesis intermediates into alkanes.   
'''Break It: Gluten Destruction'''  We identified a protease with gluten-degradation potential, and then reengineered it to have greatly increased gluten-degrading activity, allowing for the breakdown of gluten in the digestive track when taken in pill form.   
'''Break It: Gluten Destruction'''  We identified a protease with gluten-degradation potential, and then reengineered it to have greatly increased gluten-degrading activity, allowing for the breakdown of gluten in the digestive track when taken in pill form.   

Revision as of 21:31, 16 September 2011


Make it or Break it: Diesel Production and Gluten Destruction, the Synthetic Biology Way

Synthetic biology holds great promise regarding the production of important compounds, and the degradation of harmful ones. This summer, we harnessed the power of synthetic biology to meet the world’s needs for fuel and medicine.

Make It: Diesel Production We constructed a strain of Escherichia coli that produces a variety of alkanes, the main constituents of diesel fuel, by introducing a pair of genes recently shown convert fatty acid synthesis intermediates into alkanes.

Break It: Gluten Destruction We identified a protease with gluten-degradation potential, and then reengineered it to have greatly increased gluten-degrading activity, allowing for the breakdown of gluten in the digestive track when taken in pill form.

iGEM Toolkits: To enable next-generation cloning of standard biological parts, BioBrick vectors optimized for Gibson assembly were constructed and used to construct the Magnetosome Toolkit: genes for biofabrication of magnetic particles.


Washington Spacer.jpg Oil Sands Leadership Intiative Washington Spacer.jpg University of Washington Washington Spacer.jpg Anaspec Washington Spacer.jpg Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy Washington Spacer.jpg Washington2011 Hhmi 362 72.jpg