Team:WITS-CSIR SA/Project/Achievements

1. We have submitted 11 biobrick parts to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.

2. Three new biobrick parts (our favourite parts)BBa_K537001, BBa_K537002 and BBa_K537003, have been fully characterised.

3. We have generated theophylline riboswitches that are able to successfully regulate the expression of CheZ and the Reporter proteins (Venus and mCherry).

4. The riboswitch-CheZ constructs that we submitted are ideal for N-terminal fusion to proteins of interest. These proteins, when fused to CheZ, can be shuttled towards sources of theophylline via chemotactic mechanisms that are restored by the riboswitch.

5. The two theophylline riboswitches that we have made (BBa_K537002, BBa_K537001) have been characterised using multiple experimental approaches. Datasheets for these riboswitches have been created by the team.

6. The riboswitches are modular devices that can be made to regulate the production of any downstream coding sequence. This is extremely useful in various synthetic biology applications.

7. A 46-fold and 8-fold increase in CheZ expression was shown for theophylline riboswitch 2 (BBa_K537002) and theophylline riboswitch 1 (BBa_K537001), respectively.

8. We managed to show that the activation of the theophylline riboswitches was sufficient to induced a theophylline concentration-dependent chemotactic response in non-motile, CheZ deficient E. coli mutants.

9. We have been able to reproduce our data in independent triplicate experiments.

10. The data was presented on the Registry of Standard Biological Parts to serve as an editable source of information for future users.

11. We were one of the three finalists at the European Jamboree!

12. We won two prizes at the European Jamboree:

Best Experimental Measurement Approach

Best Poster

13. Awarded a Gold Medal.

14. Informed the public of synthetic biology, our project and iGEM.

15. Introduced synthetic biology to underprivileged children and its potential uses in their communities.

16. We collaborated with Imperial College London.

17. The team had vast amounts of fun!