Team:Washington

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<h1>Make it or Break it: Diesel Production and Gluten Destruction, the synthetic biology way<h1>
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=<center>'''Make It or Break It: <br/> Diesel Production and Gluten Destruction, the Synthetic Biology Way'''</center>=
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Synthetic biology holds great promise to produce vital products and destroy harmful ones. This summer, we harnessed the power of synthetic biology to meet the world’s needs for fuel and medicine. Make It:  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 into alkanes.  Break It:  We engineered an enzyme – to be taken in pill form – that breaks down gluten, a component of staple foods that can causes severe immune responses. The protease Kumamolisin-As was identified and then reengineered using computational techniques, improving its ability to cleave gluten peptides over 10-fold. Finally, to enable next-gen cloning of iGEM parts BioBrick vectors optimized for Gibson assembly were constructed and used to construct the Magnetosome Toolkit: genes for biofabrication of magnetic particles.<br/>
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<center>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.</center>
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Current biofuels are made up of compounds that have properties that make them not a perfect substitute for gasoline. A much better solution would be to use bacteria to produce alkanes, the main chemical found in gasoline. This system would allow for the production of net-carbon neutral gasoline from organisms that can directly or indirectly utilize carbon dioxide. One of the goals of our team is to optimize alkane production in E. coli as a model for alkane production in such organisms.
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[[Image:Washington_Fire.jpg|left|320px|borderless|link=https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Alkanes/Background]]
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[[Image:Washington_Bottle.jpg|right|200px|borderless|link=https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Celiacs/Background]]
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[https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Alkanes/Background '''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 to convert fatty acid synthesis intermediates into alkanes. 
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[https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Celiacs/Background '''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. 
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[https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Magnetosomes/Background '''iGEM Toolkits''']  To enable next-generation cloning of standard biological parts, we built BioBrick vectors optimized for Gibson assembly and used them to create the Magnetosome Toolkit: a set of 18 genes from an essential operon in magnetotactic bacteria which we are characterizing to create magnetic ''E. coli''.
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[[Image:UW Diesel Front Page.png|300px|link=https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Alkanes/Background]]
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[[Image:UW Toolkits Front Page.png|300px|link=https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Magnetosomes/Background]]
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[[Image:UW Gluten Front Page.png|300px|link=https://2011.igem.org/Team:Washington/Celiacs/Background]]
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Celiac disease is a genetic disorder in which the human digestive system is unable to properly process gluten, a protein found in wheat. Several attempts to produce an enzyme capable of cleaving gluten have been made, but no viable enzyme has been fully implimented. Our team is attempting to engineer an enzyme capable of both surviving in the digestive system, and be able to still cleave gluten.<br/>
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[[File:Washington_OSLI.png|frameless|border|150px|link=http://www.osli.ca|Oil Sands Leadership Intiative]]
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[[File:Washington_UniversitySeal.gif|frameless|border|100px|link=http://www.washington.edu|University of Washington]]
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[[File:Washington_ARPA-E_Logo.png|frameless|border|150px|link=http://arpa-e.energy.gov/ProgramsProjects/Electrofuels.aspx|Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy]]
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[[File:Washington2011_Hhmi_362_72.jpg|link=http://www.hhmi.org/|Howard Hughes Medical Institute]]
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[[File:Washington2011_NSFlogo.jpg|frameless|border|link=http://www.nsf.gov/|National Science Foundation]]
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[[File:Washington_Anaspec.gif|frameless|border|100px|link=http://www.anaspec.com|Anaspec]]

Latest revision as of 17:01, 2 December 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.


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borderless

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 to 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, we built BioBrick vectors optimized for Gibson assembly and used them to create the Magnetosome Toolkit: a set of 18 genes from an essential operon in magnetotactic bacteria which we are characterizing to create magnetic E. coli.


Washington Spacer.jpg UW Diesel Front Page.png Washington Spacer.jpg UW Toolkits Front Page.png Washington Spacer.jpg UW Gluten Front Page.png Washington Spacer.jpg



Washington Spacer.jpg Oil Sands Leadership Intiative Washington Spacer.jpg University of Washington Washington Spacer.jpg Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy Washington Spacer.jpg Howard Hughes Medical Institute Washington Spacer.jpg National Science Foundation Washington Spacer.jpg Anaspec

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