iGEM Team Amsterdam

The international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a worldwide undergraduate Synthetic Biology contest. Student teams are given a kit of “BioBricks” at the beginning of the summer, from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools may through september, they use these parts, and new parts of their own design, to build biological systems and operate them in living cells. This project design and competition format is an exceptionally motivating and effective teaching method.

“Make biology simple with genetically engineered machines”

Our project

Escherichia coli's optimal growth temperature is 37°C. Its growth rate decreases sharply at temperatures deviating from this optimum, and growth beneath 8°C is impossible for wildtype E. coli. The aim of the project is to increase the cold tolerance of E. coli, effectively extending the growth curve as shown below. This will be attempted by expressing several different (combinations of) synthesized genes, through standardized plasmids. Succesfully manipulating E. coli's cold tolerance is valuable to both fundamental and applied science. Among others, it enhances the possibilities of heterologous protein expression, and it might lead towards more efficient biosynthesis of various heat-sensitive compounds (such as antibiotics).