Wiki/Team:Imperial College London/Notebook/July 6

From 2011.igem.org

Action points for the day:
-bios on the wiki
-sci-fi meeting
-characterisation talk
-come up with more ideas
-do more research on anti-venom and prodigiosin

We started the day off by brainstorming several idea and selecting the ones we thought were viable enough to be presented to the professors on Friday.

Brainstorming:
Venom and BAS ideas to be presented on Friday!
-desertification (overdone already)
-thermophiles (make them express melanin so they can be heated up by the sun, saving energy)
-cell-cell signal transduction (can be used as inhibition or activation)
-desalination (commercial membranes are probably more efficient)
-data storage in bacteria (use DNA to encode information has already been done but it might be useful to come up with a new way of retrieving the information. Storing data in RNA might be more efficient)
-ocean metals (retrieving valuable materials from sea water, main problem: materials are only present at really low concentration and might be hard to retrieve) -cross-linking of hair to something useful
-dictostylium
-using melanin for heat production from sound in bacteria. The heat could then be converted into an output, producing sound sensitive bacteria. Is melanin really able to detect sound??
-modifying silk worms?
-radiotrophic fungi (fungi that use gamma radiation to produce ATP - the pathway could be used in E. coli to absorb radioactivity but the exact pathway does not seem to be known (Wikipedia))
-serum bile acid as a biomarker of liver problems in pregnancy

After the brain-storming session we had a talk from Chris about characterisation giving me a glimpse into what I would be expecting in the weeks after the project has been pinned down on a single idea. We currently have two running ideas; the anti-venom and a bile acid sensor. We have split off into two teams and each is working hard in order to build a system that the professors might agree to this Friday at 3:30pm. The deadline is approaching and we still require 2 more possible projects to present to the professors.

(Text by Rebekka and Chris)