Team:Utah State/Project

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You are provided with this team page template with which to start the iGEM season. You may choose to personalize it to fit your team but keep the same "look." Or you may choose to take your team wiki to a different level and design your own wiki. You can find some examples HERE.
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Tell us more about your project. Give us background. Use this is the abstract of your project. Be descriptive but concise (1-2 paragraphs)

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Contents

Overall project

Abstract:

Project Description:

Building upon the CyanoBrick toolkit developed by the 2010 Utah State iGEM team, our project will focus on producing valuable bioproducts using Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Our project will attempt to produce 3 different bioproducts: fatty alcohols, wax esters, and alkanes/alkenes. Fatty alcohols and wax esters are used to produce cosmetics, lubricants, and various pharmaceuticals. Fatty alcohols with a 20-carbon chain are used in the cold sore medication Abreva[reference needed], and long chain fatty alcohols have been linked to improved heart health [reference needed]. Alkanes and alkenes are utilized as hydrocarbon fuels. The production of these bioproducts in cyanobacteria will greatly reduce their cost and increase their availability.

In addition to producing bioproducts, our project will also provide a more detailed characterization of the promoters and ribosome binding sites (RBS) produced by the 2010 Utah State iGEM Team. Utilizing a dual luciferase expression measurement construct, and reference promoters from E. coli and Synechocystis, our team will more precisely characterize the expression levels of 23 promoters under standard growth conditions, compared with the GFP-based measurements made in 2010. We will also produce useful intermediate parts, which are currently not available through the registry, allowing the dual luciferase expression measurement system to be easily adapted to new organisms and new reference promoters.

Project Details

The field of Synthetic Biology is continuously increasing our understanding of the complexity of all living systems, one gene at a time. Our project focuses on producing high value bioproducts in the form of fatty alcohols, wax esters, and alkanes/alkenes using Synechocystis sp PCC 6803. In addition, our team is investigating the strength of 23 promoters by measuring a dual luciferase expression construct.



Dual Luciferase

Bioproduct Pathways

Pathway 1 - Fatty Alcohol
Pathway 1 Fatty Alcohol.png
Pathway 2 - Wax Ester
Pathway 2 Wax Ester.png
Pathway 3 - Alkane Alkene
Pathway 3 Alkane Alkene.png

Experiments

Results