Team:Georgia State

GSU iGEM

Coral Reefs by the Numbers

Diversity

25

Percent of marine life depends on coral reefs^[1]

Value

375

billion dollars per year in goods and services provided to the world economy^[2]

Death

50

Percentage of coral reefs lost since the 1980s^[3]

Our Project

Inspiration & Description

Save The Coral

Using Synthetic Biology to Protect Our Reefs

The inspiration behind our project was the Netflix documentary Chasing Coral. To combat coral bleaching we propose a synthetic biology solution: transform the symbiotic algae to make them less likely to be expelled by their coral hosts. If successful, the modified coral symbionts will be more resistant to bleaching and may well survive the even more dramatic climate changes likely to come.