Team:SoundBio/Description
Project Inspiration and Description
The idea came from our member JJ Wheeler, who is interested in biomaterials. When searching for potential ideas, we looked at various materials that had special properties that could be optimized to benefit the community. When researching potential biomaterials to optimize, we came across materials that had antimicrobial properties, such as silver nanoparticles and bacterial cellulose. After learning about biomaterials, such as bacterial cellulose and spidersilk, and their many useful properties, we split our team into smaller groups that researched the topics further. After a few weeks researching and sharing about these ideas and their feasibility, we collectively agreed, by vote, on pursuing bacterial cellulose and its potential for various applications further in iGEM because of its versatility as a biomaterial and its numerous practical applications in fields such as the biomedical industry.
This year our project, Bacto- Basics strives to spatially control the attachment of functional proteins to bacterial cellulose using optogenetics, synthetic biology, and systems biology, interdisciplinary study by incorporating hardware and software aspects. When selecting our primary goals we strived to stay consistent and practical, such that it would be possible to reach these goals and show our team’s progress. Once we decided on our primary umbrella project, we split into the subteams, such as PR or wetlab, and devised goals for each subteam to achieve over the course of the iGEM 2019 season as the subteams were better informed to create their own feasible goals.
Our primary project goals this year are:
- Engineer E. coli to express fusion proteins, which are cellulose binding domains (CBDs) connected to chromoproteins, and control that expression via two different light sensor systems: a red light system and a blue one.
- Design/build a bioreactor that has minimal to no agitation so the K. Rhaeticus can grow. How we will achieve this is by testing the K. Rhaeticus in minimal to no agitating bioreactors such as wave bioreactors, static bioreactors, and airlift bioreactors.
- Create a model of the bioreactor processes to speed up testing and allow us to find optimal conditions for BC growth and functionalization, both in terms of the organisms and their genetic circuits, and the hardware involved.
- To engage our community in science by giving a mini iGEM experience to young students and incorporate public feedback and engagement with our project.
In the future, we see our iGEM project as a new, easily controlled platform used to produce BC with any desired property.