Team:Georgia State

IGEM Team:GSU

P⁴= Protein Products Pichia Plants

Our Project

Protein Products from Plants and Pichia: Novel Manufacturing of Analgesics and Cannabinoids
Cannabinoids and opiates are widely used classes of pharmaceuticals; unfortunately, these drugs have strong psychoactive effects or can be addictive. Our project consists of two ideas, both revolving around utilizing bioengineered microorganisms to create non-psychoactive cannabinoids and non-addictive analgesics. To achieve this we developed two projects: (1) Manufacturing a protein expression system to produce CBDA synthase in tobacco plants using agrobacterium, (2) Engineering the pGAPα vector system to express the mambalgin in Pichia Pastoris as a continuation of the 2014 GSU iGEM project. Simultaneously, we developed a proof of concept using horseradish peroxidase. By the end of this project we hope to have produced a synthetic biological system to manufacture pharmaceutical alternatives for patients that suffer from diseases such as epilepsy, cancer, or chronic severe pain.

Our Team

Maruf M. Hoque

Graduate Adviser¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jessica Siemer

Graduate Adviser

Laura Irvin

Year: Junior
Major: Biology

What is your spirit animal?
April Ludgate. Everyone should watch Parks and Rec.

Who is your role model?
I absolutely adore Cara Santa Maria. She's a neuroscientist and science communicator. She is part of the reason I went back to school to pursue my degree in the sciences.

What's your best piece of iGEM wisdom?
Organization is key.

Tran Dang

Year: Senior
Major: Biology

Aliens, dinosaurs, or robots. Choose one to be raised by. Why?
Aliens. I would be able to explore the vast universe one planet at a time and learn about their way-of-life.

What do you like about iGEM?
Students work on their project based on their interests and learn design and research skills that are hard to acquire as undergrads.

If you could solve any global problem what would it be?
World hunger.

Julio Falcon

Year: Junior
Major: Chemistry

What do you want to do after GSU?
Medical school.

What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you?
Ripped my pants during a school performance

What do you like about iGEM?
I like how closely connected the iGem community is it makes working a lot easier.

Joseph Whitley

Year: Senior
Major: Biology

What do you want to do after GSU?
Graduate school, research

If you had to choose one meal to eat for the rest of your life what would it be?
Spaghetti

If you could pick any super power to have what would it be and why? What would you call yourself?
Not having to sleep. Nosleepman

Holly Bowman

Yousef Ibrahim

Grace Purvis

Year: Senior
Major: Biology

Why did you choose your major?
I love learning the why and how behind things, and being able to apply that knowledge to better the world around us.

What do you love about GSU?
I love the diversity that is represented on our campus in all forms, and I love that our team shows that.

Who is your role model?
That's a tie between my mom and Albert Einstein.

Alex Yue

Year: Senior
Major: Biology

What do you want to do after GSU?
I want get a masters degree.

What do you love about Atlanta?
I like the climate. It's very comfortable. It's also very convenient living here.

What do you like about iGEM?
IGEM gives us a chance to compete with outstanding students from other universities all around the world. At the same time, we help each other, share our opinions and succeed together. It's a really good experience.