Team:TU Darmstadt/Project

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iGEM TU Darmstadt 2015

"Building with light opens up a spectrum of opportunities, especially if you can build in three dimensions. Why not use this potential to help people in need?"

Our project combined very different ideas from various fields of study into one massive interdisciplinary project. Aspects of computational engineering, additive manufacturing and of course synthetic biology were combined into our project:

‘Building with light - TU Darmstadt 2015’

Last year we were able to reduce the amount of money we spend on lab materials by printing gel chambers with a 3D-printer, as well as several other open hardware devices. This year we went even further and decided to assemble a functional stereolithography 3D-printer from scratch while also biotechnologically producing our own resin.

We established genetic pathways via metabolic engineering in E. coli that allow the bacterium to produce various chemicals that can be used for 3D-printing purposes, namely ethylene glycol, itaconic acid and xylitol.
 Our team also kept working on parts from previous years and provided the registry with an improved version of a protein scaffold. By fixating proteins in close physical proximity to each other on a scaffold, we could increase their metabolic output significantly.


HARDWARE

The laboratory work was supported by the modeling group which developed membrane simulations for a xylose transporter (xylE) and computational structure prediction techniques to design a hokD kill-switch for our bacteria. In the process, we developed a new structure prediction technique based on an artificial neural network and implemented a genetic algorithm to design arbitrary RNA riboswitches. We made the program available to the community as a Web service hosted on our server.

Aside from all the work in the laboratory, the engineering workshop (FabLab Darmstadt), the computer pool and our partner Synenergene helped us to find a new point of view for an applicable approach for our ‘Policy & Practices’ project. We developed an application scenario, which focuses on the interpendency of our scheduled project with the community and how both parties can be affected by each other. Thereby we were able to optimize our project according to the needs of the general public.

In conclusion, we are proud to present the iGEM community and the rest of the world with the achievements of this year’s project. We provide:

• a self-assembled stereolithographic 3D printer for less than asddasdasd Euro, together with its detailed construction plans and software
• the genetic parts for the biotechnological production of a photocurable resin, usable in our printer, from cheap and commonly available starting materials
• a plastic resulting from the polymerization of our resin which is harm-free to humans as well as biodegradable, hence proving eco-friendly
• free, web-based software to design RNA riboswitches suitable for your own projects

We propose a possible application for our printer in the making of inexpensive, custom and on the spot made prostheses, in the relief of humanitarian or natural catastrophe crisis.