Team:Korea U Seoul/Description
Project Description
Our first project is the construction of a metabolism pathway navigation app.
Nowadays, biological information including gene maps of numerous organisms are flooding out every year. If we can organize and refine these biological information, it can be used in many ways. Our team got an idea from the navigation system on internet and applied it in our project. If we put department and arrival in the navigation system, it shows various ways when given options such as the fastest way or the most economical way. Our team built a program using database of metabolic pathways named KEGG and visualized the best metabolic network considering thermodynamic aspect.
Our program shows nodes for chemicals and edges for reactions by adopting concept of network. This program can provide pathway which yields products you want from reactants that you can offer.
Final goal of our project is the prediction of suitable or novel pathways and the visualization of the data on web using programing tools such as JavaScript and JSON. To make web app easily accessible, we used JavaScript for dynamic system and web design, JSON for data library since it has standardized data format, and D3.js for visualization and mobilization of metabolic pathways.
Our second project is the construction of agar powered bio-fuel cell, using agarolytic pathway.
The demand for an alternative energy source has become an issue governing the 21st century society. In this stream of thought, KOREA U SEOUL team will inspect upon a new alternative fuel source that may possibly take part in the replacement of fossil fuels.
Our team’s project begins from Agarose, a common, disposable compound used frequently in various experiments. Agarose can be degraded into NeoAgarobiose(NAB). NAB then degrades further into D-Galactose and AHG; AHG is readily reduced, so it operates as a reducing agent to reduce NAD into NADH. The synthetic NADH, similar to how it operates as an electron carrier in cellular respiration, will be our new source of electricity.
Moreover, our team has inspected the possibility of using D-Gal, which is a waste material of our agarolytic pathway. We used D-Gal as the carbon source of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, which is also known to produce electricity.
The best part of these processes is that it’s pollution free, ensuring environmental protection along with energy production. Overall, the Energy Fuel Cell and application of D-gal decomposition by a Microbial Fuel Cell will pioneer a new possibility of alternative bio-energy.