Team:Vilnius-Lithuania

Controlling the lifetime of GMOs using ColiClock

We are Vilnius iGEM – the first team from Lithuania and the Baltic States. Our goal is to tackle one of the biggest problems of synthetic biology – the regulation of the spread of genetically modified products in the environment. The aim of the ColiClock project consists of creating a bacteria with an integrated “count-down timer”, triggering a self-destruction mechanism. The idea would apply to cells that need to have a limited lifetime outside of a laboratory environment. The mechanism is achieved using the type I-F CRISPR-Cas system, controlled by LuxR and cI, which is navigated to important genes in the genomic DNA. In addition, we aim to present and discuss this globally relevant topic with Lithuanian industries, policy makers and the general public.

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