Difference between revisions of "Team:Sydney Australia"

SUMMARY/AT A GLANCE/OVERVIEW (on main page)

The Project:

This year, the Sydney iGEM team is working with the ethene monooxygenase enzyme that performs the epoxide reaction converting ethylene to ethylene oxide. This enzyme is only natively found in Mycobacterium smegmatis, however, this host is difficult to work with on an industrial scale due to its REASONS. Consequently, we are trying to optimise expression of this enzyme in Escherichia coli. However, due to the vast genetic differences between these two bacteria, we first tried to increase expression in Pseudomonas putida as it functioned as a stepping stone to E. Coli. If successful, this bacteria will be capable of performing biocatalysis (green chemical synthesis) and bioremediation (biological degradation of pollutants) reactions. Additionally, epoxides are versatile intermediates, and are used to manufacture hundreds of products, including bulk chemicals like antifreeze (ethylene glycol) and fine chemicals like antiviral drugs (e.g. indinavir).

Design/approach:

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Modelling:

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Human Practices:

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Outreach:

The team engaged with communities across Sydney and Australia in the attempts to being a dialogue with the school, university, and general community about the importance of biological research, synthetic biology, and help encourage the next generation of leaders in science. We believe it is important to increase community involvement in scientific research, and generate discussion about topics such as recombinant DNA which are seen as controversial. As such, we spoke to multiple Rotary cubs, and schools. We were interviewed on the ABC Radio Science Show, were published in local papers, and presented at multiple science events across Sydney. Our greatest success was running a science writing and multimedia competition called Strange Nature which saw X entrants from across Australia.

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Achievements:

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Collaborations:

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