Team:Victoria Australia/Concept



The RMIT University iGEM (Victoria_Australia) team aims to build a biological lighting system via cell free transcription and translation (CFTnT). This project applies Synthetic Biology in a simple manner that could be efficient for everyday use. It was developed after the consideration of current energy and climate change issues. A CFTnT system was chosen because in principle, the lysate used in the CFTnT system may be prepared from any type of cell. Hence, the team thought it would be of merit to develop an alternative light source, which could possibly be powered by a waste material as simple as grass clippings (cell lysate). The team also hopes to address cellular and bioprocess problems that arise when employing a CFTnT system and is considering many novel approaches to creating a more sustainable system that can be scaled up for practical applications. Initial experiments conducted by Victoria_Australia will focus on two cell-free systems derived from Escherichia coli and wheat germ.