Latest revision as of 02:49, 22 October 2009

Our machine!

The Encapsulator

A key challenge in metabolic engineering is to improve productivity and yield. Potential applications range from the production of valuable compounds such as therapeutic molecules and biofuels to the degradation of toxic wastes. There is increasing recognition that spatial organization can play an important role in optimizing pathway efficiency. Specifically, the spatial co-localization of consecutive enzymes in a pathway can result in efficient translocation of substrates between enzymes, an effect known as enzyme "channeling". Here we report the design, modeling and construction of a bacterial micro-organelle based system for the targeted co-localization of selected enzymes. Our "Encapsulator" represents a fundamentally new class of parts which, in nature consist of metabolic enzymes encased within a multi-protein shell reminiscent of a viral capsid. Micro-compartments based on encapsulin (and similar proteins) represent an experimentally amenable system to investigate the effects of channeling in potential downstream applications.

Collaborations

We are proud to support our colleagues in València!

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<!-- *** What falls between these lines is the Alert Box!  You can remove it from your pages once you have read and understood the alert *** -->
+[[image:Top(nolink).png]]
+{| style="color:white;background-color:#99CCFF;" height:100px cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" align="center" class="menu"
-<html>
-<div id="box" style="width: 700px; margin-left: 137px; padding: 5px; border: 3px solid #000; background-color: #fe2b33;">
-<div id="template" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; color: #f6f6f6; padding: 5px;">
-This is a template page. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS.
-</div>
-<div id="instructions" style="text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: small; color: #f6f6f6; padding: 5px;">
-You are provided with this team page template with which to start the iGEM season.  You may choose to personalize it to fit your team but keep the same "look." Or you may choose to take your team wiki to a different level and design your own wiki.  You can find some examples <a href="https://2009.igem.org/Help:Template/Examples">HERE</a>.
-</div>
-<div id="warning" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: small; color: #f6f6f6; padding: 5px;">
-You <strong>MUST</strong> have a team description page, a project abstract, a complete project description, and a lab notebook.  PLEASE keep all of your pages within your teams namespace.
-</div>
-</div>
-</html>
-<!-- *** End of the alert box *** -->
-{|align="justify"
-|You can write a background of your team here.  Give us a background of your team, the members, etc.  Or tell us more about something of your choosing.
-|[[Image:Example_logo.png|200px|right|frame]]
-|-
-|
-''Tell us more about your project.  Give us background.  Use this is the abstract of your project.  Be descriptive but concise (1-2 paragraphs)''
-|[[Image:Team.png|right|frame|Your team picture]]
-|-
-|
-|align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery | Team Example]]
-|}
-<!--- The Mission, Experiments --->
-{| style="color:#1b2c8a;background-color:#0c6;" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" border="1" bordercolor="#fff" width="62%" align="center"
 !align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery|Home]]
 !align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Team|The Team]]
 !align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Project|The Project]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Parts|Parts Submitted to the Registry]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Parts|BioBricks]]
-!align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Modeling|Modeling]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Modeling|Modelling]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Bioinformatics|Bioinformatics]]
+!align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Safety|Safety]]
 !align="center"|[[Team:TorontoMaRSDiscovery/Notebook|Notebook]]
 |}
-(''Or you can choose different headings.  But you must have a team page, a project page, and a notebook page.'')
+<br>
+[[image:Team_logo_encapsulator.png|thumb|Our machine!]]
+=The Encapsulator=
+A key challenge in metabolic engineering is to improve productivity and yield.  Potential applications range from the production of valuable compounds such as therapeutic molecules and biofuels to the degradation of toxic wastes.  There is increasing recognition that spatial organization can play an important role in optimizing pathway efficiency.  Specifically, the spatial co-localization of consecutive enzymes in a pathway can result in efficient translocation of substrates between enzymes, an effect known as enzyme "channeling".  Here we report the design, modeling and construction of a bacterial micro-organelle based system for the targeted co-localization of selected enzymes.  Our "Encapsulator" represents a fundamentally new class of parts which, in nature consist of metabolic enzymes encased within a multi-protein shell reminiscent of a viral capsid.  Micro-compartments based on encapsulin (and similar proteins) represent an experimentally amenable system to investigate the effects of channeling in potential downstream applications.
+=Sponsored by:=
+<gallery>
+Image:Cagef_logo.jpg|Center for Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function
+Image:Skule-small.jpg|University of Toronto Engineering Society
+Image:skule-alumni-small.JPG|Engineering Society Alumni
+Image:CGPGBB_seqlogo_text.png|Collaborative Graduate Program in Genome Biology and Bioinformatics
+</gallery>
+=Collaborations=
+[[image:MarsMedal(small).png|left|frame|We are proud to support our colleagues in València!]]