Team:Lethbridge

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Project Overview

The issues surrounding energy production are becoming more prominent with increasing environmental concerns and the rising cost of energy. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) use biological systems to produce an electrical current. Cyanobacteria are organisms which have been studied in MFCs and have been found to create a current, although not highly efficient (Tsujimura et al., 2001).

We wish to increase the efficiency of the cyanobacteria MFC by introducing microcompartments to create a BioBattery. The microcompartments are created by the production of the protein lumazine synthase forms icosahedral capsids. As a proof of principle we will create this system within Escherichia coli and target two different fluorescent proteins within the microcompartment to observe fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Furthermore, we will be exploring a novel method for the mass production of uniform nanoparticles, which is more efficient and cost effective than current methods.

References

Tsujimura, S., Wadano, A., Kano, K., and Ikeda, T., (2001). Photosynthetic bioelectrochemical cell utilizing cyanobacteria and water-generating oxidase. Enzyme and Microbial Technology. 29, 225-231

University of Lethbridge Sponsors

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-==University of Lethbridge Sponsors and Picking Local Potatoes==
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-Picking potatoes was fun and a good workout.
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-This is the first step.  The tractor digs up the potatoes
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-Many potatoes we found were shaped like hearts!
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-I was surprised they allowed me on the tractor!
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-Here is one of the many big piles!
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-Later we put piles in buckets to be weighed.
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-Some delicious greenhouse tomatoes