Team:Wash U

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Revision as of 17:40, 22 June 2009

Welcome to Washington University's 2009 iGEM Team page!
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Our Team

Our Project

Team

The first ever Washington University iGEM team is composed of nine undergraduate juniors and seniors majoring in Biology, Molecular Biology and Bioechmisty, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Under the leadership of Dr. Blankenship (Biology and Chemistry departments) our team plans to synthetically regulate expression of the photosynthetic apparatus, which we believe is a first for both iGEM and synthetic biology. To learn more about our highly motivated and well-trained team, please click here.

Project

Our goal for this project is to increase photosynthetic efficiency in the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides by altering the regulation of the light harvesting antenna LH2. This antenna complex surrounds and harvests photons for the reaction center, where light energy is converted to chemical energy. We plan to utilize a synthetic light sensing system that will result in an output of a low number of LH2 complexes at high light intensities and a greater number of LH2 complexes at low light intensities. This project is intended to serve as a proof in principle that light harvesting antenna sizes may be synthetically and dynamically tailored to incidental light intensity in order to increase photosynthetic efficiency in a bioreactor. To learn more about our project, please click here.

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-Our goal for this project is to modify the purple bacteria, Rhodobacter Sphaeroides, and thereby increase the efficiency of its photosynthetic pathway.  The reaction center of the photosystem (where light photons are converted to chemical energy) is surrounded by antenna complexes which feed energy into the reaction center.  Low light conditions favor a larger number of antenna molecules while more intense lighting calls for fewer.  We will attempt to insert a light sensor into the pathway to create a more dynamic antenna size and which will increase the overall efficiency of the cell.  To learn more about our project, please click [https://2009.igem.org/Team:Wash_U/Project here].
+Our goal for this project is to increase photosynthetic efficiency in the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides
+by altering the regulation of the light harvesting antenna LH2.  This antenna complex surrounds and harvests photons for the reaction center, where light energy is converted to chemical energy.  We plan to utilize a synthetic light sensing system that will result in an output of a low number of LH2 complexes at high light intensities and a greater number of LH2 complexes at low light intensities.  This project is intended to serve as a proof in principle that light harvesting antenna sizes may be synthetically and dynamically tailored to incidental light intensity in order to increase photosynthetic efficiency in a bioreactor. To learn more about our project, please click [https://2009.igem.org/Team:Wash_U/Project here].