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Team:TUDelft/Brainstorm
From 2009.igem.org
Brainstorm Area
Interesting Links
Interesting Papers (provided by Domenico)
- Design and Construction of a Double Inversion Recombination Switch for Heritable Sequential Genetic Memory
- A tunable synthetic mammalian oscillator
- Programming gene expression with combinatorial promoters
- Photoreceptor Proteins, “Star Actors of Modern Times”: A Review of the Functional Dynamics in the Structure of Representative Members of Six Different Photoreceptor Families
- Environment-specific combinatorial cis-regulation in synthetic promoters
- Implementing Arithmetic and Other Analytic Operations By Transcriptional Regulation
- Engineering BioBrick vectors from BioBrick parts
- Model-guided design of ligand-regulated RNAi for programmable control of gene expression
- Diversity-based, model-guided construction of synthetic gene networks with predicted functions
Top 6 Ideas
- Salt water purification (Sriram)
- Buoyant Bacteria (Saeed) (Orr)
- Impuls Signal (Daniel) (Sriram)
- Melatonin Compensation (Saeed) (Tim)
- Microrganism Muscle (Daniel) (Tim) (Orr)
- Enzyme Modulation (Daniel) (Sriram)
The names behind the ideas indicates who is going to search background information on the subject and inspect the feasibility and application for the ideas.
Brainstorm Ideas
Impulse Signal
- one suggestion (by Federico C.) from the idea exchange was to create a self-destructing plasmid, which would express once and than destroy itself with a restriction endonuclease in its code.
Water Soluble Vitamin Production
- produce Vitamins B and C.
Stop Quorum Signalling -> Quenching AHL
- aiiA enzyme [1] already has a biobrick Part:BBa_C0060 but it is not secreted.
- Bonnie Bassler's research, inhibit quorum signaling with molecules structurally similar to AHL. Her recent TED Talk.
Biological Isotope Separation
- is it even possible?
- according to this book in section 2.6.5. [4], both chlorella algae and E.coli have isotope enrichment properties (hydrogen, deuterium). no references given.
- possible applications: remove radioactive isotopes from body (cancer treatments), separate heavy water from ocean water, remove carbon 14 and potassium 40 from body/food.
- another paper is Bioseparation of Lithium Isotopes by Using Microorganisms, Sakaguchi, Takashi | Tomita, Osamu, Resource and Environmental Biotechnology [Resour. Environ. Biotechnol.]. Vol. 3, no. 2-3, pp. 173-182. 2000. havent found a copy online.
Saltwater Purification
- + heavy metal extraction
- diatoms
- Dead Sea organisms
- Lyotropic liquid crystals - Lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) structures can be used as selective membranes to seperate between certain chemicals (e.g. removing salt molecules from water molecules). If it is possible, we could design a bacteria that would have the LLC as a membrane, culture this bacteria and put it in saltwater, so that it removes the salt from the water, and then remove the bacteria altogether. Question is, can LLC be used as a bacterial membrane?
Xylitol production
- already attempted, see [5]
Melatonin Compensation
- compensate the reduction in melatonin levels caused by the invention of electrical lights
- has been linked to lots of medical problems, see review paper The dark side of light at night: physiological, epidemiological, and ecological consequences
- would need to implement melatonin detection, synthesis, and a clock
New Antibiotic Cassettes
- Biobricks exist for Ampicillin, Kanamycin, Chloramphenicol, and Tetracycline.
- New biobricks needed (see TK:Wishlist), integrate into larger project?
- Cationic peptides, Rhodostreptomycins [6]
Paper Based Microfluidics with bacteria
- Improve the processing outlined in FLASH: A rapid method for prototyping paper-based microfluidic devices, see papers from Whitesides group at Harvard.
- use light sensor and output hydrophobic/hydrophilic chemicals that can coat the cellulose in the paper placed on an agar plate
Close proximity phage expression
- once a cell is close enough to a target, produce phages and explode
Anti-Venom System
- inject bacteria after being bitten
- sense which venom and produce proper anti-venom
Birth Control Yoghurt
- attacks sperm
- animal use
Buoyant Bacteria
- for metal extraction from old mines or ocean
Excrement Degradation Bacteria
- dog excrements degrades quickly
- can be used in as excrement degrader instead of waste tank in portable toilets or deodorizing excrements in chemical toilets
Additional Processing of Excretion for Energy
- Zero Growth -> convert everything to product
Targeted Delivery
- use THC for medical benefits without any psychoactive effects
microRNA and P53
- inhibit miRNA to increase activity of tumor-suppressor gene p53
- needs targeted delivery system
Synchronization -> Flashing Colony
- synchronized flashing
- covalent modification
Sensor Reporter Spatially Displaced
Kalman Filter
- integrate into larger project
Stopping a Cytokine storm
- something which could break the feedback loop in a cytokine storm
MicroOrganism muscle
- make a group of cells contract
