Team:SDU-Denmark/Project
Project
In this chapter you will be taken through the Bacto-Aid project detail, with an thorough description of the project and the motivation behind it. Then more detailed insight into the experiments of the project and last but not least the results of those experiments
Welcome to the SDU-Denmark 2016 iGEM team!
SDU’s iGEM project is the production of a bactericidal band-aid.
There are 4 subgoals we will try to accomplish:
(a) Production of biodegradable plastic
(b) Production of an antibiotic
(c) Production of spidersilk
(d) Combine the production of antibiotics with the production of the hybrid-silk.
We have chosen to split into 3 teams, that will focus on one goal each and combine it in the end.
One group will focus on trying to make an E.coli bacteria produce a desired antibiotic compound.
Another group will try to produce hybrid spidersilk, where the silk has bindingsites to the antimicrobial. Using spidersilk has many beneficial properties - it has been the center of interest in the medical world for a while now. And for good reason, it has been shown that our immune system doesn’t react towards this product and has extremely good flexibility as a material but also for eventual genetic manipulation. Our first goal will be trying to produce the spider silk with properties we choose to give it.
Polyetylentereftalat, also called PET, will be used as primary substrate for the group focusing on plastic. We recycle under 10% of the plastic in our world - therefore, this could be beneficial for solving the major pollution issues we are facing. Plastic does not degrade naturally, but it merely fragmentizes. Animals can’t tell the difference between a foodsource and a non-degradable product. Consequently, animals in all size ranges have been shown to feed on plastic, which clogs their system and eventually kills them.
Hydroxyalkanoat will be used as ground stone for different polyesters. We will probably use polyestren poly--hydroxybutyrat (PHB) due to our knowledge of its pathway. Others poly-hydroxyalcanoates can be synthetised, their properties depends on the size of the monomer.
As supreme goal, we would like to combine the bactericidal subproject with the silk part of the project. We would end up with a combined product consisting of silk and antibiotics produced by an E.coli.
We would like to be standing with a full functional band-aid in Boston in October.
