Team:Harvard BioDesign
Project Description
The Harvard iGEM team began our brainstorming sessions during the late spring. We had a massive brainstorming session where we generated topics to investigate, and in the following weeks, scoured the internet for previous research relating to these topics. We met a few more times to discuss what we had found. After narrowing our search down to 4 projects, we wrote mini proposals to present each idea to the rest of the team. At the beginning of the summer, we continued our project planning with one project: Breaking PET. In Breaking PET, we hope to engineer a biological system that breaks down PET, a molecule which makes up one sixth of plastic products (source). Our project is grounded in research done by the Oda group at Kyoto Institute of Technology. In the paper “A bacteria that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate)”, they describe a bacteria found at a bottle recycling plant that has the ability to metabolize PET. From this paper, we found enzyme sequences for the two enzymes thought responsible for PET degradation: PETase and MHETase. PETase breaks down PET into the compound MHET, or mono(2-hydroxylethyl)terephthalic acid. MHETase further breaks down MHET into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. The discovery of these two enzymes is exciting because, unlike other PET degrading enzymes, PETase and MHETase are dedicated to the role of PET degradation. Additionally, PETase has been shown to have a degrading efficiency 120 times greater than alternative enzymes. (source) Our project aims to use E Coli transformed with PETase and MHETase to break down PET and generate electricity. We will create BioBricks for PETase and MHETase and characterize these parts against enzymes used in previous PET degrading iGEM projects. Additionally, we hope to engineer a secretion system for these enzymes. We will also attempt to make a bioreactor/microbial fuel cell to generate electricity from the products of the PET degradation process.
Welcome to iGEM 2016!
Your team has been approved and you are ready to start the iGEM season!
Before you start:
Please read the following pages:
Styling your wiki
You may style this page as you like or you can simply leave the style as it is. You can easily keep the styling and edit the content of these default wiki pages with your project information and completely fulfill the requirement to document your project.
While you may not win Best Wiki with this styling, your team is still eligible for all other awards. This default wiki meets the requirements, it improves navigability and ease of use for visitors, and you should not feel it is necessary to style beyond what has been provided.
Wiki template information
We have created these wiki template pages to help you get started and to help you think about how your team will be evaluated. You can find a list of all the pages tied to awards here at the Pages for awards link. You must edit these pages to be evaluated for medals and awards, but ultimately the design, layout, style and all other elements of your team wiki is up to you!
Editing your wiki
On this page you can document your project, introduce your team members, document your progress and share your iGEM experience with the rest of the world!
Tips
This wiki will be your team’s first interaction with the rest of the world, so here are a few tips to help you get started:
- State your accomplishments! Tell people what you have achieved from the start.
- Be clear about what you are doing and how you plan to do this.
- You have a global audience! Consider the different backgrounds that your users come from.
- Make sure information is easy to find; nothing should be more than 3 clicks away.
- Avoid using very small fonts and low contrast colors; information should be easy to read.
- Start documenting your project as early as possible; don’t leave anything to the last minute before the Wiki Freeze. For a complete list of deadlines visit the iGEM 2016 calendar
- Have lots of fun!
Inspiration
You can also view other team wikis for inspiration! Here are some examples:
Uploading pictures and files
You can upload your pictures and files to the iGEM 2016 server. Remember to keep all your pictures and files within your team's namespace or at least include your team's name in the file name.
When you upload, set the "Destination Filename" to Team:YourOfficialTeamName/NameOfFile.jpg. (If you don't do this, someone else might upload a different file with the same "Destination Filename", and your file would be erased!)
