Team:MSOE Milwaukee

From 2013.igem.org

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Project

Team

Design

Impact
The goal of our project is to use E.coli to produce Eucalyptol, the main component of Eucalyptus oil. This will be achieved by using the energy from the spent grains that are produced as a waste product from beer production here in Milwaukee. Our team consists of six undergraduate students and three faculty members. Each person is from the BioMolecular Engineering Department at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. There are three rising seniors, two rising juniors and one rising sophomore. We will be introducing eight genes into E.coli. They are divided into input and output genes. The input genes will break up hemicellulose from spent grains and make xylose. The output genes will introduce the Mevalonate Pathway into E.coli and convert Acetyl-CoA into Eucalyptol. Eucalyptol can be used as a fuel additive. It can be mixed with gasoline in a 8:1 ratio. If our modified E.coli can be mass produce to make Eucalyptol at an affordable rate, it may affect gas prices. We have modeled how a 10,000L reactor can produce a significant amount of Eucalyptol.