Team:Cornell/project/background

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<h6>Background</h6>
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<a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background">Overview</a>
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<a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background/oil_sands">Oil Sands</a>
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<a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background/oil_extraction">Oil Extraction</a>
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<a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background/health_effects">Health Effects</a>
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<a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background/environmental_concerns">Environmental Concerns</a>
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<h2 class="centered">Background Information</h2>
<h2 class="centered">Background Information</h2>
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<h3>What's Our Project All About?</h3>
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Canadian oil sands are a vast oil reserve that, given rising prices of petroleum, are an attractive alternative to traditional sources of crude oil. However, there are numerous public health and environmental concerns regarding the oil sands extraction process. One environmental concern is the contamination of Canadian watersheds by seepage from tailings ponds. To better monitor this issue, we have engineered a novel biosensing platform with the electroactive bacterial species <em>Shewanella oneidensis</em> MR-1, which has the unique capability to directly transfer electrons to solid-state electrodes. We exploit this feature by genetically manipulating <em>S. oneidensis</em> MR-1 to upregulate its metal-reduction capacity in the presence of analyte to generate direct current output in a whole-cell biosensor. Our goal is to develop a fully autonomous electrochemical biosensor that complements the current oil sands monitoring system by providing real-time data over extended periods of time. Furthermore, our device will circumvent the costs and complications of producing and maintaining photodiode circuits used for data acquisition in bioluminescent reporter systems by instead producing a direct electrical output. While our platform is adaptable to sensing a wide range of analytes, we will initially focus on arsenic-containing compounds and naphthalene,a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) – known contaminants of oil sands tailings ponds. We believe that our biosensor will be a valuable tool for remote,continuous, and long-term monitoring of pollutants in rivers and key watersheds.
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Cornell iGEM is developing a toolkit of genetic parts for engineering complex fungi, particularly plant-pathogenic basidiomycetes. This toolkit will provide future iGEM generations and scientists worldwide with a greater ability to work with these seldom studied organisms. We were inspired to do so by a local company, <a href="http://www.ecovativedesign.com/" target="_blank">Ecovative Design</a>, that is driven to “rid the world of toxic, unsustainable materials,” and thus uses lignin-degrading fungi and plant matter to produce a biodegradable Styrofoam substitute. Upon consulting the company on their production process, we  
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found that their production efficiency can sometimes suffer due to contamination from pathogenic molds, which inhibits the growth of the desired fungus and can compromise batches of material. We recognized that this problem could be solved with a genetic circuit that confers resistance to specific mold species, and we hoped to use such a genetic circuit to improve their existing eco-friendly biomaterial.  Because both industry and academia largely lack standardized fundamental tools for engineering fungi, we first had to develop a standardized toolkit. We seek to empower Ecovative and other organizations to improve the use of fungi to develop sustainable technologies.
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Latest revision as of 23:43, 5 November 2013

Cornell University Genetically Engineered Machines

Background Information


Cornell iGEM is developing a toolkit of genetic parts for engineering complex fungi, particularly plant-pathogenic basidiomycetes. This toolkit will provide future iGEM generations and scientists worldwide with a greater ability to work with these seldom studied organisms. We were inspired to do so by a local company, Ecovative Design, that is driven to “rid the world of toxic, unsustainable materials,” and thus uses lignin-degrading fungi and plant matter to produce a biodegradable Styrofoam substitute. Upon consulting the company on their production process, we
found that their production efficiency can sometimes suffer due to contamination from pathogenic molds, which inhibits the growth of the desired fungus and can compromise batches of material. We recognized that this problem could be solved with a genetic circuit that confers resistance to specific mold species, and we hoped to use such a genetic circuit to improve their existing eco-friendly biomaterial. Because both industry and academia largely lack standardized fundamental tools for engineering fungi, we first had to develop a standardized toolkit. We seek to empower Ecovative and other organizations to improve the use of fungi to develop sustainable technologies.

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