2013

Mission: Continue Last Year’s Success, with a side of ‘Save the World’

Last year, the CSU iGEM team’s gluten-free beer project and its potential for success in the brewing industry in Fort Collins (and beyond) set the bar quite high for the 2013 team here at CSU. All but one of the student team members were new to the iGEM competition, and this combination of factors meant that our new project had to be one that would make substantial waves at the Toronto jamboree. The first week of summer was spent learning about past iGEM projects and the parts/devices at our disposal, as well as brainstorming possible projects that would be both feasible and practical to pursue. We had many strong contenders, from transcription factors that led to production of specific light pigments, capable of being read by computers that would make synthetic biology a digital process, to droplets consumers could place in their drinks at bars that would change color and fluoresce in the presence of any unwanted drugs. At the beginning of week two, we decided to pursue three different projects.

Our Projects

The first project involved desalination of water using S. cerevisiae modified to sequester and store salt within its vacuole. Read more about this globally-relevant idea here.

The second project was the inflation of a bicycle inner tube using yeast, culturally relevant to bike-friendly Fort Collins. Read more about this project here.

The third project was an extension of last year’s development of gluten-free beer using modified yeast to break down gluten during the brewing process. Read more about our gluten-free mission here.

RamStrong

We proudly roam the steepest and most treacherous mountain sides, looking for adventure, and exploring whatever comes our way. We do not back down from challenges, instead we charge them head on. Although we do occasionally clash heads, we power through our disagreements, because... we are the CSU Rams!!!