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From 2013.igem.org

Title

The Beast and its Achilles Heel®

Abstract

Since the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, antibiotics have marked a major victory of mankind in the battle against infectious diseases. However, after 90 years, the antibiotics are now losing their old time glory: Bacteria acquire resistance against antibiotics and become unbridled. We must control the use of antibiotics, meanwhile, we need new antibiotics, which can suffiently eliminate the invaders without hurting the "good" bacteria. Therefore, c-di-AMP, an important, recently discovered signaling molecule in gram-positive bacteria, has come to our sight. Our project is to build a screening system targeting c-di-AMP, which could be applied in novel-drug screening. With this system, the level of c-di-AMP in the cell can be visualised and measured.

Project Abstract and Title

Project Title: Anti the Cold - YeasTherm®
Project Abstract: In Taiwan, fish farmers lose a large amount of fish because temperature falls dramatically when cold current comes in winter. Of course, fish farmers try to prevent fish from death dying; however, the current methods do not work well. Moreover, they cause damage to the environment. In 2013 iGEM competition, NTU-Taiwan team tries to make a bio-heating device. We transform the UCP (uncoupling protein) or AOX (alternative oxidase) gene into yeast and E.coli. UCP and AOX are thermogenins which can produce heat by interacting with the electron transport chain. By designing the gene circuit, we want to well control the power of the bio-heating device. In addition, we want to simulate the pound environment in reality by computer and the test results after using our device in low temperature.