Edinburgh/Ideas
From 2007.igem.org
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One of the main problems with releasing GM organisms into the environment is their ability to persist and interbreed with non GM organisms of the same species. One idea was to generate E. coli which could only divide for a certain number of generations before dying, removing its self from the ecosystem. | One of the main problems with releasing GM organisms into the environment is their ability to persist and interbreed with non GM organisms of the same species. One idea was to generate E. coli which could only divide for a certain number of generations before dying, removing its self from the ecosystem. | ||
| - | This system must be fail safe | + | This system must be fail safe. |
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| + | It was pointed out that the DNA would have to be destroyed with the host or other bacteria may pick up the genetically engineered DNA, defeating the purpose of the kill-switch. | ||
== Self flavouring yogurt == | == Self flavouring yogurt == | ||
Revision as of 09:36, 15 June 2007
Current Ideas of Possible Projects. Please note that this is not an exclusive list of every idea, it has been summarised a bit (with things like killer bees that target terrorists removed)
Contents |
Drug Synthesis
Alternative synthesis routs
Synthesis of drugs that are hard to produce in nature
- Taxol
- an anticancer drug, which is extracted from the pacific yew tree or semi-synthesised from European yew needle extracts, at a cost of $6000 per treatment.
- Immunosuppressants
- cyclosporin
- rapamycin
MRSA
MRSA is becoming a major health problem within our hospitals, with the number of deaths rising from 148 in 1993 to over 500 in 1999. There are several natural compounds that have been discovered, which lower the resistance of MRSA to antibiotics, enabling its irradiation. Epicatechin gallate and totarol both inhibit the penicillin binding protein, and lower the resistance of MRSA to methicillin. Is it plausible to engineer bacteria, which synthesis and release these two molecules within air conditioning systems and other hard to clean areas?
Bioremediation
There are many areas of the world with contaminated soils, such as Chile, which has problems with the heavy metals antimony, copper and arsenic.
Removal of Contaminants
Immobilisation of Heavy metals
conversion of uranium and other heavy metals to insoluble metal phosphates or reduced states, which can easily be separated out or immobilised in the ground.
There appears to be several groups researching this area at the moment, and several have published articles on the conversion.
Whist the immobilisation of heavy metals in the ground is good in terms of keeping them out of the water table, it will not help with uranium or any other radioactive substances.
Plants
Remove uranium and other heavy metal contamination from soils.
There are already several bioremediation tools available on the market to remove heavy metal contamination, but these do not have an output system to tell you whether they have done their job. One idea was to create plants that bioilluminesce to make the harvesting of plants which have adsorbed an acceptable level of heavy metals easier.
This would involve engineering plants to uptake uranium from the soil, then being harvested and safely disposed - have not yet looked into this idea in much detail as we weren't sure of the feasibility of working with plants.
Gathering of Micro-Organisms
Another idea was to create micro-organisms that aggregate together for easy removal, once they have adsorbed an acceptable level of heavy metals.
Safety Issues
We cant just release genetically manipulated organisms into the wild to help clean up the environment for a number of reasons. Possible things to consider:
Danger of mutation and effecting environment in adverse ways
Looking at Deinococcus radiodurans with multiple genomes to see if the resistance to radiation can be applied to other organisms and reduce the chance of mutations occurring
Danger of continuing to live after the job is done
One of the main problems with releasing GM organisms into the environment is their ability to persist and interbreed with non GM organisms of the same species. One idea was to generate E. coli which could only divide for a certain number of generations before dying, removing its self from the ecosystem.
This system must be fail safe.
It was pointed out that the DNA would have to be destroyed with the host or other bacteria may pick up the genetically engineered DNA, defeating the purpose of the kill-switch.
Self flavouring yogurt
Idea is to create lactobacilli or acidophillus which are capable of flavouring as well as producing yogurt, to cut down on the number of steps required in yogurt production. Could have a multitude of colours and flavours engineered into the bacteria, such as the traditional strawberry, chocolate and banana and the less common mint, jaffa cake and coffee.
- I don't fancy trying to fill out the risk assessment on tasting it though --Amar 07:33, 14 June 2007 (EDT)
Bacterial Blood
With the problems present with blood transfusions and blood shortages, would it be possible to produce bacterial blood? Would it be easiest to produce just type O blood type, which can be used by all recipients, or to create a full range of blood types. Also sterile production of blood would reduce the risk of people contracting blood borne diseases from unhealthy donors.
Bacterial Insulin Sensor
For those afraid of needles Why inject your self with insulin, when you could have a bacterial colony living under your skin that monitors blood sugar levels and releases the correct levels of insulin in response.
