October 21, 2023
Estonia-TUIT # BeeYeast: Yeast Engineering to Fight Bee Viral Infections # Honey bees play a crucial role as pollinators that is essential for preserving biodiversity. They also yield valuable products such as honey and beeswax, integral to human livelihoods. Unfortunately, honey bee populations are globally declining, influenced by factors like pathogens, climate shifts, and excessive pesticide use. Among these challenges, the Deformed wing virus (DWV), primarily transmitted by mites, is particularly widespread and detrimental, causing the death of millions of bees annually.
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October 21, 2023
NCHU-Taichung # Reviving Pollination: The PQQ lighting up Bee’s Dilemma. # This project aims to investigate the impact of PQQ on bees in hopes of improving the current pollination crisis. PQQ, a highly valuable antioxidant, has been shown in previous research to enhance mitochondrial biogenesis, metabolic rate, and memory. However, feeding such an expensive compound to insects is impractical. In this iGEM project, we have introduced PQQ biosynthetic pathway into Bacillus subtilis natto.
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October 21, 2023
PatrasBio # Using synthetic biology and biotechnology methods for the preservation of the marble monuments # Bioerosion is defined as any undesirable change that occurs in a material and is due to the activity of microorganisms. This phenomenon threatens marble monuments around the world, therefore its limitation is a matter of paramount importance. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a diverse class of amphipathic molecules, produced by many tissues and cell types in a variety of invertebrates, plant and animal.
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October 21, 2023
SCAU-China # Queen Ant’s Assassin —— Efficient elimination of Solenopsis invicta queen by intestinal bacteria # Solenopsis invicta （Red imported fire ant, RIFA) stands as among the world’s most harmful invasive species, causing varying degrees of damage to health, agriculture, ecology, and infrastructure. Current control methods, relying mainly on chemicals and physics, fall short due to incomplete eradication, constraints, environmental risks, and human hazards. To counter these limitations, we developed the Queen Ant’s Assassin (QAA): a gene circuit driven by quorum sensing (QS) to release drugs to target and exterminate the RIFA queen precisely.
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October 21, 2023
thessaloniki # Euphoresis: a synbio soil-ution for forest conservation # In a period when the earth’s natural balance is heavily impacted by climate change, wildfires’ intensity and frequency have become a major issue for ecosystems. Their unprecedented severity heavily threatens forest plant life and biodiversity, while it also affects soil properties, leading to the reduction of organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogenic compounds, and hydrophobic structures’ formation that result in soil erosion and water runoff.
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October 21, 2023
Tianjin # Wind-up cell：A novel microbial biocontainment system using epigenetic-modification-based kill switch. # In synthetic biology, cells are redesigned into engineered microbes and we can see an increasing use of engineered organisms for various applications. This poses a risk of spreading genetically modified microorganisms into the environment, reducing biodiversity and disrupting existing ecological balance, hurting the ecosystem. To address these concerns, Tianjin 2023 project, “Wind-up Cell: A Novel Microbial Biocontainment System Using an Epigenetic-Modification-Based Kill Switch,” introduces a novel application scenario, making the applications of synthetic biology safer.
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October 21, 2023
UBC-Okanagan # ImmuniBee # The global bee population decline is critical, harming agriculture and the environment. Honeybees, the most widely distributed bee, are also affected. The presence of Deformed Wing Virus is a major contributor, causing deformities and leading to Colony-Collapse-Disorder. Not only causing losses for beekeepers, but honeybee infections also pose a threat to native bees and pollinators as reservoirs and carriers of disease. Our goal is to develop the world’s first treatment for bee viruses leveraging our understanding of bee immune systems and synthetic biology.
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October 21, 2023
UniMuenster # BeeVAX. Don’t let the buzz become silent. # The conservation of biodiversity is an important task to tackle for a future worth living. This includes the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, which is responsible for the pollination of 75% of the world’s crop cultivation. However, the honey bee is threatened by the Varroa mite, a parasite that feeds of the bee’s hemolymph and thereby transmits other diseases, such as the Deformed Wing Virus.
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