October 21, 2023
BostonU-HW # APUS: The Automated Plug-and-Playable µ-fluidic System for Cellular Communication # The academic study of Synthetic Biology revolves around reengineering biological processes to create innovative solutions. Importantly, this field involves using microorganisms and microbiomes for new therapies in healthcare. Moreover, microbes can be engineered to produce therapeutic compounds and help treat conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and mental health disorders. However, testing and identifying microbial therapeutic signaling pathways provides a significant challenge due to the vast possibilities of combinations.
...
October 21, 2023
Freiburg # CELLECT - Self-Regulating System to Ensure Phenotypic Stability in Microbial Cultures # Phenotypic instability in microbial cultures severely limits the applicability of synthetic biology. Be it for plastic degradation or vitamin synthesis, persistent gene expression is a must. Therefore, we have created CELLECT, an innovative autoregulatory system that makes microbial survival dependent on the existence of a target molecule. The system integrates a riboswitch, specific to the target compound, linked to a toxin-antitoxin mechanism that regulates cell survival.
...
October 21, 2023
Gifu # Crispr ageinst resistance # Our Gifu team is focused on addressing future antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections using the Cas system. We aim to eliminate the genes contributing to this resistance, thus neutralizing the bacteria’s defense and halting their spread. The CRISPR-MultiTargeter tool aids in designing gRNAs targeting common parts of these bacteria, ensuring effectiveness despite mutations. We aspire to integrate this system into phages for efficient phage therapy, offering a novel approach to counteracting the escalating issue of drug-resistant bacteria.
...
October 21, 2023
Harvard # E.CoDROP: Rapid Production of ATPS Droplet-Suspended Cell-Free Extract Systems # Research and diagnostic tools for high-throughput molecular detection can typically target only a single analyte or class of analytes at a time. One approach to addressing this shortcoming is suspending cell-free expression (CFE) detection systems in aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) droplets, then spatially assembling different protocell droplets into an assay capable of detecting diverse analytes. However, this approach necessitates costly preparation of cell-free lysates.
...
October 21, 2023
HBUT-China # Metabolic design of Corynebacterium glutamicum by CRISPR-MAD7 for lycopene production using glucose from straw # Lycopene is a carotenoid pigment found abundantly in various fruits and vegetables, particularly in tomatoes. In addition to its role as a natural pigment, lycopene has gained increasing recognition for its potential applications in functional foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. C. glutamicum is an excellent platform organism for white biotechnology with its advantageous traits, such as rapid growth, genetic stability, well-studied genetic background for recombinant engineering, which make it a superior choice to produce lycopene.
...
October 21, 2023
IISER-Mohali # PathoGlow - DNAzyme based Pathogen Detection and Organic Logic Circuits # Our groundbreaking project revolves around pioneering a novel detection technique fine tuned for DNA and RNA sequences, with a primary focus on swiftly identifying pathogens. Conventional detection methods often fall short when it comes to precision and speed, leading to delayed diagnoses and treatment delays. In stark contrast, our approach harnesses the extraordinary capabilities of DNAzymes – enzymes developed from single-stranded DNA.
...
October 21, 2023
IIT-Madras # Synthopedia # The absence of many genetic and regulatory libraries in unconventional chassis makes building genetic circuits and assemblies extremely difficult. There is an emerging need to explore new chassis which may be naturally adapted to unique traits or metabolic pathways. Lactococcus lactis (L. lactis) is one such ‘Generally Regarded As Safe’ (GRAS) organism that produces a range of products. Since the ability to fine-tune gene expression forms a cornerstone for the design and operation of genetic circuits, our project intends to construct and test a library of synthetic 5’ Untranslated Regions (UTR) containing Ribosome binding sites (RBS) in L.
...
October 21, 2023
Latvia-Riga # Full Circle: Advancing Cyclic Peptide production using BURP Domain proteins # BURP domains are a class of plant proteins that catalyze the cyclization of small peptide motifs, that have a potential to generate cyclic peptide therapeutics, antimicrobials and insecticides. Our goal is to produce functional recombinant BURP domain proteins in order to perform cyclisation of diverse (natural, engineered) peptide substrates. This would demonstrate a useful platform for realising the bioactive potential of cyclic peptides.
...
October 21, 2023
Marburg # Expanding the range of transformable non-model plants through the development of synbio tools for Agrobacterium # The looming threat of climate change poses an immediate risk to the global food supply. This makes the development of reliable tools for plant synbio critical, if we are to successfully produce climate resistant crops. Despite their urgency, plant synbio projects are rather scarce in iGEM due to the exceptionally hard process of plant transformation.
...
October 21, 2023
NJU-China # Pymaker: AI modified yeast promoter # Data is the biggest obstacle in the application of artificial intelligence. For biotechnology, acquiring data means a significant investment of manpower, time, and financial resources. In reality, often only tens of thousands of data points are accessible, while high-performance AI requires data on a scale of at least a million. To cross over the gap of data requirement, we innovatively employed the paradigm of ‘pre-train + fine-tuning’, and aimed at the key component of synthetic biology—promoters.
...