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Our Project
| The objective for our school’s first iGEM project is to create a heat activated olfactory biosensor. Using E.coli NEB10-beta as a chassis, when exposed to temperatures of 37°C to 42°C, our biosensor will emit a wintergreen smell. The wintergreen smell will be quite faint at 37°C and strong at 42°C. Using salicylic acid as a fuel the E.coli will produce an enzyme that catalyzes a reaction—a product of this reaction is methyl salicylate, which smells like wintergreen. | |
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Parts BBa_K098995/BBa_J45119
To create this biosensor, we will place a wintergreen odour enzyme generator (BBa_J45119) downstream from a heat sensitive promoter (BBa_KO98995). Once the two biobricks have been engineered into a single plasmid, the plasmid can than be inserted into competent E.coli NEB10-beta. An example of an application for this project is the use of this biosensor as a promoter when using bacteria to produce endothermic reactions to prevent overheating. The promoter would enable all parts downstream from it to function, and the wintergreen smell would indicate that the promoter is in fact allowing for the functioning of other biobricks. A similar use would be the use of our project in a self-regulating temperature-dependant system similar to a thermostat. |
| A considered long-term project related to our first project is creating a thermal-wavelength biosensor. This endeavour—detailed in the image below—would require the input of both heat and red or blue wavelengths. With the first project providing team members with the knowledge and skills to modify DNA, we could then continue on the path of using bacteria in increasingly complex circuits to more effectively sense and respond to the environment. |
