Team:CSWProteens

From 2014hs.igem.org

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	Team CSWProteens

Team

The Cambridge School of Weston is located in Weston instead of Cambridge, Massachusetts in America. It is a progressive, co-educational, day and boarding school for students in grades 9 to 12 and post-graduate. Since the school's inception in 1886, it has been at the forefront of educational innovation.

Our teachers are passionate. And we are bold, thoughtful, and some of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet. We are The Cambridge School of Weston, CSW Proteens. We will rock the world upside down!

The team consists of 14 intelligent students who stand strong with the best instructors on the earth, Howard G. Goldswag and Melodie Knowlton. Oh, not gold swag but Goldsweig. It must have meant the same. The team is led by Joey Booties, sorry, Joseph Boots-Ebenfield actually, a courageous young lad who started the iGem team for the school from zero to infinity. The team members, Aiden Kolodziej, Jenny Woo, Matthew Waters, Ellie Wolf, Nate Williams, Joey Boots-Ebenfield, Noa Machover, Ben Klebe, Summer Ardell, Claire Kerper, Thomas Schaffner, Micah Rickles-Young, and Liam Kaufer. As united as the round table knights (if you ignore Lancelot) and as smart as Albert Einstein. Ah! And please don't forget the honored webpage editor Yixuan Liu. The editor was "honored" because he was too lazy to do anything. (Just kidding) :)

Project

Annually, about 5% to 15% of agricultural produce is lost due to frost. The formation of ice damages plants by rupturing cells and also through dehydration as water molecules are drawn out of tissue. Current solutions to this problem - such as using heat or covering crops with protective material - are cumbersome, costly, and not fully preventative. Synthetic antifreeze chemicals have not been proven to work. Even if they did, they would need to be applied repeatedly, at great cost, and may also leave residues in the environment. The CSW ProTeens aim to design a synthetic biology solution to this problem with a nonpathogenic strain of E. coli able to produce and secrete RiAFP (Rhagium inquisitor Antifreeze Protein) using a part that the Yale ‘11 iGEM team developed. RiAFP is an insect antifreeze protein from Rhagium inquisitor and the most efficient AFP known. RiAFP, unlike synthetic chemicals, should not be harmful if ingested. We are not sure yet whether this method is effective on an industrial scale and will need to test this. We wish to control the population of the E.coli by designing a kill switch mechanism that will prevent excessive growth as well as use a type 1 secretion system designed by the Utah State University ‘09 iGEM team to transport the protein directly to the extracellular space.

Notebook

Show us how you spent your days.

Results/Conclusions

What did you achieve over the course of your semester?

Safety

Safety is always an important thing for our team. When doing labs, at least one of our instructors is always with us. The lab is well equipped to ensure every team members' safety. We have thick gloves specially designed for preventing things from burning our hands. Goggles to prevent bad things spitting into our eyes. Rubber gloves ensure the sanity and our health. We also have a lab shower and an eye washer that will save our lives if we get into trouble with some dangerous chemicals. Moreover, we all have insurance so we won't pay out of our pockets if something bad happens ;)

Attributions

Who worked on what?

Human Practices

Fun!

What was your favorite team snack?? Have a picture of your team mascot?

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