Synthetic Biology Project Examples
http://2010.igem.org/Main_Page
GCAT Synthetic Biology Workshop
July 8, 2010
Medicine
Energy
Environment
Technology
GCAT Synthetic Biology Workshop
July 8, 2010
Medicine
Synthetic Biology Offers New
Hope For Malaria Victims
March 24, 2004
“In a preview of things to come from the fledgling scientific
field of "synthetic biology," researchers with Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory's Physical Biosciences Division (PBD) and
the University of California at Berkeley's Chemical Engineering
Department are developing a simple and much less expensive
means of making one of the most promising and potent of all the
new antimalarial drugs.”
March 4, 2004
According to the WHO, each year nearly 500 million
people become infected with malaria, and nearly three
million — mostly children — die from it.
The leaves of Artemisia annua, the sweet wormwood tree, are the
source of artemisinin. Although lethal to all known strains of
malaria, the drug is produced in small quantities; extracting it from
the leaves is an expensive process.
Although this tree can grow in many places, it only produces
artemisinin under specific agricultural and climatological
conditions. China is one of the areas where artemisinin is
produced, and the Chinese have been using it in the herbal
medicine ginghaosu for more than 2000 years.
The idea behind the Synthetic Biology Department at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Physical
Biosciences Division is “to design and construct novel
organisms and biologically-inspired systems that can solve
problems natural biological systems cannot, and also provide
new information about living cells.”
-- PBD director Graham Fleming
"By inserting genes from three separate organisms into the E.
coli, we're creating a bacterial strain that can produce the
artemisinin precursor, amorphadiene. We are now attempting
to clone the remaining genes needed for the E. coli to produce
artemisinin." -- chemical engineering professor Jay Keasling
Keasling and his research group
transplanted genes from yeast
and from the sweet wormwood
tree into the bacterium, then
bypassed E. coli's metabolic
pathways and engineered a new
one based on a metabolic
pathway in yeast. As a result of
their efforts, the yield of the
artemisinin precursor
amorphadiene in that laboratory
strain of E. coli was increased
by 10,000 times.
To boost production, scientists need to be able to purify chemicals
from fast growing, fast producing microorganisms such as cultured
yeast and bacteria. So Jay Keasling and his colleagues genetically
engineered yeast to produce the proteins required for the myriad
metabolic pathways required to manufacture artemisinin.
A big problem was low yield. The proteins produced
intermediates in the artemisinin pathway, but these intermediate
chemicals would often accumulate and harm the cell. The
solution was a scaffold, a physical method to link the proteins
to keep them in close proximity to each other. That way, when
the first protein produced an intermediate, that intermediate
would be picked up by the second protein, waiting nearby, and
converted into the second intermediate, and so forth, until
artemisinin was produced.
Energy
2008 Project by Harvard iGEM Team
http://2008.igem.org/Team:Harvard
Shewanella oneidensis MR-1
Four 2009 iGEM Projects
http://2009.igem.org/Team:HKU-HKBU
http://2009.igem.org/Team:HKU-HKBU/Assembly#Step_6._Using_the_Speed_Controller
http://2009.igem.org/Team:HKU-HKBU/Assembly#Step_6._Using_the_Speed_Controller
pyruvic acid------> carbon dioxide + acetaldehyde ------>ethanol
http://2009.igem.org/Project#Project_1
http://2009.igem.org/Team:TzuChiU_Formosa
http://2009.igem.org/Team:Wash_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbzObmQKJSo
Environment
Arsenic Biosensor
Edinburgh iGEM 2006
Poison Water
• Arsenic poisoning affects
100 million people
• Serious in Bangladesh
• Wells tap sedimentary layer
with Arsenic
• 1 in 4 wells contaminated
• Testing methods expensive,
require instruments and expertise
Simple Design
• INPUT Arsenate/Arsenite binds to arsR Repressor
• Derepression of lacZ gene
• Lactose metabolism causes H+ production
• OUTPUT lower pH of medium
Complex Design
• INPUT Arsenate/Arsenite binds to ArsR Repressor
•Genetic circuit used to control LacZ and Urease production
• OUTPUT is low, neutral, or high pH
Range of Outputs
If no arsenic is present: Urease raises the pH to 9-10
If 5 ppb arsenic is present: Repressor shuts down
Urease, pH remains neutral, pH 7
If 20 ppb arsenic is present: LacZ produced, pH 4.5
Project Summary
Our team have designed and modelled a biosensor that
can detect several different concentrations of arsenic and
emit a pH signal in response. The device can detect the
WHO guideline level of 10 ppb and the Bangladeshi
standard of 50 ppb for arsenic in drinking water. A proof of
concept Biobrick construct has shown a pH response to a
concentration of arsenic of 5 ppb.
Edinburgh iGEM 2006
Awards: Best Real World Application, Best Poster
Technology
http://parts.mit.edu/igem07/index.php/Peking
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NOR Logic Gate
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Best NOR gate
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The E.ncapsulator
Imperial College, 2009
Valencia, 2009