IGEM:MIT/2007/Updated Ideas

Estrogen Biosensor

 * some articles:
 * Bacterial biosensor of endocrine modulators
 * A yeast sensor of ligand binding
 * Biosensor for estrogen in water samples

sticky project:
input:
 * temperature (cold shock / heat shock promoters)
 * light (either via light sensitive transcription/translation or photo-induced chemistry)
 * cell growth (stationary phase, log phase)
 * cell type (if growing different strains)
 * metal ion (metal sensitive promoter)
 * estrogen (ER binding domain)
 * cre/lox recombination

parts:
 * mussel peptide fused to circularly permuted OmpX (surface display protein, see Rice07)
 * need tyrosine hydroxylase to convert tyrosine to L-DOPA (hydroxylation)? can also occur non-enzymatically (reversible)
 * need tyrosinase to convert L-DOPA to DOPA-quinone (oxidation)? can also occur non-enzymatically (reversible) -- heavy metal ions (like copper) can catalyze...
 * polystyrene peptide fused to OmpX

output:
 * stick to specific surface (plastic, polystyrene, etc)
 * stick nonspecifically (noncovalently) to surface (mussel peptide in reduced DOPA form)
 * crosslink and stick (covalently) to surface and each other (mussel peptide in oxidized quinone form)

output apps:
 * microbial biofilms/membranes
 * bacterial photo-lithography (light-induced glueing)
 * population separations
 * sensor readout
 * "Enhanced Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metal Ions by Bacterial Cells Due to Surface Display of Short Metal Binding Peptides" Check out refs about bacteria that "bioprecipitate" heavy metal ions

articles on heavy metal adhesion:
 * 


 * Some applications of bacterial glue (from news)

Fiber-Hungry Bacteria Could Form Natural "Bond" With Wood Industry (Jul 2004)

Bacterial Glue Could Become Medical Adhesive (Apr 2006)

Water Decontamination Application Example (Smart Filtration System)

 * Forrest:
 * Water is collected from a river (or other source) into a filtration setup
 * Bacteria is added to the water
 * The bacteria bind to or take in metals or other pollutants (input 1: detection/uptake of pollutant)
 * Input causes bacteria to be able to bind to the filter material (output 1: stickiness to filter material)
 * The water is now pollutant-free (can be put back into the river or otherwise used, etc)
 * The filter can be cleaned by rinsing/soaking it with water while shining light on it (input 2: light)
 * This second input causes the bacteria to unbind from the filter material (output 2: loss of stickiness to filter material)


 * Bernice:
 * Bacteria lights up when on filter material (perhaps at a certain concentration)
 * When filter glows to a certain extent, we know it's time to change the filter
 * Forrest: could we just add dye to the bacteria to stain it a certain color?

Toxic Metals: Arsenic, Beryllium, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chronium, Lead, Mercury

Toxic Metal Exposure

Organic pollutants: Benzene, toluene, xylene, formaldehyde

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

Charles River remediation efforts

Group eyes lawsuit over Charles River pollution

Organic Compounds in the Charles River

Creating a Hypothetical Martian Ecosystem

 * Using photosynthetic bacteria to make oxygen on Mars


 * Fungus eats radiation for breakfast


 * Syntrophus aciditrophicus (extreme bacteria) has had its genome sequenced


 * Geobacter bacterium has environmental restorative capabilities

Photoreceptor Bacteria

 * E. Coli that derive their energy from light
 * [[Media:liphardt.pdf]]