WELCOME TO iGEM 2014!

Your team has been approved and you are ready to start the iGEM season!
On this page you can document your project, introduce your team members, document your progress
and share your iGEM experience with the rest of the world!

Chitosan is a polysaccharide found in abundance in shrimp shell. The current extraction methods involve the use of strong acids and alkalis, these substances are dangerous wastes that can compromise the integrity of soil and water where they are disposed.

Due to its stability and biocompatibility, chitosan has been widely used in pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries, among many others. The Chitosan global market has an estimated value of $20 billion USD. Particularly, the pharmaceutical industry represents on average 1.2% of total GDP in Mexico and has grown at a 10% rate since 2008.

Therefore, it is imperative to develop a new and efficient extraction process, that is also eco-friendly. We’ve developed a new process that consists in the pretreatment of shrimp shells, followed by a fermentation in which it is demineralized and deproteinized by B. subtilis. Finally, it goes through a deacetylation process in a fermentation performed by our genetically modified E. coli strain. This modified bacterium contains 6 different enzymes that are found naturally in microorganisms that are capable of cutting and deacetylating chitin for the generation of chitosan. The action of these enzymes and a careful temperature treatment will allow us to generate chitosan with a 90% deacetylation degree. This deacetylation degree is the required one by the pharmaceutical industry, our target market.

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Requirements

Please be sure to keep these links, your audience will want to find your:

• Home
• Team
• Official Team Profile
• Project
• Parts
• Modeling
• Notebook
• Safety
• Attributions

There are a few wiki requirements teams must follow:

• All pages, images and files must be hosted on the 2014.igem.org server.
• All pages must be created under the team’s name space.
• As part of your documentation, keep the links from the menu to the left.
• Do not use flash in wiki code.
• The iGEM logo should be placed on the upper part of every page and should link to 2014.igem.org.

Visit the Wiki How To page for a complete list of requirements, tips and other useful information.

Tips

We are currently working on providing teams with some easy to use design templates.
In the meantime you can also view other team wikis for inspiration! Here are some very good examples

• 2013 SDU Denmark
• 2013 SYSU China
• 2013 Shenxhen BGIG ATCG
• 2013 Colombia Unianades
• 2013 Lethbridge

For a full wiki list, you can visit iGEM 2013 web sites and iGEM 2012 web sites lists.

This wiki will be your team’s first interaction with the rest of the world, so here are a few tips to help you get started:

• State your accomplishments! Tell people what you have achieved from the start.
• Be clear about what you are doing and what you plan to do.
• You have a global audience! Consider the different backgrounds that your users come from.
• Make sure information is easy to find; nothing should be more than 3 clicks away.
• Avoid using very small fonts and low contrast colors; information should be easy to read.
• Start documenting your project as early as possible; don’t leave anything to the last minute before the Wiki Freeze. For a complete list of deadlines visit the iGEM 2013 calendar
• Have lots of fun!