Team:Harvard BioDesign/Project

From 2014.igem.org

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<p> For the 2014 iGEM competition, the Harvard team aims to adapt E. coli biofilms into an information encoding and storage system. E. coli cells naturally secrete a protein called curli into their extracellular matrix that self-assembles into ordered, linear, amyloid fibers important for the structural integrity of the biofilm. In our system, bacteria will be engineered to produce a variety of curli subunits in response to environmental inputs. </p>
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<p>Curli fibers are polymers composed of a repeating protein subunit CsgA. CsgA, in addition to associated chaperone and nucleation proteins, is produced by the cell and exported through its inner and outer membranes into the extracellular space, where they grow from the cell membrane. These fibers are exceptionally durable, requiring harsh treatment in formic acid to disassemble and can sustain extreme temperatures. These characteristics of curli create an ideal medium for encoding information. Living materials offer an advantage over classical materials because they are adaptable, versatile, and can self-pattern complex architectures. </p>
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<h3>References </h3>
<h3>References </h3>

Revision as of 02:58, 16 August 2014



HARVARD iGEM 2014!

PROJECT


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Project Description

Content

For the 2014 iGEM competition, the Harvard team aims to adapt E. coli biofilms into an information encoding and storage system. E. coli cells naturally secrete a protein called curli into their extracellular matrix that self-assembles into ordered, linear, amyloid fibers important for the structural integrity of the biofilm. In our system, bacteria will be engineered to produce a variety of curli subunits in response to environmental inputs.

Curli fibers are polymers composed of a repeating protein subunit CsgA. CsgA, in addition to associated chaperone and nucleation proteins, is produced by the cell and exported through its inner and outer membranes into the extracellular space, where they grow from the cell membrane. These fibers are exceptionally durable, requiring harsh treatment in formic acid to disassemble and can sustain extreme temperatures. These characteristics of curli create an ideal medium for encoding information. Living materials offer an advantage over classical materials because they are adaptable, versatile, and can self-pattern complex architectures.


References

iGEM teams are encouraged to record references you use during the course of your research. They should be posted somewhere on your wiki so that judges and other visitors can see how you though about your project and what works inspired you.

You can use these subtopics to further explain your project

  1. Overall project summary
  2. Project Details
  3. Materials and Methods
  4. The Experiments
  5. Results
  6. Data analysis
  7. Conclusions

It's important for teams to describe all the creativity that goes into an iGEM project, along with all the great ideas your team will come up with over the course of your work.

It's also important to clearly describe your achievements so that judges will know what you tried to do and where you succeeded. Please write your project page such that what you achieved is easy to distinguish from what you attempted.