Team:Imperial

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<h2>Project Description</h2>
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<p>Greetings fellow iGEMers! We, Imperial College’s 2014 iGEM team, are pleased to welcome you to our WIP wiki.</p>
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<h3>Background</h3>
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<p>Cellulose is the most abundantly available organic polymer in nature. Plants, bacteria and even select animals (such as marine urochordates) produce it, utilising its properties for support, adhesion, and floatation. </p>
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<p>Cellulose is significant in our everyday lives for paper, dietary fibre, and clothing. It is the main ingredient in cotton, linen and any plant-derived material - we are constantly in contact with it!</p>
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<p>Given its properties and prevalence in nature, cellulose finds other uses as a feedstock, in composite materials, as a biomaterial for tissue regeneration and many more.
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<p>Due to its adaptability and ubiquity the full potential of cellulose has yet to be fulfilled. There are still many ways that we can engineer cellulose for novel uses though all research areas desire reduced cost of production and processing.</p>
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<p>Most of the cellulose we currently process comes from plants. Plant cellulose exists naturally in a mixture with other compounds, which requires an energy-intensive purification step to yield the pure cellulose that is useful in many medical and environmental contexts. Bacterial cellulose, on the other hand, grows in a much purer and finer form. Treatment usually consists only of heating with aqueous NaOH. </p>
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<h3>Our Plan</h3>
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<p>This summer, we aim to optimize cellulose production in bacteria, particularly <i>Gluconacetobacter xylinum</i> (previously known as <i>Acetobacter xylinum</i>), a highly-studied native producer of cellulose, and in our very own research-friendly <i>E. coli</i>. This should notably improve cost-efficiency and accessibility for its many potential applications which we will also explore. </p>
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<a class="twitter-timeline" href="https://twitter.com/imperialigem" data-widget-id="491584474698620928">Tweets by @imperialigem</a>
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<h2>Get In Touch</h2>
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<p> Contact us as at <a href="mailto:imperialigem2014@gmail.com">imperialigem2014@gmail.com</a> or send us a tweet</p>
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                        <h1>Imperial College</h1>
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                        <h2>London iGEM</h2>
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                        <h2>The Project</h2>
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                            <p>Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer found in nature. Plants, bacteria and even some animals use its structural and chemical properties for applications such as support, adhesion and flotation. Due to its ubiquity we find cellulose in our everyday lives; from being the main constituent of cotton to uses in medicine and scientific research</p>
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                            <p>Much of the cellulose we use is derived from plants. This is produced as a mixture with other compounds (e.g. lignin and hemicellulose) and so requires an energy intensive purification step to extract the pure cellulose required for many applications. Bacteria offer an alternative means of production that produces a cellulose that is purer and requires less processing.</p>
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                            <p>We want to optimise the production of bacterial cellulose (BC) to increase its viability as a material for a range of potential applications. To do this we aim to engineer Gluconacetobacter xylinum (previously Acetobacter xylinum), a highly-studied native producer of BC. We also hope to transfer our system into E. coli as well as functionalise our biomaterial to give it additional properties.</p>
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                                        <h2>Lorem Ipsum</h2>
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                                        <h3>Blah blah blah</h3>
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                                        <div class="more-box"><a href="#">read more</a>
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                                        <h2>Lorem Ipsum</h2>
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                                        <h3>Blah blah blah</h3>
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                                    <h2>Latest Tweet</h2>
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                                    <a class="twitter-timeline" data-dnt="true" height="200" width="280" data-link-color="#fff" border-color="#fff" data-tweet-limit="1" data-chrome="transparent nofooter noheader" href="https://twitter.com/imperialigem" data-widget-id="501710215125819392">Tweets by @imperialigem</a>
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                                    <div class="more-box"><a href="https://twitter.com/imperialigem">All tweets @imperialigem</a>
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Revision as of 13:42, 20 August 2014

Imperial iGEM 2014

Aqualose

The Project

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer found in nature. Plants, bacteria and even some animals use its structural and chemical properties for applications such as support, adhesion and flotation. Due to its ubiquity we find cellulose in our everyday lives; from being the main constituent of cotton to uses in medicine and scientific research

Much of the cellulose we use is derived from plants. This is produced as a mixture with other compounds (e.g. lignin and hemicellulose) and so requires an energy intensive purification step to extract the pure cellulose required for many applications. Bacteria offer an alternative means of production that produces a cellulose that is purer and requires less processing.

We want to optimise the production of bacterial cellulose (BC) to increase its viability as a material for a range of potential applications. To do this we aim to engineer Gluconacetobacter xylinum (previously Acetobacter xylinum), a highly-studied native producer of BC. We also hope to transfer our system into E. coli as well as functionalise our biomaterial to give it additional properties.

Lorem Ipsum

Blah blah blah

read more

Lorem Ipsum

Blah blah blah

read more

Latest Tweet

All tweets @imperialigem

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