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Team:NCTU Formosa
From 2014.igem.org
Insect damage has been a severe problem since ancient agricultural times. Nowadays, people are still suffered from these harmful insects.
People have been striving to resolve these problems by using pesticides. It seemed to be really effective at first, but after several years people became conscious of the side effect of those environmentally hazardous chemicals.
This year, our team NCTU Formosa - Harmful Insects Elimination Force found the simple act of expressing the DNA sequence of PBAN (Pheromone Biosynthesis Activating Neuropeptide) to be equally, if not more, efficient and effective. Just like pheromones, PBAN is species-specific. Once our target species comes in contact with the PBAN produced by our E. coli, its pheromone glands will be stimulated and thus attract more of its own kind into our capturing device.
So far, We have already collected sequences of a few common species of harmful insects, most of which have brought great lose to Taiwan's agriculture. Hopefully this model can be widely used in the future when PBANs of more insects are found.
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Project
We establish an alternative way to improve the severe pests problem that people have been suffered from. We hope that our device can save the world from insect damage.
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Modeling
Modeling was our first step forward. When validated with our experimental data, modeling is also a verification of the accuracy of our experiments.
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Biobricks
To strive for the best results, we made plenty of experiment. Our team always works together and we have fun conducting experiments.
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Human Practice
We hosted the 2nd iGEM Conference in NCTU. Our team made lots of efforts to make the conference interesting. Currently, we have a chance to cooperate with Sunnymorning Organic Farm.
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Team
Our team is a big family. We have 16 members, 16 advisers, and 4 instructors. All of us are willing to contribute to the successes of our team.
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Notebook
The experimental log that records down the purpose, method, result and date of each experiment that we have conducted.
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Safety
Inside a newly built, well-equipped laboratory, we conducted our experiment. Besides safety equipment, each member is well informed of the safety rules and emergency handling.
