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Team:NCTU Formosa
From 2014.igem.org
Insect damage has been a severe problem ever since ancient agricultural times. Nowadays, people are still suffering from 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 effects of those environmentally hazardous chemicals.
TThis year, our team NCTU Formosa established a taskforce, Harmful Insects Elimination Force, to solve this problem. Compared to the complex biosynthesis pathway of pheromones, we 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. 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 suffering from. We hope that our device can save the world from insect damage.
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Results
The current progress of our project, including detailed experimental data and the overall evaluation of project feasibility .
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Modeling
Modeling is 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 obtain the best results, we designed and carried out plenty of experiments. Our team always works together and we have fun conducting experiments.
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Human Practice
We hosted an exciting and memorable iGEM Conference for the 2nd time in NCTU. Currently, we are cooperating with Sunnymorning Organic Farm to do field testing on our device.
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Team
Our team is a big family. We have 16 members, 16 teaching assistants, and 4 instructors. All of us are working the hardest to contribute to our team's success.
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Notebook
The experimental log that records the purpose, method, results 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.
