Revision as of 19:03, 2 August 2010

Session 8

Now it’s not if we like the idea anymore (otherwise it wouldn’t be a chosen idea), but how could we accomplish it? How feasible is it? What BioBricks do we expect to make with this?

1. Oil removal

Hydrocarbon degradation
Oil sand processing gives wastewater with allot of oil (bitumen) => Convert this wastewater into something valuable
Salinity, pH, mass transfer problems

Split into 3 teams:

Hydrocarbon degradation

Maybe start with Benzoic acid & Alkenes?
Probably the most work of all the teams, but others could help once they are done
Most likely an aerobic process (most likely none of the enzymes are oxygen sensitive)
Be careful whether the intermediates may be toxic
Sugar metabolism is no longer necessary in E.coli

Salt tolerance

Give the other team a strain of E.coli that can handle salt.
Biobrick 2009; not clear whether it works or not?

Overcoming mass transfer

Adding an emulsifier to make the oil soluble?
Production of hydrophilic/hydrophobic peptide?

Extra features

We are making allot of acetyl CoA, so why not produce something useful?
Biofuel? Propanol/ethanol/biodiesel? There are some biobricks for this… but no Exporter? (Biobrick), PHA/PHB

Other points

Money / many biobricks / lot of literature
Is E.coli the bug to go with?
We don’t necessarily have to put all 4 projects into one strain, but we can start with 4 and maybe if we have time we could try to.
Good project that represents Delft (mass transfer etc.)
There are no biobricks for hydrocarbon degradation!

Vote: Yes (8/8)

2. Algae bloom /nitrate reduction

A mutated FNR can induce the nitrate consumption under aerobic conditions
Biobrick for nitrite sensor
E.coli would probably be outcompeted by the algae? Depends on the carbon source
Some enzymes will be inhibited by oxygen

Vote: No (0/8)

3. Appetite inhibitor

Caerulein
Combination with circadian clock for times of production and non-production?
Regulation is definitely necessary
Couple it to blood sugar levels? Not really possible to sensor something in the blood from within the gut?

Vote: No (3/8)

4. Circadian Clocks / oscillators

Oscillations are easy to come by
Tool for another project?
Hard to accurately predict the actual frequency; could only occur through true labwork
Frequency would be dependent on the concentrations of the compounds as well as the growth rates for these also determine the degradation etc.
How could you change affinity constants? (Kai system)
Biobrick for Kai is already available, but how can you influence the frequency without trial-and-error?
There is literature that could help make a model…