Team:TU Delft/Home

Why spend the entire summer in the lab?

Who wouldn't take the chance of running your own biotech project? It wasn't so easy to pick the topic though. After many brainstorm sessions and knock-out events, the team finally agreed upon going for the most ambitious project. Struck by the devastation caused by oil pollution we set out to develop a biological system for the degradation of oil. From literature we learned that by combining existing genes from multiple species we would be able to realize our dream. Degradation alone was not enough for us however. So we designed our bug to be able to sense alkanes, tolerate high concentrations of salt and hydrocarbons and produce an emulsifier for increasing alkane solubility.

During long incubation periods we put a lot of effort in the safety and human practice. We featured in the bio-ethics documentary Who Owns You and in national tv and radio broadcasts. The cooperation with the new Science Museum in Delft resulted in a spectacular Biotech Corner including the Synthetic Biology Game designed by us.

Perhaps most importantly iGEM was a lot of fun and equipped us with many new skills and experience. When playing with our iJAM Band we eased our ligation troubles.

Curious on how it all added up? Take the Tour!