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Team:Penn State/Project
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Overall project
The Penn State Team will be researching and experimenting two different ideas. The first area of study will be creating an oxygen-sensing promoter. This will be done through researching the way that FNR and arcA regulate aerobic/anaerobic respiration in E. coli; engineering applications will be applied to these processes. The second topic we are working on is Bacterial Fireworks, an incorporation of quorum sensing, pigments, and cell lysis. Our goal is to assemble the necessary parts to display the spreading of color as the cells lyse. The team would like to incorporate both aspects of the project to create a bacterial fireworks display that is triggered by a lack of oxygen inside of an agar sphere.
A reliable modular lysis mechanism through quorum sensing could be used in many different fields. As engineered microorganisms are becoming more widely considered for use in the open environment, concerns are growing about possible detrimental effects these microbes could have on ecosystems if they were ever to grow and multiply past expectations. A quorum-based lysis "safety" mechanism would only require one cell to receive a predetermined signal in order to eliminate the entire rogue population, should it escape the area of its intended use.
