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Team:NCTU Formosa
From 2010.igem.org
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About the Project
Mosquito intelligence terminator(MIT)
The Mosquito Intelligent Terminator (MIT) is designed and optimized to be an ecological and environmental friendly mosquito pesticide. MIT is an engineered E. coli secreting crystal proteins isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis to kill mosquito larvae, or commonly known as wrigglers. These crystal proteins are toxic to certain types of mosquitoes only and are not pathogenic to mammals. We designed a temperature-dependent genetic circuit expressing high levels of crystal proteins at room temperature only, thus production does not occur at incubation temperature. In order to make an environmentally safe insecticide, our design also incorporates a genetic circuit controlling the population size of E. coli, thus a surplus will never exist 
as E. coli population is self-maintained within the system. This intelligent terminator is not limited to mosquitos only, as the intelligent terminator system can be custom fitted with different cry genes to other insect species. Currently, with more than one hundred crystal proteins targeting various insect species, our design may potentially serve as a promising pest control solution in the future.
Concept Anime
Our School
National Chiao Tung University
National Chiao Tung University was founded in the suburbs of Shanghai in 1896, sixteen years before the birth of the Republic of China, at the suggestion of Hsuan-Wai Shen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ching Dynasty. The University was first named Nanyang College. It was established to meet the urgent need to introduce western civilization into China. The college initially focused only on politics, law, and translations of western books. In the later years of the Ching Dynasty, the college was renamed the Vocational College of Higher Education and was governed by the Ministry of Post and Transportation. By Including new vocational programs, such as business, electrical engineering, shipping management, and railway management, the college played a major role in science and engineering education in modern Taiwan.
Acknowlegement
We would like to sincerely thank Dr. Ching-Ping Tseng and all the members of his laboratory, for the support and mentorship they have provided during our project time. We would also like to thank Dr. Chen Bor-Sen , Dr. Hsien-Da Huang and Dr. Jenn-Kang Hwang for their invaluable contribution to our project. Without their expertise and funding, the project will not have gone this far in such a short time. And last but definitely not least, we would like to thank Dr. Chung-Yu Wu, our president, as well as all the members of National Chiao Tung University and National Tsing Hua University who have helped us in this competition.
