CONTRIBUTION

E. coli strains creation

For our project application, we created and characterized 2 new E. coli strains HMS147(DE3)ΔWecA (BBa_K5246037) and HMS147(DE3) ΔWecB (BBa_K5246040), which are deficient in Enterobacterial Common Antigen pathway and N-mannosamine uronic acid production respectively. Future iGEMers can utilize these strains for their projects requiring these particular deficiencies in E. coli while the bacteria itself is still capable of expressing proteins controlled by T7/lac promoter.

Hardware

To ease our workload and make protein expression experiments more efficient, we created a simple and affordable lab-scale bioreactor. With future IGEM teams in mind, we made in-depth schematics and instructions to make it easily repeatable. If you want to recreate our work, visit the Hardware section of our wiki page, where you will find the information you need to build your lab-grade bioreactor.

Software

After developing our bioreactor, we wanted to automize it so that it would be a fully independent system. Our team developed an interactive interface, which can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. The software lets users see their bioreactor's critical data and control temperature and mixing parameters. We made our system universal so that it would be usable by any future IGEM teams and any bioreactor. You can find more information and the system code on our Software wiki page.

Science Communication Guide: “Science Communication with Universities of the Third Age (U3A)”

This year, we developed the “Science Communication with Universities of the Third Age (U3A)” guide to bridge the gap between life sciences educators and older community members. The guide provides strategies and practical suggestions for effectively communicating life sciences to older audiences and supports the integration of these topics into U3A curricula. It serves as a foundational tool, with plans to expand it with examples, visuals, practical advice and user experiences. To find out more about the guide, you can visit Education.

Protocol development for holdfast synthesis in E. coli

As our team embarked on a completely uncharted territory of holdfast synthesis in E. coli, we had to develop a protocol for biosynthesizing this polysaccharide in E. coli. Other teams who wish to pursue and build upon our established foundation to further characterize and optimize holdfast biosynthesis can access the entire protocol in our wiki page Experiments.