IGEM:Melbourne/2008/ProjectIdeas

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Detection of allergens in food

• the presence of certain alergen promote the expression of GFP.
• must be fast reaction. ie. detection on the spot.
• cell-free medium and can be stored in bottles under normal condition.

Biological Circuits

• variable resistors, capaceitors, a catalog of resistors ...
• setup a basic ALU(arithmetic logic unit), from pre-designed gates
• biological clock; counts up in seconds or minutes (not countdown like peking07-hopcount), something similar but not elegant enough has been done by Harvard2006
• Circuit from Cellular Autonoma: one bacterial cell could produce simple circuit or fancy pattern.

Biological Manufacturing

• Bacterial cells to assist in production of things like biofuels/fertilisers/etc.
• Cheap and easy production of pharmaceuticals.

Biological Control

• PID control similar but more elaborate to Valencia2007

In vivo sensors, processors and actuators

Bacteria have remarkable abilities to sense, process and actuate. These attributes of bacteria are potentially useful in designing and fabricating them for therapeutic purposes. One good example is here. [1] (more...)

cell-cell interaction

• something similar to peking 2007 one..
• group A bacteria undergo conjugation certain number of times before expressing a promotor
• the promotor promotes the expression in group B bacteria of some other protein.
• after undergoing conjugation certain number of times, group B bacteria express a repressor which inhibites the expresion of promotor from group A bacteria thus negative feedback.
• a system with timing and quatity control

Radiation-proof E.coli

• Express the DNA repair system (enzymes) of radiodurans in e.coli ?

Gold mining bacteria

• Bacteria that uptake gold particles in solution possibly using transporters from alfalfa or other plants used in phytomining. For the purpose of making money.

Bacterial desalination

Bacteria that uptake salt from water for the purpose of desalination. Investigations into archaea probably needed.

HIV rapid diagnostic test

A rapid diagnostic test for HIV using bacteria that express CD4 and CCR5 coupled with an amplification signal (such as used in Brown university 2007).

HIV sink

Bacteria that express CD4 and CCR5 to act as a sink within the body thus lowering the viral load of HIV. Immunogenicity must be removed as was done with Bactoblood (UC Berkeley 2007).

Remote controlled locomotive micromachine

A remote control locomotive micro machine using bacterial flagella as the driver. The bacteria with flagella could possibly adhere to the micro machine using adhesins.

Bacterial kettle

Hyperthermophilic bacteria or archaea treated with uncouplers e.g. DNP, used to boil water for power generation.

Bacterial TV

A television screen composed of bacteria that release the different colors of fluorescent proteins to form an image.

Bacterial Bioremediation

Bacteria that fix or modify harmful contaminants in soil (i.e. cyanide, petrochemicals) after a spill/industrial activity.

A Feasible implementation of Bacteria Counter

Use the "Binary counting strategy". Please click here for full details. I didn't put the full detail here because I didn't want to confuse or distract anyone from brainstorming.