Project Description

A common concern among pregnant women all over the world is developing gestational deficiencies in vitamins B9 and B12. Lacking these essential nutrients during pregnancy can lead to birth defects such as spina bifida and other neural tube defects. Unfortunately, due to both lack of proper nutrient education and access to the current blood tests, pregnant women and their children in developing countries often unknowingly suffer from these specific deficiencies. Our project is aimed to increase the accessibility of vitamins B9 and B12 preliminary screening. The microbial method we are investigating would require less infrastructure, equipment, and time than the current method involving blood work.

To produce the screening test, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology iGEM team plans to engineer E. coli to express mRNA constitutively, regulated by riboswitches for vitamin B9, B12, and derivatives. Conformational changes of these riboswitches are induced by complexing with these substrate molecules which activates or deactivates the ability of the mRNA to be translated. When the substrate is bound to the riboswitch, expression of the chromoprotein reporter is repressed. This process will provide a visible indicator of a deficiency, which does not require sophisticated equipment to analyze. Additionally, the final system is intended to be produced for a portable cup or strip chassis, with which the genetic system would be easily transported and stored for use.

Welcome to iGEM 2017!

Your team has been approved and you are ready to start the iGEM season!

Before you start:

Please read the following pages:

Styling your wiki

You may style this page as you like or you can simply leave the style as it is. You can easily keep the styling and edit the content of these default wiki pages with your project information and completely fulfill the requirement to document your project.

While you may not win Best Wiki with this styling, your team is still eligible for all other awards. This default wiki meets the requirements, it improves navigability and ease of use for visitors, and you should not feel it is necessary to style beyond what has been provided.

Wiki template information

We have created these wiki template pages to help you get started and to help you think about how your team will be evaluated. You can find a list of all the pages tied to awards here at the Pages for awards link. You must edit these pages to be evaluated for medals and awards, but ultimately the design, layout, style and all other elements of your team wiki is up to you!

Editing your wiki

On this page you can document your project, introduce your team members, document your progress and share your iGEM experience with the rest of the world!

Use WikiTools - Edit in the black menu bar to edit this page

Tips

This wiki will be your team’s first interaction with the rest of the world, so here are a few tips to help you get started:

State your accomplishments! Tell people what you have achieved from the start.
Be clear about what you are doing and how you plan to do this.
You have a global audience! Consider the different backgrounds that your users come from.
Make sure information is easy to find; nothing should be more than 3 clicks away.
Avoid using very small fonts and low contrast colors; information should be easy to read.
Start documenting your project as early as possible; don’t leave anything to the last minute before the Wiki Freeze. For a complete list of deadlines visit the iGEM 2017 calendar
Have lots of fun!

Inspiration

You can also view other team wikis for inspiration! Here are some examples:

Uploading pictures and files

You can upload your pictures and files to the iGEM 2017 server. Remember to keep all your pictures and files within your team's namespace or at least include your team's name in the file name.
When you upload, set the "Destination Filename" to
T--YourOfficialTeamName--NameOfFile.jpg. (If you don't do this, someone else might upload a different file with the same "Destination Filename", and your file would be erased!)

UPLOAD FILES

Team:RHIT