Team:TAS Taipei/Collaborations
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Project
Experiment
Modeling
Prototype
Human Practice
Safety
About Us
Attributions
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COLLABORATIONS
NYMU_TAIPEI
We have continued and strengthened our long-standing partnership with National Yang Ming University (NYMU_Taipei). They troubleshooted our cloning procedure and design of primers, gave us protocols for assaying biofilm production, and trained our future iGEMers (Leona and Catherine).
In return, we helped add to the characterization of their lactose-induced suicide mechanism: the Holin-Endolysin-NrtA system (BBa_K2350021). We measured the population of their kill-switch bacteria in different lactose concentrations, and find that our results are consistent with their findings.
We independently tested the function of NYMU_Taipei’s lactose-induced kill-switch system. Different concentrations (0-250 mM) of lactose were tested for their effects on bacteria population. Experiment: Yvonne Wei
Additionally, this year two members from TAS (Catherine and Leona) are members on both NYMU and TAS teams. They learned the cloning cycle from TAS and helped run experiments and human practices for NYMU throughout the year. In Boston, they will also help NYMU present their project at the Giant Jamboree.
CGU_Taiwan
We first met the CGU_Taiwan team at the end of our presentation for the Asia Pacific iGEM Conference hosted at National Chiao Tung University (NCTU).
They were excited that our biofilms were able to trap nanoparticles, and wondered if they could trap ink particles as well. CGU_Taiwan is working on improving the procedure to manufacture reprocessed paper. They found that a process called “flotation,” typically used to de-ink paper, could cause significant paper fiber loss. They wondered if biofilm could potentially replace the current flotation process to preserve paper fibers. We offered to test this for CGU_Taiwan. We used a similar experimental procedure as our preliminary biofilm trapping experiment. The results suggest that our biofilm can trap ink particles. As shown below, the relative absorbance of ink decreased by approximately 50% when mixed with biofilm.
From left to right: control (biofilm only), control (ink only), biofilm mixed with 0.1x ink solution. More ink was pulled down when mixed with biofilm, and the color of the supernatant is clearer than the supernatant of the ink only group. Experiment: William Chen, Yvonne Wei
When ink was mixed with biofilm, we saw a 50% decrease in absorbance, compared to a sample containing only ink. Experiment: William Chen, Yvonne Wei
In return, CGU_Taiwan helped us independently verify that overexpression of OmpR234 (BBa_K2229200) produces more biofilms than control (BBa_K342003).
A) Our experimental results showed that E. coli overexpressing OmpR234 (BBa_K2229200) is producing more biofilm than a control which does not overexpress OmpR234 (BBa_K342003). B) CGU_Taiwan independently tested our constructs using crystal violet, a dye commonly used to quantify biofilm formation. BBa_K2229200 showed higher absorbance compared to the control BBa_K342003, reflecting the formation of more biofilm, which matches our results. Experiment: Yvonne Wei
LAMBERT_GA
We received and 3D printed LAMBERT_GA’s Chrome-Q device. We used this device with our synthetic biology class when they started to clone DNA constructs that expressed GFP. Students monitored the effect of temperature on GFP degradation at 25, 37, 60 and 100 deg C. We also had a great video chat with their entire team in May 2017 to share project ideas & topics, summer plans, iGEM HS life, etc. We always enjoy seeing them at the jamboree!!
