Difference between revisions of "Team:UCLouvain/Team"

It is very simple to describe … “Work, Learn and have Fun” is our motto. This represents quite well our crazy team. Since the beginning we are creating a great atmosphere between us. Our agenda is full of IGEM activities!! Road trip to Wageningen for the IGEM Benelux meeting, team working each week to meet us and share about the project, presentation of our adventure during a conference, etc… Though we come from various faculties, we see skills differences as a real added value and all of us have something to say around the table. Responsibilities have been allocated according to our expertise and preferences but jokes duty is exclusively for Marine.

So, we do not need to say a lot but only: “It is a great experience with great people”.

Our aim is to design a biobadge detecting excessive UV exposure and therefore warn us to seek sun protection should it become necessary. This badge would work as a capsule holding E. coli cells, changing colours as the UV intensity increases. Therefore, we investigated two approaches using photocaged tyrosine (o-nitrobenzyl tyrosine). In both cases, UV-rays will release the tyrosine and enhance a reporter signal. (1) Starting with a tyrosine auxotroph E. coli strain, a reporter RFP will be synthetized once tyrosine is liberated from its cage. (2) Using a photocaged peptide and a specific transcription factor called ComR, we also aim at UV-controlling the expression of the reporter gene. The capsule would also work as a safe and reliable containment, destroying the engineered microorganisms once the biobadge is discarded.