Difference between revisions of "Team:RPI Troy NY/HP/Silver"

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<h3>Silver Medal Criterion #3</h3>
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<h2>Public Engagement / Dialogue</h2>
 
<p>Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is safe, responsible and good for the world. You could accomplish this through engaging with your local, national and/or international communities or other approaches. Please note that standard surveys will not fulfill this criteria.</p>
 
<p>Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is safe, responsible and good for the world. You could accomplish this through engaging with your local, national and/or international communities or other approaches. Please note that standard surveys will not fulfill this criteria.</p>
 
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<h5>What should we write about on this page?</h5>
 
<h5>What should we write about on this page?</h5>
<p>On this page, you should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, and document any special activities you did (such as visiting experts, talking to lawmakers, or doing public engagement). This should include all of the work done for the Silver Medal Criterion #3. Details for your Gold medal work and/or work for the two Human Practices special prizes should be put on those specified pages.</p>
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<p>Through open communication with the community at large through social media as well as direct interaction it will be possible to spread news of the integration of biosurfactants into mainstream life. A two way dialogue can help in our research practices in a way to insure mutual benefit between our research group and the community.
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<h5>Inspiration</h5>
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<h2>Education</h2>
<p>Read what other teams have done:</p>
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<p>Sophorolipids are carbohydrate-based, ampiphilic biosurfactants. They have been historically employed in oil spills to help mitigate their damaging environmental effect by accelerating crude oil degradation. Sophorolipids are the fermentation byproducts of the Starmarella species, including that of Starmerella bombicola and Candida apicola. </p>
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Dundee/policypractice/experts">2014 Dundee </a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:UC_Davis/Policy_Practices_Overview">2014 UC Davis </a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Manchester/HumanPractices">2013 Manchester </a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Cornell/outreach">2013 Cornell </a></li>
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<h2>Product Design</h2>
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<p>We used the yeast starmarella bombicola to produce sophorolipids by growing it in a yeast extract and glucose-based broth and feeding it oleic acid. We then identified the P450 enzymes responsible for the production of sophorolipids and the genetically modified them to optimize their performance. </p>
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Revision as of 00:00, 31 October 2017

Home Team Collaborations Project Results
Interlab Study Parts Safety Human Practices Attributions

Philosophy

Oil spills pose a sizeable threat to marine life and are classified as a major environmental disaster. Cleaning up after oil spills requires the use of dispersants, [][] chemical dispersants, which break down crude oil for easier biodegredation but is dependent on location and wind speed, or mechanical human-guided skimmers, which manually contain and collect oil. Current containment methods include surrounding the spill using floating booms to prevent further spread.

Sophorolipids, which are a type of biosurfactants, are natural dispersers/degraders of crude oil. The majority of sophorolipids are biodegradable and pose little toxicity to humans. Our team aims to create sophorolipids using the fermentation of the yeast starmarella bombicola, and then improve sophorolipid production by disabling an enzyme regulating the sopholipid concentration.

Public Engagement / Dialogue

Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is safe, responsible and good for the world. You could accomplish this through engaging with your local, national and/or international communities or other approaches. Please note that standard surveys will not fulfill this criteria.

What should we write about on this page?

Through open communication with the community at large through social media as well as direct interaction it will be possible to spread news of the integration of biosurfactants into mainstream life. A two way dialogue can help in our research practices in a way to insure mutual benefit between our research group and the community.

Education

Sophorolipids are carbohydrate-based, ampiphilic biosurfactants. They have been historically employed in oil spills to help mitigate their damaging environmental effect by accelerating crude oil degradation. Sophorolipids are the fermentation byproducts of the Starmarella species, including that of Starmerella bombicola and Candida apicola.

Product Design

We used the yeast starmarella bombicola to produce sophorolipids by growing it in a yeast extract and glucose-based broth and feeding it oleic acid. We then identified the P450 enzymes responsible for the production of sophorolipids and the genetically modified them to optimize their performance.