Difference between revisions of "Team:Warwick/Description"

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                         $("#TB2P").html("For the biological aspect of our water safety focus, we looked at the growing problem of high oestrogen levels in British waterways negatively impacting fish populations, and attempted to provide a solution using synthetic biology.<br>The synthetic oestrogen, 17β-estradiol (EE2), is the form that has the largest effect on fish populations, and levels in British rivers range from around 0.05 to 2.80 ng L -1  (Jobling et al, 2009). This is the form of oestrogen we decided to target with our project. This may seem like a very small amount, however studies have shown that even extremely low concentrations such as these can have profound effects on freshwater fish.");
 
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                         $("#TB2P").html("For example, Schwindt et al, 2014, investigated exactly how oestrogens affect fish population dynamics through their effects on survival rate and fecundity. Concentrations of E2 as low as 3.2 ng L-1 (only slightly higher than those found in British rivers) reduced survival rate of male fathead minnows from 0.66 to 0.16 in an in vitro study. Furthermore, it was shown that juvenile fish whose parents had been exposed to oestrogen had a lower overall survival rate compared to those fish whose parents were not exposed to oestrogen. ");                         
 
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                         $("#TB2P").html("The oestrogen not only reduced survival rate of male fish, but also reduced their fertility too. The study found that while the reduction in the male population had little effects on reproductive output, a smaller amount of fertile males leads to other problems such as inbreeding depression, which over time can decimate populations. Clearly, even miniscule amounts of this hormone can have devastating effects on fish.");
 
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                         $("#TB2P").html("The removal of oestrogen from water is not a simple task. Current estimates place a granulated carbon filtration system for a large town of 250 000 people at EUR 8 million, with a EUR 800 000 per annum operating cost. This totals an initial fee of EUR 32bn for the whole of England and Wales, followed by incredibly high operating costs (Owen & Jobling, 2013). Clearly, this solution is far from economically viable. For our project, we aimed to produce a solution that was economically viable and could be integrated into our current water filtration systems without need for extensive modification, thus saving large sums of money.");
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                        $("#TB2P").html("Since water treatment plants already rely on microorganisms as part of the water treatment process, we believed that by creating a genetically engineered microorganism with the ability to degrade oestrogen, it could be implemented alongside the current microorganism facilitated mechanisms already in place.");
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                        $("#TB2P").html("Drawing on research from Taiwan, we discovered a gene from Sphingomonas bacteria called OecA that encodes the enzyme 17,ꞵ-estradiol dehydrogenase, which converts E2 into estrone, resulting in a fifty fold decrease in oestrogenic activity (Chen et al, 2017). The aim of our project was to insert this gene into E.coli with a secretion signal attached, to create a bacteria that produces and secretes the OecA enzyme, with the intent of it being able to efficiently convert E2 into estrone, thus reducing the oestrogenic activity of sewage effluent.");
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                        $("#TB2P").html("We also decided to check for oestrogen degrading bacteria that may be present in British water, as the original oestrogen degrading bacteria was only found abroad. We asked iGEM teams from around the country to send us water samples from local rivers and streams, and developed a protocol for checking if the samples contained oestrogen degrading bacteria.");
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                        $("#TB2P").html("Citations<br><br>Jobling S, Burn RW, Thorpe K, Williams R, Tyler C. Statistical Modeling Suggests that Antiandrogens in Effluents from Wastewater Treatment Works Contribute to Widespread Sexual Disruption in Fish Living in English Rivers. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2009;117(5):797-802. doi:10.1289/ehp.0800197<br><br>Jobling S, Owen R. Ethinyl oestradiol in the aquatic environment. Copenhagen, Denmark: European Environment Agency 2013. Report No.: No. 1, Vol. 13.");
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                        $("#TB2P").html("Citations Contd.<br><br>JSchwindt, A. R., Winkelman, D. L., Keteles, K. , Murphy, M. , Vajda, A. M. and Frid, C. (2014), An environmental oestrogen disrupts fish population dynamics through direct and transgenerational effects on survival and fecundity. J Appl Ecol, 51: 582-591<br><br>Yi-Lung Chen, Chang-Ping Yu, Tzong-Huei Lee, King-Siang Goh, Kung-Hui Chu, Po-Hsiang Wang, Wael Ismail, Chao-Jen Shih, Yin-Ru Chiang, Biochemical Mechanisms and Catabolic Enzymes Involved in Bacterial Estrogen Degradation Pathways,Cell Chemical Biology,Volume 24, Issue 6,2017,Pages 712-724.e7");
 
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<p class='flippedFishText' id='TB2P'>
 
<p class='flippedFishText' id='TB2P'>
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DummyText
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For the biological aspect of our water safety focus, we looked at the growing problem of high oestrogen levels in British waterways negatively impacting fish populations, and attempted to provide a solution using synthetic biology.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim.
+
The synthetic oestrogen, 17β-estradiol (EE2), is the form that has the largest effect on fish populations, and levels in British rivers range from around 0.05 to 2.80 ng L -1  (Jobling et al, 2009). This is the form of oestrogen we decided to target with our project. This may seem like a very small amount, however studies have shown that even extremely low concentrations such as these can have profound effects on freshwater fish.
 
</p>
 
</p>
  

Revision as of 23:50, 16 October 2018

Ripple


Project Description

Biological

We have developed a detection kit for Legionella Pneumophila - a pathogenic bacteria responsible for Legionnaires disease. The legionella family retain a highly conserved but unique protein known as Legiolysin (a hemolysin toxin). We developed a self-folding mRNA known as a riboswitch; the device only unfolds when binding specifically to a segment of the Legiolysin toxin. We then fused our riboswitch with the guide RNA of a type II Streptococcus pyogenes dCAS9 in order to block the targeting domain of the guide sequence with a double stranded RNA loop.

Organic

For the biological aspect of our water safety focus, we looked at the growing problem of high oestrogen levels in British waterways negatively impacting fish populations, and attempted to provide a solution using synthetic biology. The synthetic oestrogen, 17β-estradiol (EE2), is the form that has the largest effect on fish populations, and levels in British rivers range from around 0.05 to 2.80 ng L -1 (Jobling et al, 2009). This is the form of oestrogen we decided to target with our project. This may seem like a very small amount, however studies have shown that even extremely low concentrations such as these can have profound effects on freshwater fish.

Inorganic

DummyText Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim.