Of CO₂urse

In order to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) which is surrounding in environment, our team has developed a device, containing our engineered E. coli to fix the CO₂ when it undergoes its native metabolic pathway. Those three data, temperature, concentration of CO₂, and pH value will be shown on the screen as we have developed an App for our user. All of our ideas are to provide an another choice for public without any replacement as we are really longing for the low carbon society. Therefore, we use microorganism to, "of CO₂urse", reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The issue of the greenhouse effect has always been a problem that needs to be solved by not only some environmental protection section but to all human being in the current society since the awareness of industrial evolution in the 18^th century.

Greenhouse effect brings a lot of side effect to us. For example, ice will melt, and it causes the rise of sea level while the land for terrestrial to live is getting lesser and lesser. Besides, the global temperature will increase resulting the rise of sea temperature, and that rise of temperature will make the chemical reaction in the sea to be faster than usual depleting the coral reef which unbalance the ecosystem in the sea. Furthermore, greenhouse effect will also be resulting the depletion of the ozone layer. It means that living things will exposed under ultraviolet light and all the living things will live at a high mutation rate. As a result, human will easily get the dermatitis disease than the past, and even have a high risk of skin cancer.

In conclusion, if we are still not going to take care of this, we will face the risk of extinction as the situation is getting worse. As one of the members in global village, our team, NCKU_Tainan think that we should enroll ourselves in movement that can help reduce the emission of greenhouse gaseous (GHGs). This year, our team have designed a new way to catch one of the GHGs, CO₂, by using an advance and modern technique nowadays, Synthetic Biology. Without any replacement with other ways but to offer another way to public, the public could use it in different condition.

In order to reduce GHGs emissions, the industry have long been committed to energy saving and carbon reduction in the process. CO₂ emissions in the factory are currently moving toward the technology of Carbon Capture Storage and Utilization (CCS & U). Development of CCS & U is a determine factor in reducing directly emits CO₂ into the atmosphere.

After doing our research, we believed that it is possible to clone some gene fragments that can express PRK, CA and Rubisco which is from a unicellular cyanobacteria strain, Synchococcus alongatus pcc 7942 and Synchococcus alongatus pcc 7002into our model organism, E. coli. After cloning three gene fragments into E. coli, it could build a new metabolic pathway that can accomplish carbon utilization, subverting the cognition that only most of the plants could utilize CO₂.

Firstly, E. coli will uptake xylose in the surrounding of its cultivation environment. After that, xylose will be metabolized and converted into Ru5P by its own native metabolic pathway. Next, PRK will convert Ru5P into RuBP. At the end, RuBP will react with CO₂ which fixed by Rubisco converted into 3-PGA and 3-PGA will become a multifunctional intermediate, pyruvate.

In order to integrate with industrial IGCC system, our team designed a device which divided into three main parts, a bioreactor, consisting a pH meter, a thermometer and a carbon dioxide sensor that could let our engineered E. coli to fix carbon dioxide. The second part and third part are a nutrient tank, containing a fed-batch culture system and a collection tank to collect waste and product at the end of the whole progress.

Next, in the consideration of allowing our users monitor the internal condition of our device conveniently, we have developed an App for them. By using this App, users could see the data of temperature, carbon dioxide concentration and also pH value which are from our database, uploaded by WI-FI.

In the Integrated Human Practice, we improved our project from different activities in different aspects. We visited professors when we encountered difficulties, and they always give us corrections instantly. Since our project converge diversify fields, the more suggestions we had, the more integrity we propose.

As for the appliance of our project, industrial interview is our primary concern. To satisfy enterprise's demand, we researched a lot and modified our project to make it better. What's more, after interviewing with enterprise, they suggested us to concern more about maximizing the benefit and making the lowest cost of our project simultaneously. Meeting up with other iGEMers built a strong friendship with those who also have interest in synthetic biology. We communicated with each other, figured out the possibility of collaboration, and created a win-win situation.

For the education and public engagement, we attempt to introduce synthetic biology to the students and public in a more interesting way. The more people we affect, the more people we can cooperate.

Different from normal course, we design easy-going but interesting experiment and App game for students and public, which let them be fond of and involved in iGEM. After the activity, their feedback help us to understand their thought. Then we can adjust in the next promotion we brought to the society. In addition, we also recognize where we do well and where we have to modify more to trigger more people be interested in iGEM.

Besides, we joined festival in NCKU and medical conference, and operated our fan page to increase our project exposure, as well as synthetic biology and iGEM. It also raises the discussion of iGEM in our school, which attracted more student to join us.

Reference

1. “TIL: It's Currently 20°C Hotter In The North Pole Than It Should Be.” Busy, 21 Nov. 2016, busy.org/@sirwinchester/til-it-s-currently-20-c-hotter-in-the-north-pole-than-it-should-be.