Team:Oxford/InitialIdeas

Initial Ideas

Prior to our initial survey, we had many different ideas for potential projects:

Idea	Track	Benefits	Limitations
- Biodegradation - Removal of nitrates from water systems to reduce effects of eutrophication	Environment	High demand for environmental projects, Potential to use framework for broad water purification applications	Biological containment issues, Availability of chassis may limit scope of experimental data
- Snake Bites - Using protease composition to distinguish between different venoms	Diagnostics	Large impact in developing countries, High accuracy of protease detection	Hard to improve upon previous projects, Difficult to create cell-free device
- Latex Allergy - Designing a filter with an agent to bind/degrade the putative latex allergen hevein	Therapeutics	No current treatments focus on preventing latex exposure due to allergen molecule size, Possible application for other airborne allergens	Very small population affected, Lack of existing research: unclear if allergen cleavage reduces the response
- Date Rape Drug Sensor - Designing a cell-free biosensor for the detection of benzodiazepines in drinks	Environment	Important real world issue, Potential to build upon successful previous projects e.g. E.Chromi	Difficult to justify extent of improvement from previous work, Limits to sensitivity of detection
- Biofertiliser - Engineering nitrogen fixation pathways in non-leguminous plants	Food and Nutrition	Potential to be adapted for widespread issues such as desertification	Difficult to predict efficacy of system in plant models, Biological containment issues
- Flavivirus Detection - Distinguishing between different mosquito-borne infections via protein detection	Diagnostics	High morbidity in developing countries, Non-specific nature of symptoms often delays treatment onset	Similar devices have recently been developed, Difficult to improve upon existing diagnostics within given time frame

Three ideas were subsequently shortlisted: