We analyzed the awareness of Dual Use Research of Concern issues through a nationwide and an international survey.
Furthermore, our survey revealed missing unified definitions and insufficient education and science communication as major problems. To improve the situation and prevent regulations on free research, we spread awareness through sufficient
science communication, appealed to the science community and provided open source media.
We used modeling in several project parts to improve our project. One modeling identified lethal metal ion
concentration and led to the construction of a ROS reducing system to reduce toxicity. Furthermore,
we used the modeling to improve our hardware prototype by modeling certain process parameters.
After we identified the lack of reliable promoter strength data as a hugh problem for our project, we tested a promoter and RBS library regarding their strength.
Furthermore, we constructed a backbone which enables the promoter strength measurement normalized to a second reporter in the backbone and could be expanded by further iGEM teams.
Metal ions have a toxic effect on Escherichia coli cells. We identified critical concentrations for our experiments and developed several methods to reduce ROS.
To increase the nanoparticle yield, we cloned and characterized importers for metal ions. We investigated the specifity towards their respective ions and the influence on the growth.
We designed and cloned assembled vectors for testing and expressing siRNAs. We used our software to design suitable siRNAs and developed an improved vector set.
We were able to enhance iron nanoparticle formation by overexpressing ferritin in Escherichia coli. Furthermore, we were able to use a mutated variant of the human ferritin to produce gold an silver nanoparticles.
We designed a costumized cross-flow bioreactor to filter hugh amounts of mining drainage while accumulating metal ions. Through modeling and feedback we improved our prototype and developed an improved bioreactor for our hardware.
During our project we were able to accumulate metal ions in Escherichia coli, while reducing the toxicity. We engineered ferritin to build enable iron, silver and gold nanoparticle formation. Furthermore, we showed that nanoparticles could be used to print conductive paths.
