Experience

iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Bye-o-film

  • Feb 2023 - Present

  This year, our team (bye-o-film) focuses on addressing the problem of biofilm formation on medical devices. Biofilms, which are collections of bacteria held together by a matrix of extracellular substances, are difficult to treat with traditional methods like antibiotics. They are highly resistant to antimicrobial agents and can develop further resistance through the exchange of genes. Antimicrobial resistance is a global concern, and the scarcity of new antibiotics and logistical challenges in their distribution make this issue highly relevant. Biofilm formation on implants is of particular interest due to the increasing number of medical procedures involving such devices, such as joint replacement surgery. We intend to develop an innovative approach to offer alternative treatments for biofilms and aid in patient recovery while helping medical specialists monitor the status of devices post-intervention. This solution involves engineering an E. coli-based biosensor that detects biofilm formation and releases bacteriophages, which can disrupt the biofilm and possibly its cells. The biosensor utilizes an M13 helper phage to create an amplified signal upon sensing biofilm formation through the presence of quorum-sensing molecules. The engineered M13 phage also contains a matrix-degrading enzyme to slow down and disrupt biofilm formation, making the infection more manageable with antibiotics. Upon activation of the phage treatment, the biosensor system is designed to send a signal that is interpreted by an electronic device. The final component is an interface that communicates these actions to patients and medical specialists, providing early indication of biofilm formation through an app. We envision designing this system as a modular toolkit for detecting and eliminating various types of biofilms. Our goal is to tackle the most important aspects of the biofilm formation issue and provide a useful tool for both medical professionals and the general public. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Nanobuddy

  • Feb 2022 - Nov 2022

  The highly contagious avian influenza, more commonly known as the ‘Bird flu’, is raging through the world. Unprecedented outbreaks are infecting birds everywhere and most notably, chickens in the poultry industry. Immunologists are sounding the alarm bells that this influenza variant might also jump to humans if left unchecked. In The Netherlands, where poultry by far forms the largest proportion of livestock, this virus has become a very relevant issue. To prevent spreading and mutating of the virus, Dutch poultry keepers are forced to cull all of their own, and sometimes neighbouring, poultry livestock. Upwards of a million Dutch poultry has been culled in 2022 alone. Everyone agrees that these chickens should be protected from the virus. However, considering that we would have to vaccinate up to 100 million chickens in the Netherlands alone, conventional vaccination strategies are too slow, expensive and inefficient. This all led us, iGEM Groningen 2022, to think of a novel vaccination strategy to quickly protect our poultry on a large scale. With our project, 'Nanobuddy', we modify a microbe which is a native inhabitant of the chicken’s lungs, and give it the ability to secrete nanobodies. These nanobodies that we use specialize in protecting against avian influenza viruses, much like antibodies. The genetically engineered microbe is then introduced back into the chickens through a very convenient spray. Once in the lungs, the nanobodies provide a wall of protection which will block the virus from infecting the chickens. We hope that by using this strategy we can minimize the chance of the virus mutating and transmitting to humans. On top of that, we could save countless of chicken lives which would otherwise be lost to unnecessary preventive killings. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Bye-monia

  • Feb 2021 - Nov 2021

  The Netherlands is producing excess nitrogen, which is harmful to nature and biodiversity. One of the main culprits for this so-called nitrogen crisis is animal agriculture, a vital income source for the Dutch economy. Our project targets ammonia emissions contributing to the crisis and aims to convert them into a beneficial feed additive. Thus, we have engineered Saccharomyces spp. to synthesize alpha-amylase, an enzyme that optimizes cattles’ digestion. This way, their milk production and growth will be enhanced while ammonia emissions will be reduced simultaneously. Residual ammonia will be captured by a state-of-the-art filter device, a Metal-Organic Framework (MOF), and fed back to our GMO. Furthermore, insights from artificial intelligence will be employed to optimize the engineering process. Overall, we have designed a closed sustainable circle in which waste - excess ammonia, is converted into worth - a feed additive for cattle. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• RootPatch

  • Jan 2020 - Nov 2020

  Crops all over the world are in danger due to the influence of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs). PPNs feed on the roots of crop-plants and thereby consume the energy that the plant needs to develop normally. Especially, potato plants are terrorized by the potato cyst nematodes Globodera pallida and Globodera rostochiensis. According to current estimations, these two parasites are responsible for an annual loss of 460 million euros in Europe alone due to reduced potato yields. Current methods to fight them off are either insufficient or detrimental to the biodiversity in the soil. New and sustainable ways of potato crop protection against potato cyst nematodes are, therefore, urgently needed. We, the iGEM Groningen 2020 team, have developed a new way to fight potato cyst nematodes with RootPatch, a community of bacteria that coats the roots and protects them from the nematodes. By producing neuropeptides acting specifically on the nervous system of the potato cyst nematodes, RootPatch repels the nematodes from the plants without having any effect on other organisms in the soil. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• QRoningen

  • Jan 2019 - Nov 2019

  Communication of sensitive data is becoming less safe. Common methods such as email often do not provide sufficient protection to prevent interception. By combining our expertise from engineering, computer science, and synthetic biology, we created “QRoningen”, a protocol based on a physical QR code with the purpose of secure information sharing. Our homemade bioprinter can print reproducible QR code shapes using an alginate bioink that is infused with a mix of different bacterial strains. In order to protect your data, we have engineered E. coli and the fast-growing organism V. natriegens. Tools from synthetic biology such as inducible promoters and kill switches are employed to reveal the QR code upon incubation in the proper environment. Only knowledge of the correct key, being the conditions of growth, will allow you to scan the QR code and receive the message, while exposure to the wrong cues will render it unreadable. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• StyGreen

  • Jan 2018 - Nov 2018

  The production of many chemicals is currently based on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are however a finite resource which the world is using rapidly. Models indicate that oil resources will be depleted in the next couple of decades. Hence, there is an ever increasing attention for replacement with bio-renewable resources and sustainable production processes. We believe that the transition away from fossil fuels towards a bio-based economy is one of the key challenges of the 21st century. Therefore, iGEM Groningen 2018 team decided to contribute to a sustainable future and a greener planet by investigating a bio-based alternative production route for the important chemical styrene. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• IMPACT

  • Jan 2017 - Nov 2017

  The Netherlands produces a significant portion of the global dairy foods. This industry revolves around the fermentation of milk, which is accomplished by lactic acid bacteria, such as Lactococcus lactis. Lactic acid bacteria are susceptible to bacteriophage infections. Once a phage infects a lactic acid bacterium, it will use the bacterium as a host to multiply itself which will kill the cell and disrupt the fermentation process. The goal of the Groningen iGEM 2017 project is to design a system that can be used to survey for multiple pre-programmed nucleotide sequences together with a convenient readout. To do so, a CRISPR-based detection system will be developed capable of detecting bacteriophages commonly present in the dairy industry. This would alert factories of a phage infection earlier in the process, which enables a more dynamic implementation of counter measures. This will be a huge benefit for the dairy industry. It also will ensure a high quality product for the customers and benefit the environment by processing milk in a more efficient manner. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• CryptoGE®M: Encode it, Keep it

  • Jan 2016 - Nov 2016

  The world's silicon supply won't be able to cover the demand for flash data storage by 2040. However, nature has been encoding enormous amounts of information in DNA for billions of years. By introducing a sequence into DNA of bacterial spores, one of the most durable and resilient forms of life, "CryptoGE®M" tries to combine storing information and transferring it in a safe way. The goal is to safely send a key and an encrypted message in two separate spore systems of Bacillus subtilis. Digital and biological protection layers will prevent this information from being captured by unauthorized parties. The message is protected by computational encryption, while the sensitive key can only be accessed from the spores with the right growing conditions. For example, light-switchable antibiotics have to be activated by the correct frequency of light. If the recipient fails, the sequence will be destroyed and the message is lost forever. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Blue Bio Energy

  • Jan 2015 - Nov 2015

  The world is changing and so are the energy needs of humanity. Fossil resources are being depleted and it is clear that the transition to clean sustainable energy has to be made. We believe synthetic biology can be an important catalyst in this process. Specifically, we engineer a Bacillus subtilis biofilm to function as a cation exchange membrane. Such a membrane can be used in Reverse Electrodialysis (RED), a technique to generate energy where salt and fresh water mix, for example where rivers flow into the sea. We call this application of the bacterial biofilm Blue Bio Energy. To make the Bacillus subtilis suitable for RED, we first make it more robust by overexpressing the biofilm genes tasA and bslA while preventing reversion to the motile state by knocking out the abrB regulator and overexpressing slrR, another biofilm regulator. Simultaneously, the amino acid polymer gamma-polyglutamic acid was modelled extensively to see if it could be used to make the biofilm ion selective. This was found to be the case. Experiments showed that Bacillus subtilis 3610 comI biofilms are slightly ion selective and, surprisingly, that ion selectivity is improved by knocking out abrB as well as by overexpression of bslA and slrR. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• LactoAid

  • Jan 2014 - Nov 2014

  Infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa often pose problems for burn wound treatments. We developed a new kind of bandage that prevents these infections and reduces the use of antibiotics, thereby lowering the risk of developing antibiotic resistance. The bandage consists of a hydrogel that contains genetically engineered Lactococcus lactis with nutrients. The engineered strain of L. lactis detects the quorum sensing molecules of the two pathogens in the wound and subsequently produces the antimicrobial nisin as well as some other Infection-Preventing-Molecules (IPMs). These IPMs are the anti-biofilm protein Dispersin B and the quorum quenching protein AHLase. The gel is placed between two layers, a top layer to allow diffusion of gases and a bottom layer to contain the bacteria within the bandage. Hydrating the gel by breaking adjacent water pockets initiates the growth of the bacteria, thereby activating the bandage. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• First iGEM Groningen Project

  • Jan 2013 - Nov 2013

  Bone fractures and other physical problems are often solved with implants. Unfortunately about half of the implants give rise to complications, such as inflammations, infections and rejection by the host. Beside the delays in recovery, which cost the American society alone $30 billion a year, the undesired effects also cause great discomfort and a 25% increase in mortality. To reduce negative effects a protective and biocompatible coating can be applied to the implant, prior to insertion into the body. A very potent material to use for this coating is spider silk. Not only does it exert great biomedical properties, it also has high tensile strength, elasticity and is biodegradable. The focus of this project is to coat an implant with recombinant spider silk. Bacillus subtilis cells were transformed to enable spider silk production, and to introduce a novel heat triggered system. By addition of a signal sequence to the silk protein gene the bacterium is able to export the protein out of its cell. Also a Strep-tag® is added to the silk protein sequence. B. subtilis is inherently able to sense temperature, and by coupling this sensor to its movement system the cells will become immobilized near the implant. This trick allows efficient and localized production of spider silk near the heated implant, to which the Strep-tagged silk proteins can attach. After processing and thorough sterilization, which the spider silk coating can withstand, the coated implant is ready for use. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Food Warden

  • Jan 2012 - Oct 2012

  The Food Warden is a system that detects meat spoilage. It uses Bacillus subtilis cells. Their natural genetic response to the gases of rotten meat has been identified and linked to a pigment production system. In this way, a consumer can easily see when the meat is spoiled: it's rotten and you know it! The Food Warden is a system that detects meat spoilage. It uses Bacillus subtilis cells. Their natural genetic response to the gases of rotten meat has been identified and linked to a pigment production system. In this way, a consumer can easily see when the meat is spoiled: it's rotten and you know it!



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Count coli - a synthetic biological counter

  • Jan 2011 - Oct 2011

  Count Coli, aims to design a genetic device able to count and memorize the occurrences of an input signal. This is achieved by utilizing auto-inducing loops that act as memory units, and an engineered riboregulator acting as an AND gate. This design of the device is modular allowing free change of both input and output signals. Each increase of the counter results in a different output signal. The design allows the implementation of any number of memory units, as the AND gate design enables us to extend the system in a hassle-free way. In order to tweak bistable autoinducing loops, we needed a very fast and robust method for characterizing parts. For this, we have created a cloud-based application hosting a genetic algorithm. It also allows the combination of data from multiple experiments across models with overlapping components. This functionality, massively parallelized on the cloud and backed by our own pool of clients, allowed us to find parameters of the parts used in the design. Show less



iGEM Competition

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Hydrophobofilm

  • Jan 2010 - Oct 2010