Team:UIUC Illinois

From 2012e.igem.org

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Revision as of 23:27, 20 October 2012

Mission Statement

Illinois Synth was formed in January 2012 to develop, market, and license products intended to further the progress of synthetic biology. Our founding team is comprised of nine University of Illinois undergraduate students from a variety of backgrounds including bioengineering, biochemistry, molecular biology, agricultural engineering and chemical engineering. Brought together initially by the desire to work with synthetic biology in the context of the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition, we are now in the process of commercializing our research.

Our Products

Illinois Synth is currently developing two product lines. The first of these product lines is a toolkit designed to facilitate the manipulation of gene expression in RNA. The toolkit of gene expression modulators (GEMs) revolves around an RNA-specific binding protein known as PUF, and aims to improve the versatility and cost efficiency of biological production systems. The PUF protein also has properties suited to the optimization of multi-step enzymatic pathways, which is the basis for our second product line. As a direct application for the RNA binding abilities of PUF, we designed an RNA scaffold with the purpose of creating an enzyme conveyer belt. While there are many enzymatic pathways that could be enhanced by such a scaffold, we propose to increase the efficiency and production of piceatannol, a compound with a variety of functions including the inhibition of fat cell formation. Our final product, the In Vivo Optimized Piceatannol Cascade (IOPiC), will combine the use of PUF-protein based gene expression modulators (GEMs) and our RNA scaffold to optimize the in vivo production pathway from resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, to piceatannol, our compound of interest.

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 		<h3>Mission Statement</h3>
-		<p>The ultimate goal of the University of Illinois 2012 iGEM team is to construct an RNA based protein scaffold to use in the optimization of multi-step enzymatic pathways like that involved in the production of Piceatannol from less complex molecules. We aim to improve the versatility and cost efficiency of biological production systems by use of our PUF project RNA scaffold and to prove its viability through the implementation of such a system in our PHAT project's Piceatannol production in E.Coli.</p>
+		<p>Illinois Synth was formed in January 2012 to develop, market, and license products intended to further the progress of synthetic biology. Our founding team is comprised of nine University of Illinois undergraduate students from a variety of backgrounds including bioengineering, biochemistry, molecular biology, agricultural engineering and chemical engineering. Brought together initially by the desire to work with synthetic biology in the context of the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition, we are now in the process of commercializing our research. </p>
-		<h3>Our Product</h3>
-		<p>This project is focused on creating and optimizing a construct for the production and customization of the PUM protein. In doing so, our team is looking to standardize the method in which the RNA binding protein can be used as a toolkit in Biobrick format. With a toolkit we hope to produce utility with biological parts while following the philosophies of engineering. This toolkit will then be used in various ways to further control distinct aspects of anything involving RNA. In doing so, we also seek to utilize such properties, zinc fingers, and RNA stem loops to create a protein scaffolding system based on RNA.</p>
+		<h3>Our Products</h3>
+		<p>Illinois Synth is currently developing two product lines. The first of these product lines is a toolkit designed to facilitate the manipulation of gene expression in RNA. The toolkit of gene expression modulators (GEMs) revolves around an RNA-specific binding protein known as PUF, and aims to improve the versatility and cost efficiency of biological production systems.
+The PUF protein also has properties suited to the optimization of multi-step enzymatic pathways, which is the basis for our second product line. As a direct application for the RNA binding abilities of PUF, we designed an RNA scaffold with the purpose of creating an enzyme conveyer belt. While there are many enzymatic pathways that could be enhanced by such a scaffold, we propose to increase the efficiency and production of piceatannol, a compound with a variety of functions including the inhibition of fat cell formation. Our final product, the In Vivo Optimized Piceatannol Cascade (IOPiC), will combine the use of PUF-protein based gene expression modulators (GEMs) and our RNA scaffold to optimize the in vivo production pathway from resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, to piceatannol, our compound of interest.
+</p>
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