Our Projects
The scope of the iGEM competition is to solve modern-day solutions with synthetic biology. The topic ranges from diagnostics to creating in-silico model systems for machine learning. Since our very first team was established in 2016, we have done projects in the field of therapeutics, biomanufacturing, and climate crisis.
You can find information on our past projects below.
This year, our project aims to address the issue of nitrate pollution in groundwater caused by various sources such as agriculture, industry, sewage, septic tanks, and landfills. Germany has consistently exceeded the WHO quality standard for nitrate levels since 2008, leading to health hazards and violating the EU Nitrates Directive. To tackle this, our goal is to develop a biosynthetic product called NitraNix that utilizes the enzyme nitrate reductase from native denitrifying bacteria to convert nitrate into atmospheric nitrogen, employing a cell-free enzymatic electrosynthesis system to avoid GMO release into water sources.
Recently, our 2022 team had their minds on biofuel from cyanobacteria. They called it “Cyan Energy“. They attempted to optimize alkane production by optimizing the HEFA (Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids) pathway by genetically modifying cyanobacteria to increase its CO2 intake to produce branched alkanes, thereby bypassing the first step of the HEFA pathway. Learn More
The 2020/2021 team’s project, BioLan, was on Rare-earth metals (RRE) extraction with the help of bacteria. They used an exotic protein, recently characterized by an extremophile bacteria. Said protein is called, LanModulin (LanM), which specifically binds to lanthanides and with this, they developed a project to extract these rare metals. Learn More
In 2019, the team’s project, Optoplant, was on creating plants that grows in the dark. Learn More
The 2017/2018 team’s project was called Molecular Mouthwash, in which they combat cariogenesis with aptamers. Learn More
In 2016, the project was called Enzymatic Whitewashing. The team developed an ecological approach to paper recycling. Learn More