Team:BV CAPS Kansas

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Revision as of 18:54, 16 April 2013

Welcome to CAPS

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Biofuels
The international oil industry drives our economy and very life of the world. However, this resource is dwindling and has detrimental effects on our atmosphere. In order to reduce oil usage and dependence, we will improve the efficiency of bio-fuels by manipulating the microbes used in their creation. By mimicking the features of extremophiles such as halobacteria, we will increase the survival of microbes in extreme temperatures and saline environments. These useful, untapped microbes can also be used to degrade plant waste, and, someday, even household waste. Our project this year is going to be production of alkanes through cyanobacteria. To do this, we will insert a hyperactive pyruvate kinase enzyme gene from a rabbit muscle. This will increase the production of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) greatly within the cyanobacteria. The excess PEP will then be used in the production of alkanes. Then, to further supplement this, we will place the cyanobacteria in a low oxygen environment which will further suppress the usage of energy by limiting the electron transport chain. This energy, in theory, would then be passed to the production of alkanes. Testing will be done with lipid extraction and profiling assay. Alkanes are important in the production of biodiesel.

Official Team Profile

Blue Valley Center of Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) is an outreach facility for students who wish to achieve higher goals and expectations in a professional environment. The team is composed of students from the Blue Valley district high schools giving us an array of students with different backgrounds and abilities.

Click here to see our team members.

Project

Click here to see the monthly lab notebooks.

Results/Conclusions

What did you achieve over the course of your semester?

Safety

What safety precautions did your team take? Did you take a safety training course? Were you supervised at all times in the lab?

Attributions

Who worked on what?

Human Practices

What impact does/will your project have on the public?

Fun

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-Our team is interested in exploring the properties of extremophiles, including Halobacteria. We have two major projects in mind:
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 <b>Biofuels</b>
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 The international oil industry drives our economy and very life of the world. However, this resource is dwindling and has detrimental effects on our atmosphere. In order to reduce oil usage and dependence, we will improve the efficiency of bio-fuels by manipulating the microbes used in their creation. By mimicking the features of extremophiles such as halobacteria, we will increase the survival of microbes in extreme temperatures and saline environments. These useful, untapped microbes can also be used to degrade plant waste, and, someday, even household waste.
+Our project this year is going to be production of alkanes through cyanobacteria.  To do this, we will insert a hyperactive pyruvate kinase enzyme gene from a rabbit muscle.  This will increase the production of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) greatly within the cyanobacteria.  The excess PEP will then be used in the production of alkanes.  Then, to further supplement this, we will place the cyanobacteria in a low oxygen environment which will further suppress the usage of energy by limiting the electron transport chain.  This energy, in theory, would then be passed to the production of alkanes. Testing will be done with lipid extraction and profiling assay. Alkanes are important in the production of biodiesel.
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-<b>Life on Mars</b>
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-By adding various features of extremophiles such as halobacteria, we will give microbes the ability to survive the hostile conditions on Mars, enabling them to grow in low oxygen/high carbon dioxide atmosphere with little water. In addition to extreme temperatures, the microbe needs to withstand mild radiation. We can do this by using a photosynthetic chassis, expressing antifreeze proteins.
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