Team:St Pauls London/Notebook

1st round of meetings - Brainstorming

Ideas pitched:

1. “Operation Gloop” - production of a glue-like protein as found in mussels
2. Ionising Radiation detection
3. pH buffer - regulate acidity of soil for improved crop growth
4. Desalination
5. Organophosphate detection and degradation
6. Screening of blood (pathogen-sensing bacteria)
7. Chitinase-producing bacteria
8. Plastic/Artificial Polymer degradation
9. Allergen sensor

Issues raised with these ideas:

1. Protein may require post-translational modification; bacterium may not have necessary organelles
2. No simple detection mechanism
3. No simple mechanism
4. No simple mechanism; in addition, organism may die due to water potential differences
5. Major issue in that even in cleaving the phosphate group from the molecule, the long alkane chains in an of themselves may be toxic; in addition, a chemical breakdown mechanism which is both much faster and much more efficient than anything we could achieve already exists
6. Difficulty in finding specific proteins to trigger a promoter which are also present on bacteria
7. No simple mechanism/no biobrick
8. No simple mechanism; similar to organophosphate problem
9. Nuts may prove difficult, as allergenic proteins may not have a pathway into the cell to affect the promoter itself; secondary messenger system may have to be employed; could get quite messy