The Harvard team went an entirely different route. Using a bacteria recently discovered in Lake Oneida, Team "Bactricity" created a microbial fuel cell. Instead of trying to create a new source of electricity, the team instead created a way to measure gene expression using electricity. The scientist who developed the most widely used method for measuring gene expression, using a green-glowing protein, won a Nobel prize earlier this year. Other teams took on more light-hearted projects. Rice University students brewed "BioBeer," a hefeweizen made with yeast engineered to produce resveratrol, the chemical in red wine that has been shown to extend life in various animal models. No matter what the project, the teams used the same toolkit -- and in many cases, the same tools. That's one of the big differences between synthetic biology and the older field of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is largely a custom-designed field; researchers create their own tools, a sometimes difficult and time-consuming process that can be hard for other scientists to replicate. Synthetic biology aims to standardized all the tools and parts used in genetic engineering. One requirement of the competition is that all the parts created by the teams, called BioBricks, are registered with iGEM and made freely available to other teams. "Teams this year have succeeded in completing projects they never could have when we first started," said Rettberg. "This is all possible because of the efforts of previous iGEM teams." According to Rettberg, individual projects are "the tip of the iceberg ... The goal is not to do a particular thing; it's to make a new industry." For the students, the science is certainly important, but exposure to the larger field of synthetic biology and meeting students with similar commitment from around the world is the highlight. "Getting to come out here and presenting our work was for me the most enjoyable," said Taylor Stevenson, a member of Rice University's iGEM team. "Now I get to go back to all the other work that has piled up." Richard Anthony, a professor of Applied Biology at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, has been asked by several students to put together an iGEM team. For him, iGEM is like a concept car; creativity and the ability to inspire are more important than practicality. "It's great to see so many young people getting excited about biology," said Anthony. "Ultimately, I'm just an older version of these students." Related Links: |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
-
our sites
-
video
mobile
-
shop
-
stay connected
-
corporate
