Team:Istanbul United

Welcome to Istanbul_United's page!

We are ready to start the iGEM season!

What is our purpose?

The industry and the technological development in the 21st century made our life easier. Besides that the factories release some pollutants to air, water, solid, etc. Heavy Metals have been used extensively in industrial processes and products in recent years. These pollutants are one of the most important pollutants known to have negative effects on the environment and human health. It's a current problem that is increasing day by day, also affecting the food chain. There are lots of solutions for this issue, yet they aren't permanent. We are aiming to find a permanent solution. Our project is about reducing heavy metal pollution in the aquatic ecosystem by synthetic biology. The research we did shows that with this project we can reach our target successfully. The bioremediation gene will be transferred to E.coli from Algae. E.coli will be our chassis organism because, in algae, the bioremediation gene can cause some serious issue which is eutrophication. As a result of this, E.coli is the best to control this potential problem. Moreover, we choose gene cloning as the gene transfer method. Research we read about gene cloning methods made us think it’s the safest and the most effective way. Our main goal is to transfer the bioremediation gene to E.coli by gene cloning. We will release the E.coli to an aquatic ecosystem for the absorption of heavy metals. We won't be disturbing the life cycle of the ecosystem with the method we employ the bacteria.

Ecolgae (E.coli & Algae)

The issue of heavy metal pollution in aquatic systems is a very serious problem for both our future and present. This problem manifests itself in different ways all over the world. Although it affects the food chain and the life cycle negatively; the studies carried out until today, including methods where external intervention is mandatory, could only provide a temporary solution to the problem. We aim to reduce the percentage of heavy metals in water by using gene transfer methods and gene cloning, without disturbing the natural balance. This is possible by a system that will be added to the natural habitat. In this project, we studied how to use the bioremediation properties of algae without causing eutrophication. Based on this idea, we obtained transgenic E.coli which contains the heavy metal removal genes of algae. With our study, we as Istanbul United, can reduce heavy metal pollution permanently.