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Christopher Brunson

Christopher Brunson . iGEM Brainstorming. Idea 1: Oil Spill Clean Up. Oil spills can release up to 1.5 million tons of crude oil into the ocean Current efforts include use of detergents, mechanical clean up, and organisms such as bacteria

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Christopher Brunson

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  1. Christopher Brunson iGEM Brainstorming

  2. Idea 1: Oil Spill Clean Up • Oil spills can release up to 1.5 million tons of crude oil into the ocean • Current efforts include use of detergents, mechanical clean up, and organisms such as bacteria • Some denser oils such as PCB (poly-chlorinated biphenyls) are harder to clean up • Cost billions of dollars in damage to the economy and to the wildlife

  3. Current Situation • Engineer bacteria or yeast to clean up the oil spill • Current microorganisms used in clean up do not convert the crude oil to anything useful • Should engineer bacteria to convert the crude oil into more useful alkanes, hydrogen gas, or other petroleum derived products

  4. Proposal • Bacteria naturally produce surfactants • Find a naturally occurring gene that would allow the bacteria to produce hydrogen gas, natural gas, or more bio-friendly alkanes from the oil spill • Crude oil also contains about 10% sulfur, so bacteria that thrive on sulfur would be ideal

  5. Idea 2: Blood Clotting • Hemophilia and von Willebrand’s Disease result from imperfections in the clotting cascade • Mutated genes that produce Factor VIII, IX, and von Willebrand’s Factor • Heritable inability to coagulate efficiently/at all • Patients often bleed for extended periods of time

  6. Present Situation • Current treatment consists of injections of the relative clotting factors • Can be human, recombinant, or porcine • Patients often produce antibodies to the porcine clotting factors • Treatment can cost hundreds of dollars a year • Anticoagulants are also a problem as they induce continued bleeding

  7. Proposal • Engineer bacteria or yeast to produce the relative clotting factors (VIII, IX, von Willebrand) • Take gene from humans using colony PCR and insert into vectors • Factors can either be produced in sizable quantities in vitro, or bacteria can be administered when injury occurs in vivo • If applied to the affected area, immune markers would have to be removed from the bacteria.

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