Team:NCTU Formosa/Implementation
Overview
E. Hybrid is centered around a GR-expressing E. coli that can utilize light as a
substitute for glucose to increase efficiency of protein production. Amazingly, with synthetic
biology, countless types of proteins can be integrated
into our system. In this sense, E. Hybrid serves as a versatile protein expression platform that
can be used to meet the resource demands of a wide variety of fields and industries.
Food
Large scale production of food additives represents a significant fraction of the
food industry’s costs. Many of these additives, such as aspartic proteinase used as a
milk-clotting enzyme for making cheese, can be produced using genetically
modified bacteria. Using our E. Hybrid system could improve the production efficiency and cut
costs, hopefully for both manufacturers and consumers.
Agriculture
In recent years, the agriculture industry has placed more and more emphasis on
environmentally friendly fertilizers, pesticides, and plant growth-promoting substances, many of
which are proteins. One such product of extreme interest
is anti-fungal peptides, which are both extremely effective against harmful fungi but harmless
to other organisms. E. Hybrid can be used to produce these peptides on an industrial scale to
meet the growing demands of farms and
communities around the world.
Health and Medicine
The number of protein products used to treat diseases and improve physical health is
truly staggering, with more being discovered every year. Antibiotics are used to treat
infections, insulin is vital to diabetes management, and vitamins
such as riboflavin maintain immune health. All of these protein-based health products and
medicines can be produced more efficiently using E. Hybrid at a lower carbon cost.
Environment
In addition to being innately environmentally friendly, E. Hybrid can be actively
used to produce products useful for various bioremediation efforts. Water polluted with
heavy-metals, for example, can be effectively treated with metal-binding
proteins for effective and natural detoxification. The versatility and efficiency of E. Hybrid
would be extremely helpful in combatting the various types of pollution that plague the Earth’s
ecosystems.
Creative Uses
E. Hybrid can be used to produce proteins of interesting qualities; for example, our
team demonstrated improved expression of RFP that glows when stimulated by light of a particular
wavelength. Proteins that respond to certain stimulus
in clearly perceivable fashion can be expressed in large amount to serve various purposes, both
practical and whimsical.
Indeed, the potential of the E. Hybrid platform is limited only by the unbelievable
range of proteins known to man and the incredibly wide variety of functions they serve.