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Built Nano-tough
A presentation brought to you by:
Ben, Judy, Will
Mentors:
Alvin and Jose
Synthetic Spider Silk
Spider silk, also known as gossamer, has a tensile strength stronger than
steel and is much lighter, making it very useful. The problem is it is very
difficult to raise enough spiders to extract silk, so doing it with bacteria might
be easier.
E. coli could produce the protein (it has been placed in transgenic goats) or maybe algae if
we wanted to have the cells spin it for us. Algae naturally makes colonies so maybe that
could be engineered to specialize into a spinneret.
Gene Therapy in Plants
-Plants have a passive immune system compared to those of warmblooded animals.
-One method to help cope with plant blights such as bacteria, viruses
and fungi would be to insert a sequence of DNA coding antimicrobial
substance
Possible Vectors:
-Ti Plasmid: Agrobacterium Tumafaciens
-Viruses which infect plants: ex. Tobacco Mosaic Virus
Possible Modifications to the Vector:
-A feedback mechanism within the vector so that proteins are not
overproduced.
Possible Nanotube Generation
The goal of this project is to utilize a biological system to fabricate
nanotubes. This would address the current limitations of nanoscale
structure creation and attempt to make nanotubes a more viable material
for many applications.
As it turns out, this project is made inherently infeasible by the toxicity of
carbon nanotubes in cells. Nanotubes based on other bases will be
considered, as will other nanoscale structures.