Students take top honors at international competition
November 17, 2008
Starkville, Miss.—Biological engineering majors Caleb Dulaney and Sam Pote, along with graduate student Robert Morris captured the bronze medal at the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. The three-member team designed a genetic part that breaks down lignin, a glue like substance that holds wood together. The team’s discovery is significant because when lignin in wood is decomposed, it allows scientists to access the cellulose and hemicellulose carbohydrates used to make bio-fuel. It’s an answer to a complicated problem researchers across the world have been trying to resolve.
“Where the engineering comes in to this biological process is that we recognize how something in nature functions and we access those genes and engineer them in a way that we want them to behave,” explained Dulaney. “For instance, we knew that white rot fungus naturally breaks down the cell walls of lignin, however it doesn’t perform that process very fast. So, we extracted those genetic parts that decompose lignin and added them to our own system that creates lignin peroxidase at a fast rate.”
Lignin peroxidase is the enzyme solution that disintegrates lignin in wood. When introducing the lignin eating gene into yeast, its biological system, combined with a few other additives, naturally produces the lignin peroxidase.
“We started our project this past summer when the iGEM organization sent us the biobrick kits,” said Pote. “The official name of the kit is the Registry of Biological Parts and they didn’t have a biobrick for the biodegradation of lignin or cellulose or anything like that, because it hadn’t been discovered yet. So, our team was progressive and we started from scratch to invent a biobrick {gene} that could help the scientists and researchers produce more bio-fuel.”
The discovery will not only help America become less dependent on foreign oil, but it also opens up alternative markets for the logging industry, because they now have a use for the wood waste. Nearly 400 tons of wood solids are deposited into landfills each year—a resource that can now be used to make bio-fuel.
”When we were presenting our project, a guy who was involved in the human genome project sat right in the front row,” recalled Dulaney. “Even Shell Oil was looking into breaking down lignin, so obviously, we’re doing something pretty big here.”
Experts believe that there is another important application for the team’s discovery; they believe that the lignin peroxidase enzyme may be able to break down plastics and other similar items with complex polymers. Plastics are now recyclable, but this application may make them biodegradable and safer for our environment.
“We have world class students here,” commented Dr. Filip To, associate professor and the group’s adviser. “Especially when considering we were competing against students from Ivy League schools who have larger budgets and consequently access to a lot more resources. I’m proud that we have the caliber of students who continuously compete and place in the top three in the world.”
Eighty-four teams with more than 1,000 participants from 21 countries across Europe, Asia, Central and Latin America, and the U.S. participated in the competition.
The iGEM competition is the premiere undergraduate synthetic biology competition. The organization began in January of 2003 with a month-long course during MIT’s Independent Activities Period. This design course grew to a summer competition with five teams in 2004, 13 teams in 2005—the first year of international competition, to 32 teams in 2006, and 54 teams in 2007.