minnesota-igem-blog

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iGEM Students Engineer Biological Tools for a Better World

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on GMOs, and the public fear of science that we do not understand.

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Plants That Practice Genetic Engineering

In the debate over genetically modified crops, one oft-said word is “unnatural.” Peopletypically use it when describing how scientists move genes from one species into another.

But nature turns out to be its own genetic engineer. Genes have moved from one species of plant to another for millions of years.

Scientists describe a spectacular case this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which ferns acquired a gene for sensing light from a moss-like plant called hornwort. Gaining the gene appears to have enabled the ferns to thrive in shady forests.

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Forget invisible ink or lemon juice – spies can now send messages hidden in genetically engineered bacteria. The new method, dubbed steganography by printed arrays of microbes (SPAM), uses a collection of Escherichia coli strains modified with fluorescent proteins that glow in a range of seven...

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Glowing Plants: Crowdsourced Genetic Engineering Project Ignites Controversy

Biohackers who promised to distribute genetically modified bioluminescent plants without regulatory testing defend their work in this Q & A with Scientific American.

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There's a terrible stereotype that scientists are people who work alone at their bench tops all day and prefer to keep the company of test tubes than that of other people. For me, this couldn't be further from the truth. I've had so many wonderful mentors and peers who have become my friends and helped me out over the years. There's no place to make friends like the lab. One of our wonderful mentors has just left us for Japan, so for him we drew up this plate while prepping for this week's science museum visit. Good luck Jimmy! We'll miss you at iGEM! -Cassandra

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Cleanest water in minnesota is found in the boundary waters near Canada.

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Boundary waters 2014

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WHAT WOULD YOU DO if your drinking water suddenly became undrinkable?  

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN to your community, your state, and your country? 

WHO WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE for cleaning the water, especially if the contamination had more than one source or countless sources?  

HOW would anyone clean up teeny, tiny microcysts or other elusive contaminants from a whole lake?

These are a few of the questions that we think about.  We hope you do, too.

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This year's UMN iGEM project is focused on mercury bioremediation, which remains a pressing issue globally in oceans and drinking water alike. Here's some of the latest on the issue!

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An assortment of glowing dinosaurs drawn with Vibrio for our outreach program at the Science Museum of Minnesota!

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Minnesota iGEM is getting ready for another awesome jamboree in 2014!  We hope to see you all again this year!

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Welcome

Welcome to the University of Minnesota iGEM Team's Synthetic Biology ethics blog!

This year, Minnesota iGEM is devoted to solving the growing problem of mercury contamination in large bodies of water critical to communities and ecosystems.  Mercury, especially its highly toxic organomercuric forms, accumulate in living tissues such as the fish we eat, creating a serious public health concern.  Consuming too much mercury from contaminated fish causes neural development deficits, with especially tragic results occurring when mercury in mothers is passed through the umbilical cord on to unborn infants.  Presently, there is no solution to the wide-hitting problem of heavy metal water contamination, merely advisories to consume fish less frequently so as to reduce one's chances of mercury poisoning.  

Using an engineered microbial system and a custom-made filtration device, we are developing a way to reduce mercury levels in lakes, rivers, and drinking water tables in order to make them safe for all living beings to enjoy and to drink.

At any time, leave us a message or email us to tell us what you think!  We also love to answer any questions related to who we are and what we do.  Feel free to follow us for more information about our project concept and the ethics of synthetic biology.

Thanks for stopping by!