Make a useful contribution for future iGEM teams and document it on this page.
Our team is dedicated to advancing in the field of synthetic biology for the improvement of our society. We aim to spark curiosity, bridge gaps, promote better understanding and elevate public outreach. Talking about our contribution to our IGEM community and beyond.
At iGEM ICT Mumbai, our philosophy is rooted in open-source innovation, education, and collaboration, ensuring that every contribution serves as a stepping stone for future teams to progress. Our External Airlift Bioreactor offers a versatile hardware model featuring pneumatic mixing and low shear stress, making it ideal for cell culture applications and ready for future teams to refine and adapt. Through our Yeast Education Kit, we introduced school students (ages 14–16) to experimental biology, nurturing scientific curiosity and hands-on learning about how factors in a bioreactor affect living systems. Our Urea Pathway Game brought synthetic biology to the public in an engaging way, using maize and gene-related questions to spark critical thinking and awareness. We further explored innovation through PVA + melanin composite sheets, demonstrating their potential for radiation shielding and advancing biomaterial research. All our protocols are systematically compiled in a comprehensive, easily reproducible repository, ensuring that future iGEM teams can seamlessly build upon our work, refine our designs, and carry the spirit of scientific openness forward.
Our External Loop Airlift Bioreactor marks an important step toward designing accessible, low-cost, and biologically compatible hardware for future synthetic biology applications, especially in space. Although the system faced challenges during testing and did not complete a full operational cycle successfully, the model still demonstrates strong potential as a foundation for further development. Its design utilizes pneumatic mixing to achieve low shear stress and gentle circulation, conditions ideal for cell culture systems where minimizing mechanical damage to cell membranes is essential.
While our prototype requires optimization in aspects such as airlift efficiency, flow control, and structural stability, it establishes a functional proof of concept that can be refined and scaled by future teams. With improved design iterations, it can serve as a versatile bioreactor platform adaptable to a range of biological systems and experiments. We believe that sharing our progress, even in its incomplete form, contributes to the collective learning within iGEM and encourages future teams to build, troubleshoot, and innovate beyond where we left off.
As part of our Education and Outreach initiative, we developed a Yeast Education Kit to introduce students aged 14–16 to the fundamentals of process parameters optimization through simple, hands-on experiments. The kit focuses on studying the effect of temperature, pH, and other factors on yeast growth and behavior, helping students understand the working of bioreactors in an engaging and accessible way. Designed using safe, low-cost materials and easy-to-follow instructions, it encourages scientific curiosity, experimentation, and critical thinking among young learners. We hope that future teams will expand upon this idea, integrating more interactive elements or digital tracking to make synthetic biology education even more immersive and impactful.
On the occasion of National Space Day, we organized an interactive puzzle-based activity inspired by our project’s focus on the urea pathway. The game was designed to creatively explain one of our Design cycles, where each step of the puzzle represented a stage in our project’s workflow. Participants answered questions related to genes and genetic engineering involved in the urea pathway, and each correct answer brought them closer to the final point, symbolizing successful design completion. This engaging activity not only made complex concepts more approachable but also encouraged participants to think critically about synthetic biology and understand how real-world research follows a systematic, iterative process.
Our GDH1 part (BBa_25ti69kr) played a central role in enhancing the nitrogen metabolism of our yeast strain, which was critical for achieving the objectives of our project. By overexpressing GDH1, the yeast was able to efficiently convert inorganic nitrogen (ammonium) into organic nitrogen compounds like glutamate and glutamine, which serve as building blocks for all other amino acids and nitrogen-containing biomolecules. This overexpression directly boosted the yeast’s capacity to produce a high yield of protein, forming the biochemical backbone for applications such as protein supplement production or targeted amino acid synthesis.
In our project, this part was especially important for linking nitrogen assimilation to the broader metabolic engineering goals, such as producing valuable protein from waste nitrogen sources such as urea. By incorporating GDH1, we could demonstrate the feasibility of using engineered yeast for sustainable protein production, nutrient supplementation, and nitrogen waste remediation. Essentially, our part served as a key driver of metabolic flux toward amino acid synthesis, enabling downstream applications in synthetic biology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and environmental management.
Our GLN1 part (BBa_25GT9CLB) is an integral gene in the Nitrogen Assimilation Pathway that encodes the enzyme glutamine synthetase (Gln1p). This enzyme catalyzes the ATP-dependent conversion of L-glutamate and ammonium (NH₄⁺) into L-glutamine, a crucial reaction that converts inorganic nitrogen into organic forms. Overexpressing GLN1 enhances the yeast cell’s nitrogen assimilation efficiency, increasing the production of glutamine and other amino acid precursors essential for protein and nitrogenous biomolecule synthesis.
Overexpression of GLN1 has significant industrial and environmental applications. Glutamine is a high-value amino acid used in nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and cell culture media, traditionally produced through energy-intensive chemical or bacterial methods. An engineered yeast strain with GLN1 overexpression offers a sustainable, low-cost, and waste-minimizing alternative, capable of converting inexpensive nitrogen sources like urea or ammonium into glutamine with high yield. Such systems can also be adapted for space biotechnology and waste valorization, transforming nitrogen-rich waste into valuable biomolecules and promoting sustainable biomanufacturing.
We developed and optimized PVA + melanin composite sheets, combining the flexibility and durability of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with the natural radiation-absorbing properties of eumelanin. These sheets demonstrated a significant ability to shield against radiation, as confirmed by our experimental results, highlighting their potential for applications in environments with elevated radiation exposure. The composite is easy to fabricate, scalable, and adaptable, making it a promising material for future teams to explore in areas such as space-synthetic biology, protective coatings, or bio-inspired radiation shielding
All seventeen meticulously framed protocols for our standard and novel lab procedures are accessible on our experiments page , serving as a comprehensive repository for future teams. Designed for clarity and reproducibility, these protocols allow others to replicate our experiments exactly as we performed them, ensuring consistency and reliability in results. By compiling them systematically, we aim to provide a ready-to-use resource that not only supports upcoming iGEM teams but also encourages further innovation and adaptation of our method.
A Python-based computational model was developed following the framework proposed by Belov et al., which describes the induction and repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) through four principal cellular pathways: non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), homologous recombination (HR), single-strand annealing (SSA), and alternative NHEJ (Alt-NHEJ). The model represents these mechanisms as a series of rate equations solved as an initial value problem, effectively treating the cell as a batch reactor.
The number of unrepaired DSBs remaining after a specified time interval is then used as an input variable in an exponential survival function to predict cellular survival. The survival curve was fitted to real data of normal yeast cells irradiated
To simulate the radioprotective effect of the Damage Suppressor Protein (DSUP), a protection ratio r was introduced. This ratio scales down the effective DSB yield to represent the observed increase in radioresistance associated with DSUP expression. By substituting the reduced DSB values into the survival model, an enhanced survival percentage is obtained.
The protection ratio r was estimated based on experimental findings from studies on DSUP-expressing tardigrades and mammalian cells (Hashimoto et al., 2016; Kirke et al., 2020; Yoshida et al., 2017).