For our final project we had to apply our knowledge of biotechnology to solve a world problem. We went through the stages of the engineering and design cycle. My team and I choose the energy crisis and finding alternative sources of energy. Our consensus was that there is already a lot of research being done on alternative sources of energy so we decided to focus on decrease our energy consumption. We released that there are a lot of lights that have to stay on for long periods of time like night lights or street lamps and that they sit there going through energy. We decided to look for an alternative to these types of light sources. The result: Grown to Glow! This is the name of our product line of glowing plants. Small ones can be used as nightlights and larger ones for garden lighting. They employ a genetic modification of the plant to produce luciferien, a chemical created using the enzyme Luciferase. This uses a simalier process to our pGLO (GMO) lab. Our presentation describes our entire concept and the science in more detail.
Luciferin- A chemical that reacts with oxygen to produce light without any heat or waste product. It is what makes our plants glow.
Luciferase- The enzyme that produces Luciferin. We plant on adding it to our plants so they can create Luciferin. Grown to Glow- The name our our glowing plant product line. Our company is called Hanging Garden Inc. (named after the Hanging Gardens of Babylon)
Engineering Design Cycle- A process that makes sure you full think through an idea or lab. We used it for this project so we did not miss any details.
Agrobacterium- The strain of bacteria we are using to transport our plasmid into the plant.
Gene Gun- A process that involves shooting a metal, DNA covered pellet into a seed to genetically modify it. We considered this method for our plants but decided it was too difficult and costly.
Electroportation- A process that involves zapping a plant with electricity to open it pores to allow us to get the transport bacteria into the plant. This is the process we decided use use for our project.
Xylem Transport- A process that involves putting glowing bacteria in water and then putting a cut flower into the water. The flower will suck up the glowing water and glow.
Plasmidify- To turn into a plasimid that can be injected into the plant. For our project, we wanted to get luciferase into a plasimid.
This has been one of my favorite project during the entire year. This is probably due to my team. Ms. Mathews allowed my group to have 7 people (normally there is 4). Everyone in my group was hardworking and we are all friends. That made this project much more fun but also less stressful (since I could trust all my teammates to get their work done). Due to the group size and the work ethic my team was also able to accomplish a large and complex project in the short time frame. My pits would be that we got too caught up in the little things (like certain marketing choices). This caused us to have to work harder to get the project done. The other pit would be that the engineering design cycle was confusing for us. We tried to use it to stay organised but it ended up just having up do a bunch of extra work. Overall though, I have no complaints. This was a fun, interesting, and challenging project that I might want to explore further in the future.
Thank you to our mentor, Thomas Lobl for his valuable comments and guidance. His previous work with luciferase helped us make our project as scientifically accurate and plausible as possible.
Below you can find all of our work. It is organised in the steps of the engineering design cycle.
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
<
>
Below are the questions we asked our mentor, Tom Lobl, as well as his answers.