CONTRIBUTIONS
1. Booklet- VIT x ASIJ: The Plastic Pestilence
Our team collaborated with iGEM ASIJ to prepare a comprehensive guidebook, titled, ‘The Plastic Pestilence’
outlining
the extent of plastic pollution in India and Japan. It also succinctly explains bioalternatives to plastics and
looks at
sustainable initiatives and policies implemented by both the countries.
Through this guidebook, we have also curated a list of plastic degrading organisms and their sources such that
future
teams investigating possible plastic degrading solutions can improve on the genes from these existing organisms.
Additionally, we have also provided information about Asian crops being used to make bioplastics.
Read it here:
VIT X ASIJ -
The Plastic Pestilence
2. Microplastic Quantification- An Appraisal of the Nile Red Fluorescence
The project was a global initiative to measure the levels of microplastics in tap water worldwide. There were five
iGEM
teams participating, from across four continents - UNILausanne team, Makerere team, and Synfronteras team, Team
Stockholm and Team VIT.
Team VIT-Vellore was responsible for ideating the initiative and optimizing the protocol for the experiment. Our aim
was
to find a standardised, easy to perform protocol for microplastic detection. We prepared two protocols based on
simple
Nile-Red staining and detection using fluorescence microscopy. We performed the Nile-Red staining method.
Link to the protocols:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10CeQLPVuBB1H56twe0va5E2_72TONGlIm6lk_LyZSME/edit?usp=drivesdk
Team Stockholm facilitated the collaboration by reaching out to and coordinating between the different teams. They
also
approached experts in FTIR, to understand FTIR based experiments for microplastic detection.
Team UNILaussane performed the Nile Red staining experiment. They encountered the problem of external contamination
in
their sample, and tried to overcome this by replicating their results thrice.
Team Makerere performed the Nile Red staining experiment. They tried to further optimize the protocol, under the
guidance of their project investigator.
Team Synfronteras performed the Nile Red staining method, and highlighted areas where they inferred possibilities of
detection of microplastics.
All teams which performed the experiment sent images of their results. Although results were inconclusive, this
event
was insightful in highlighting the drawbacks of existing microplastic detection methods to us.
Read it here: Human Practices
Parts Contributed- 2 Basic Parts Added
We have documented the 2 new mutations we tested for MHETase in the registry. They can be found by searching for the
following part numbers:
We hope that future teams will find these mutants useful and build on them to make composite parts for better PET degrading systems.
