Team:Saloniki Greece 12 biotech

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Saloniki 2012 iGem

Biotech In Our Country
During the progress of our project and because we weren't able to do labwork, we decided to find some ways to spread the idea of Biotechnology and to point out the possible benefits of it in Greece.Bio-Engineering can help the Greek economy. In order for this to happen, people must me informed, so that they will know about Synthetic Biology and won't be afraid about unwanted consequences. This step is really important, because many of the traditional Greeks (not only elder people) will blame Bio-engineers that they are "playing God", unless they completely understand what Synthetic Biology is all about. We are thinking to promote Biotech and educate peole in our country through pamphlets, videos and websites. Considering that people don't fight Synthetic Biology and that polititians won't ruin the whole plan, there are going to be several benefits for Greece. First of all, and maybe the most important thing at the time, is that job positions will be created! Due to the reduced competition, cheap land or ready unused buildings that they can take advantage of, foreign biotech companies will create factories and research facilities in our country. In this way, unemployment percentance will be decreased. Furthermore, these Biotech companies will be able to help with our country's agriculture. They can prepare the land and make it more fertile using Bioengineered bacteria, so that the production will rise enough in order to promote our products(Greek olive oil, wines, tomatoes etc.) to other countries and export them. In that way, more job positions will be created and the Greek market will begin to work and money will flow, so that our economy (Greece's,the rest of Europe and whole world) will find one's legs. Last, but definitely not least, young people that are still in universtities will have a chance to train in the companies' research facilities and they will be more prepared and experienced when they will graduate. As a result they will be employed more easily, they will do their job as they were supposed to and help our country ressurect from its ashes.

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-<table width=923px style="background-color: white; height: 700 px; margin-top:5px; padding: 10px;"><tr><td colspan="3"><div class="bodybaby">Abstract</div></td>
+<table width=923px style="background-color: white; height: 700 px; margin-top:5px; padding: 10px;"><tr><td colspan="3"><div class="bodybaby">Biotech In Our Country</div></td>
-<tr><td colspan="3"><br> In the recent months many people throughout Greece have been returning to agriculture as their main source of income. This makes agricultural developments extremely important for Greece’s economic future. For this reason we have selected an agricultural project for the focus of this year’s iGEM team. Furthermore, the American Farm School in Thessaloniki was founded to educate young men and women in agriculture and life science, thus the students from this school have practical training in this area.
+<tr><td colspan="3"><br> During the progress of our project and because we weren't able to do labwork, we decided to find some ways to spread the idea of Biotechnology and to point out the possible benefits of it in Greece.Bio-Engineering can help the Greek economy. In order for this to happen, people must me informed, so that they will know about Synthetic Biology and won't be afraid about unwanted consequences. This step is really important, because many of the traditional Greeks (not only elder people) will blame Bio-engineers that they are "playing God", unless they completely understand what Synthetic Biology is all about. We are thinking to promote Biotech and educate peole in our country through pamphlets, videos and websites.<br><br> Considering that people don't fight Synthetic Biology and that polititians won't ruin the whole plan, there are going to be several benefits  for Greece. First of all, and maybe the most important thing at the time, is that job positions will be created! Due to the reduced competition, cheap land or ready unused buildings that they can take advantage of, foreign biotech companies will create factories and research facilities in our country. In this way, unemployment percentance will be decreased. Furthermore, these Biotech companies will be able to help with our country's agriculture. They can prepare the land and make it more fertile using Bioengineered bacteria, so that the production will rise enough in order to promote our products(Greek olive oil, wines, tomatoes etc.) to other countries and export them. In that way, more job positions will be created and the Greek market will begin to work and money will flow, so that our economy (Greece's,the rest of Europe and whole world) will find one's legs. Last, but definitely not least, young people that are still in universtities will have a chance to train in the companies' research facilities and they will be more prepared and experienced when they will graduate. As a result they will be employed more easily, they will do their job as they were supposed to and help our country ressurect from its ashes.
-The key factor to having healthy soil is the presence of a plethora of different bacterial species. There are millions of different types of bacteria in nutritious soil. These bacteria do everything from decomposing dead matter to simple carbons or degrading pollutants to forming nitrogen-fixing, mutualistic relationships with plants.
-We can take advantage of the roots that exists at the American Farm School by working with the different soils and their equipment. We first plan to take soil samples from different areas at the farm. We will analyze the different bacterial and chemical composition of the soils in relation to the crops that are being grown in the area. Then we will identify the beneficial properties of the existing types of bacteria to see which would be most beneficial to express on a large-scale.
-We plan to focus on nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These microorganisms are called diazotrophs and are extremely important to the environment. They convert nitrogen (N2) in the atmosphere to ammonia (NH3). This allows the nitrogen to be easily used as a biological building block. Many of these bacteria form relationships with plants where the plant supply carbons and the bacteria supply the nitrogen for plants to use in growth. We are hoping to increase the ammonia supplied from the bacteria or work on protocols to make these bacteria easier to work with in synthetic biology.
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