Team:Sharon MA ArborVitae

Team

Arbor Vitae is one of the teams that are part of Sharon High School's iGEM club. This being their first year, they are eager to explore the extensive field of synthetic biology.

Team Members:

Matthew Feid

Jasmina Prabhakara

Manasa Raman

Divya Muthusamy

Jamine Lau

Josh Pikovsky

Anna Burkatovsky

Manal Cheema

Niharika Kareddy

Anastasia Alekseyeva

Eli Blumen

James Dixon (Teacher)

Zach Snow (Teacher)

===Project Description=== Our project is based on the idea of detecting glyphosate, a dangerous pesticide, by triggering a gene that would cause a color change or a red fluorescent glow. The glyphosate is commonly found in pesticides used by agriculture-based corporations. This pesticide is found in water runoff and can have long-lasting negative effects, such as liver damage and mutations in amphibians. Glyphosate is similar to the amino acid glycine, so we will research bacteria that may recognize glycine, causing a series of reactions, aided by receptors and sensors, so that a viewer might recognize the presence of glyphosate. Ideally, this process would be done without the use of expensive, complicated equipment and materials, so that anyone with a basic set of tools could test a water supply to see if it is safe. While glyphosate can be found in air, water, and soil, we decided that the easiest test would be a water test, since that is easily added to incubating plates.

Results/Conclusions

What did you achieve over the course of your semester?

Safety

What safety precautions did your team take? Did you take a safety training course? Were you supervised at all times in the lab?

Attributions

Who worked on what?

Human Practices

What impact does/will your project have on the public?

===Fun!=== What was your favorite team snack?? Have a picture of your team mascot?