Title: Methanivore - The end to end implementation of landfill gas assimilation using genetically engineered methanotrophs.

Description: Landfill gasses (LFG) comprise 23% of Canada's methane emissions, making the sustainable management of LFG emissions key for mitigating global warming. The current management strategy involves combusting methane using flaring infrastructure, which releases substantial carbon dioxide and cannot be installed in smaller landfills. Herein, we propose a novel, end-to-end implementation of a synthetic biology solution to consume LFGs using genetically engineered methanotrophs.

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Title: PET3: Machine Learning and Rosetta Guided Design of Efficient Plastic Degrading Enzymes

Description: Plastics are useful materials that we use in the devices and tools we use in our daily lives, but our widespread usage of plastic comes at a cost. The problem of plastic waste has worsened over the pandemic. However, iGEM Toronto is developing a solution with methods in synthetic biology to recycle PET plastic, which could allow communities to recycle PET plastic an indefinite number of times.

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Title: Methanivore: a comprehensive solution to landfill gas emissions through bacterial metabolic engineering

Description: Landfill gasses (LFG) account for 23% of Canada's methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Current methods methane combustion release excess carbon dioxide and are ecologically harmful. Our solution involves optimizing a genetically-engineered Escherichia coli strain (T-B18) which metabolizes methanol via the ribulose monophosphate pathway (RuMP). We also demonstrated a process concept where methane is separated from LFG using cellulose acetate membranes then converted into methanol by a catalytic reactor, enabling bacterial consumption. Using Genome-Scale Metabolic Models and literature research, we generated an ordered list of genetic modifications that can increase methanol assimilation, namely TpiA and frdABCD as our knock-out targets. To quantify T-B18 s methanol assimilation ability, we used HPLC to measure methanol levels in cell culture before and after modification. The engineered T-B18 strain exhibits preference towards metabolizing glucose over methanol, further tuning needed to make it a promising candidate for on-site applications at landfill sites.

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Title: On Site Diagnostic Tool for Oak Wilt Disease using LAMP

Description: Oak Wilt is a fungal disease invading millions of Oak trees across North America. It can devastate forests with no viable treatment available. Therefore, early detection of this disease is critical for timely containment. iGEM Toronto is developing a rapid diagnostic tool which can detect the Oak Wilt fungal DNA from samples on-site in 30-50 min. Our device will indicate positive results through colour change detectable by eye.

Wiki link: https://2022.igem.wiki/toronto
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igemtoronto/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iGEMToronto

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