Experimental: Wetlab Team
Cellyse
Project Leads: Ella Ramamurthy, Ellen Malham
Members: Jacob Spiegel, George Balazs, Katie Fang, Andrew Gabagat, Arthi Vaidyanathan, Samhita Nittala, Jacob Rulison (alum)
Cellyse is focused on using genetic engineering techniques to improve sustainability within science. Our team harnesses the lytic genes of bacteriophage T4 to create a genetic construct capable of lysing cells. By introducing our plasmid into bacteria, spent bacterial cultures can be lysed by adding water to the solution, enabling nutrient recycling of the cell culture media. We have created our inducible genetic construct using a magnesium ion-based system and are now fine-tuning the amount of inducer chemical needed to manipulate cell lysis. We hope to expand this inducible lysis mechanism to create biosensors for detection of various chemicals and contaminants in the environment.