ELASTICOLI – the iGEM Bordeaux team’s project!

For the 3^rd consecutive year, a team from Bordeaux will take part in the iGEM* competition.

The 2014 team consists of 18 students from the ENSTBB (National High School of Technology of Biomolecules) and Bordeaux University and is managed by Denis Dupuy (Inserm) and Elisabeth Garanger (CNRS), tow Group Leaders at the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology (IECB), and Marie Beurton-Aimar, Lecturer at the Bordeaux Laboratory of Informatics Research (LaBRI).

Their innovative project: use the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) to produce totally biodegradable materials with plastic and elastic properties.

By modifying E. coli’s DNA, the bacterium will produce proteins similar to those found in spider webs or those responsible for skin elasticity. Proteins will then lead to biodegradable polymers with amazing elastic and strength characteristics.

If successful, textile industry, regenerative medicine industry and other industrial areas seeking elastic materials could be highly interested in this innovation.

The iGEM competition will celebrate this year its 10^th anniversary. On this special occasion, the awards ceremony will take place in Boston, the originator city of the competition.

To finalize its participation, the iGEM Bordeaux team is still looking for sponsors and for the first time this year the team is appealing to crowdfunding. In addition to its confirmed sponsors: IECB, Bordeaux University, the French embassy in the USA, the Aquitaine Region, Inserm, CNRS and 2 companies (Teknimed and Genscript), our 2014 team hope therefore to supplement its budget and fly to Boston next October.

To support the ELASTICOLI project: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/elasticoli-igem-bordeaux-team-project

With this new innovative project, the team’s determination to win a medal is even stronger than in 2012 when they had already won a bronze medal.

Let’s wish the best to iGEM Bordeaux 2014!

^*iGEM (international Genetically Engineered Machines) is an international competition in the field of synthetic biology opened to undergraduate and PhD students. It’s organized by the prestigious MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology) of Boston and brings together several hundred teams from all around the world.

ELASTICOLI made speak about it:

Download the France 3 Aquitaine news release

Read more on Bordeaux news

Read the Sud-Ouest article

International media:

The new Yorker