United Robotics of Lacombe – BeeWise
In 2024, 75% of Lacombe Composite High School’s bees died and in 2022, 60% of Alberta’s bees died over the winter months. Preventing your bees from dying over the winter can be a difficult task because so many factors can cause the bees to die and it is impossible to inspect your bees in the cold. The BeeWise Monitoring System allows beekeepers to monitor the temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels in the hive especially during the cold winter months. The data collected can then be used to notify the beekeeper when levels are too low or too high, help inform corrective actions and even predict how conditions are affecting the wellbeing of the bees – all future investigations that can be used with our prototype. This in turn would increase the beehives that survive the winter at our school, allowing the program to not only survive but thrive, increase the sustainability of our food pollinated by bees that are healthier and improve the livelihood of beekeepers by increasing their profits and honey production. Research indicates that Hive Temperatures below 20 C, humidity above 40% and CO2 levels above 11000 ppm starts to drastically affect the wellbeing of the bees. Therefore monitoring these conditions may help solve the mystery of what is killing our bees and help beekeepers make the correct modifications to adjust the conditions of the hive and save both our bees and theirs.
Lethbridge High School iGEM – Bo-Find
Alberta, Canada is home to more than 4.5 million heads of cattle and is the largest cattle producing province. Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) has a significant economic impact on cattle production, as approximately 15% of cattle in North America are treated each year. BRD is caused by several different bacterial and viral pathogens. Four of the most common bacterial pathogens (Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, Histophilus somni, and Mycoplasma bovis). Mistreatment of infected cattle can lead to an increase in the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and loss of antibiotic efficacy. Currently, only traditional bacterial culture and PCR analysis of the pathogens can provide accurate bacterial diagnosis; however, results can take up to a week. In order to quickly and successfully diagnose BRD pathogens in the field, we propose the use of a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA)-based tool that can reliably give test results in under an hour and without laborious sample preparation or analysis.
Renert High School – BioCapture
Throughout the different stages of the plastic cycle, from the time that it is developed to when it is decomposed, ecosystems and local communities are impacted, posing harm to marine and terrestrial wildlife. And in Canada, alone, people living in areas where plastic accumulates, is produced, or is incinerated, are susceptible to increased risks of cancer, water poisoning, and toxic air emissions. The production and incineration of single use plastics contribute to carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change in the process. Nearly every stage of the plastic cycle results in the release of greenhouse gases. We are RHS Calgary and our proposed solution is an electrolyzer-fermentor system that accomplishes 3 objectives: (1) optimizes the production of PHB from transformed E. coli through genetic engineering; (2) develops an effective extraction method for PHB from the biohybrid system; and (3) develops PHB into viable bioplastics to be used in the production process of green buildings.
Collegiate Teams
University of Lethbridge Collegiate iGEM –
Bac2Root Health
Bac2Root Health is an innovative product designed to combat Clubroot disease in canola crops using synthetic biology. This product focuses on engineering beneficial microorganisms in the soil to create a sustainable and biological defense against Clubroot. By leveraging gene editing technologies, Bac2Root Health targets the pathogen directly in the soil, enhancing the natural defense system of canola plants and supporting root health. The approach moves away from traditional chemical-based treatments to a more eco-friendly solution, aiming to improve crop yield and soil health, reduce dependency on chemical inputs, and bolster plant immune responses against diseases. This novel strategy represents a significant advancement in plant health management, offering a sustainable, cost-effective, and innovative solution to the challenges posed by Clubroot disease to Canada’s canola crops.
University of Lethbridge Collegiate iGEM – ProSpore
Detecting clubroot disease early is crucial for managing its impact on crops, but controlling its spread remains a significant challenge for farmers. Traditional detection methods are often slow and labor-intensive, leading to late diagnosis and substantial yield losses. That’s where the ProSpore Detection Kit comes in. This innovative kit leverages advanced protein-based technology to provide rapid, accurate detection of Plasmodiophora brassicae spores in soil samples. By offering real-time data, the ProSpore Detection Kit enables farmers to take timely action to control the spread of the disease, reducing crop damage and management costs. This cost-effective solution not only saves time and resources but also helps maintain healthier crops and more productive fields.
GreenLith Technologies
Every gadget today consists of Li-ion batteries. These batteries hold over 90% of the global grid market and as the world shifts to EVs to reduce its fossil fuel dependence, we need to be aware that Lithium is also finite, hence it too needs to be recycled. There are not many market players in recycling and those that are present rely heavily on chemical and mechanical processes, which are not only energy intensive and unsustainable but also expensive as Lithium extraction from recycling costs $4.96/kg as compared to lithium mining, which costs around $2.38/kg, causing us to depend more upon Lithium imports instead of recycling more often.
Therefore, we, at GreenLith, are trying to solve this problem by using synthetic biology, as not only would it be novel, and sustainable, but also it would reduce our dependence on Lithium imports as we aim to cut recycling costs by 80%. Hence, we invite you to join us in this exciting journey towards a cleaner, greener future as we are not just recycling batteries; we are redefining the future of energy storage and environmental sustainability.
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TRASH-E (Trash Remediation in Aquatic Settings and other Hydro Environments)
As of 2023, more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year. Only 10 river systems contribute to 90% of the trash flowing into the oceans. However, the primary source of the trash in rivers is local waterways where organizations like the Divers for Cleaner Lakes and Oceans volunteer their scuba diving skills to clean up our marine environment. These manual tasks can often be dangerous as scuba divers can face increased risks of decompression sickness, drowning, and hyperthermia the longer they dive. Our team—TRASH-E—aims to develop a semi-autonomous robot that allows a user to locate and mark where trash is located, autonomously move the robot to the corresponding location, and haul the trash to shore. Through this project, we aim to aid in international sustainability efforts by helping divers locate and pick up trash faster, more efficiently, and safer.
University of Calgary BIOMOD – DNADetect
The urgent need for early detection of neurovascular diseases, coupled with the limitations of current diagnostic methods, motivates the development of DNADetect, a novel nanoscale biosensor. DNADetect uses a blocked DNA origami nanopore, a tiny hole formed by folding DNA into specific shapes, inserted into a membrane encasing fluorescent dye. An aptazyme, a molecule combining an aptamer (a DNA or RNA molecule that binds to specific targets) and an enzyme, is used as the blockage. This blockage remains in place until it binds to the target molecule, triggering the cleaving of the blockage and the release of dye from the membrane, providing a fluorescence signal. This innovative design offers advantages such as sustainability, versatility, and enhanced sensitivity, making it a promising solution for early disease detection. The focus of this work is to design a biosensor capable of detecting specific target molecules, offering potential for widespread application in disease diagnosis.
University of Calgary iGEM – NanoHeme
There is a constant need for blood, yet the supply of human-donated blood is limited and has a short shelf life. This shortage is critical in emergency trauma incidences, where hemorrhaging is responsible for 40% of trauma-related deaths. Ambulances often don’t carry blood due to blood type incompatibilities and poor shelf life. But here’s where NanoHeme comes in. It’s a universal blood substitute that meets several UN sustainability goals and can help bridge this gap. NanoHeme will utilize erythrocruorin to safely transport oxygen throughout the body, ultimately saving lives.
University of Calgary iGEM – REECapture
Our modern lives are dependent on rare earth elements (REEs) for producing technology like computers and phones, and our future plans for renewable energy rely upon efficient, sustainable REE collection. Mining processes are harmful to the environment, and with demand for REEs rapidly increasing, the negative impact will only become more pronounced. Currently, vast amounts of REEs found in secondary sources are inefficiently collected—an area of potential exploitation for improved profitability and sustainability. That is where REEcapture comes in, using synthetic biology to propose an efficient collection system from e-waste as a secondary source. Previous approaches to this issue have used proteins with only a few REE binding sites, but our phage display platform is more advantageous both in terms of binding efficacy and cost-effective implementation into a real-world system. A non-infectious M13 bacteriophage has thousands of major coat proteins on its surface, each of which will be modified to display a REE-binding peptide, thus significantly increasing binding capacity. Moreover, these phages will be immobilized onto agarose beads in a reusable adsorption column in which bound REEs can be eluted through a pH change to result in a pure metal ion solution ready to be precipitated. We believe our solution is both profitable and environmentally friendly, incentivizing its application to improve how we collect REEs.