Throughout our project, we were faced with many doubts and questions which were sometimes only partially addressed. However, iGEM provided the perfect learning ground for our team to discover, question and innovate in the fascinating yet still unknown world of spore germination, biocontrol and synthetic biology as a whole.

For the sake of scientific advancement, at Sporadicate we strived to make a positive impact for future iGEM teams so that  they can take advantage of lessons we learned along the way and further our work. Below are examples on how we did that.

We tested and optimised SubtiToolKit, a toolkit for B. subtilis developed by the Ellis Lab. For any future teams that may become users of this toolkit, we have extended the same to include useful parts for spore display projects, as well as identifying key bottlenecks with ways to overcome them. Learn more here.
We developed a software tool to inform protein engineering strategies by providing a list of candidate mutations aimed at altering the binding affinity of a given protein towards a ligand of interest. Learn more here.
We collected and optimized protocols for B. subtilis spore work, particularly sporulation. There is a lack of consensus in literature for the optimal spore generation method, as well as lack of standard recipe to use in this cases. During our project, we pinpointed a robust formulation and coupled it with data that future teams can use to benchmark their spore producing abilities. Via our partnership with Paris Bettencourt and Costa Rica, we explored and trialed an automated pipeline to improve the accessibility of teams without local gene synthesis providers to any constructs they may need. Learn more here.