What better thing to make the first post of the site than an iGEM project? E.chromi was the winning project of iGEM (the international genetically engineered machines competition) in 2009, created by a team of undergraduate students from Cambridge. E.chromi is a great example of how biobricks can easily be combined to create important novel applications. In the case of E.Chromi this application is being able to easily detect the presence of certain chemicals (such as toxins) within drinking water – or even within a person’s own body.
Check out some videos on E.chromi after the break.
You can also download the original Cambridge team presentation from the iGEM website here [MP4].
How comfortable would you be with having toxin-detecting bacteria living inside you?