2019: Fat and Fabulous
Fat is not so bad. In fact, it can be fab!
Fatty acids were primordial constituents of the earliest cell and continue to play key roles in all cellular life today. It is not surprising then that fatty acids, particularly unsaturated ones (think ‘omega’), are widely used in the pharmaceutical, agrifood and cosmetic industries. However, their large-scale production is giving rise to many environmental challenges, especially as our planet faces the threat of climate change. Our team is interested in the production of medically-relevant Conjugated Linolenic Acids (CLnAs), which is a class of rare fatty acids with three conjugated bonds. In this project, we develop a launchpad for their bioproduction using the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, a powerful chassis organism, whose metabolism is naturally poised for lipid production.
For more infos, visit our WIKI and/or look at our POSTER.
Rewards
Gold Medal
Best Measurement Award Nomination, Overgrad
The 2019 iGEM competition
In 2019, 360 team from 46 countries participated at the competition and more than 3600 people attended the Giant Jamboree that was held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, USA from 31st of October to 4th of November 2019. Full infos and results are available on the iGEM 2019 website.
After iGEM
After the Jamboree, we have continued the research project on the production of punicic acid in Yarrowia lipolytica in collaboration with Jean-Marc Nicaud' lab at Micalis Institut (INRAe, Jouy en Josas, France), Peter Gajdos's lab at Institute of Biotechnology (Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia) and Roman Holic's lab at Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics (Centre of Biosciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia). This research has been published in an international peer-reviewed journal:
Urbanikova V, Park YK, Krajciova D, Tachekort M, Certik M, Grigoras I, Holic R, Nicaud JM, Gajdos P. Yarrowia lipolytica as a Platform for Punicic Acid Production. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023) 24, 8823. doi: 10.3390/ijms24108823