iGem Vilnius Team

TITLE: Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM Project Exullose: Unlocking the Potential of Biomaterials

This year Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team focused on work with cellulose, a compound commonly associated with plants, which is also naturally synthesized by bacteria of the Komagataeibacter genus. Bacterial cellulose is remarkable for its high purity, making it a desirable polymer for biomedical applications. However, it still has some drawbacks as an ideal biomaterial, as it is difficult to functionalize and modify. Therefore, with the Exullose project, we aim to develop a synthetic biology tool for bacterial cellulose composition modification. This concept has been shown to work by designing bacterial cellulose-chitosan polymer. For further validation, we produced indigo-dyed bacterial cellulose and a potential bioplastic composite of bacterial cellulose and polyhydroxybutyrate.   Meet 2023 iGem Vilnius team members: Matas Rarivanas, Team Lead Marija Duchovskytė, Lab Lead Augustė Stankevičiūtė, Lab member