The CRISPR cas9 system is the
bacterial immune system. We have now
hijacked that machinery to allow us to
look for very small specific sites
within a genome that we can target and
cut. I'm actually cutting out a section
of the central genome of e.coli and
replacing it with the genes I want. My
name is James Wilson I'm a master's
candidate here at University of Alaska
working with Dr. Brandon Briggs, and I'm
currently the only person in Alaska
who's working with the CRISPR cas
technology, and as far as I know, I am the
first person to insert these genes into
the chromosome of E.coli for production
of isobutane. Isobutane is a short chain
hydrocarbon that is used to polymerize
into detergents, lubricants, and butyl
rubber. Butyl rubber is what makes up the
rubber in tires, rubber bands, gas masks,
gaskets - any of the soft rubber products
we use... and, so you can imagine that it's
in just about everything. It's actually a
19 billion dollar-a-year market for
isobutane. To be able to produce this
currently, the steam cracking process
uses about 14% of the total
energy expenditure of the US every year -
just to refine and produce these
chemicals.
Living in the Arctic, we see the climate
changing rapidly. To be able to try and
mitigate that, we need to be releasing
less greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, and we still need to be able
to generate all of the chemicals that we
use every day. I want to get us away from
producing that isobutane from steam
cracking crude oil and start producing
it from a less-polluting and a more
carbon-neutral form. Any way that we can
take a waste product and turn it into a
viable energy source, or a viable
chemical source is something that's
going to decrease the pollution in our
environment and, ultimately, is going to
create a safer place for humans to
continue living.
