One oil spill kills 80,000 birds, 6,000 sea turtles, and 25,000 sea mammals. Current oil spill cleanups are ineffective. To address this, the Charter School of Wilmington's iGEM team will improve how Alcanivorax bacteria native to oceans break down oil from spills. These bacteria naturally produce proteins that help degrade oil, and we've identified some of the most promising ones. We've started expressing and testing these proteins in E. coli, and now we're working on making them more effective for faster oil spill cleanup.

Your support will help the team complete their project and compete in the iGEM competition, or International Genetically Engineered Machines competition, a team-based genetics competition where diverse groups of students use synthetic biology to solve real-world problems in society. Participants hail from 65+ countries and over the past 2 decades have launched more than 250 startups.

Please donate to support a passionate group of high school students further their interests in biology via collaboration with experts in fields of synthetic biology and genetic engineering.