https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/index.htmlAbout me Contact info Homework, Labs, and Projects See the nav bar on the left to look through my work for How To Biomanufacture Almost Anything (Fall 2026)!Hugoenhttps://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/week-01-hw-project-ideas/index.htmlMon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/week-01-hw-project-ideas/index.htmlBackground Transparent polyethylene films used to build poly-tunnels and low cost greenhouses has transformed agriculture across the world. Chinese Solar Greenhouses and polytunnels produce 30-37 percent of China’s vegetegables The Almeria Region in Spain produces 50% of Europe’s winter supply of fruit and vegetables in extensive poly-tunnel agriculture. 70% of tomoatoes consumed in the US are grown in poly-tunnels and platic greenshouses. These uses allow people to have a healthy diet of fresh fruit and vegetables all year around in a way that minimizes fossil-fuel used in heating and transportation (of course not eating fresh fruits and vegetables in the off-season is always lower impact). Unfortunately the plastic used to to cover these greenhouses is a fossil-fuel byproduct that only lasts 1-3 years before it needs to be disposed.https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/week-02-hw-dna-design/index.htmlMon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/week-02-hw-dna-design/index.htmlKernel Setup I am putting my work for this homework in ‘All repositories/HTBAA26_WilliamandMary/Jay Handfield/mycosporines’. There are several parts in that folder but the main construct is ‘mycosporine_enzyme_genes’ Expression Target To make the durable greenhouse plastic from chitosan you of course need chitosan, but that is naturally created in relatively large amounts from many species of zygomycetes, so I am instead focussing for this homework on what needs to be produced to make the plastic resistant to UV radiation. Without UV protection the polymers that make up the chitosan will be damaged by the UV radiation and the radicals that the UV radiation generates. Over time this will cause the greenhouse plastic to lose its structural integrity leading to splits and cracks in the plastic. To protect the greenhouse plastic we need some natural susbstance that strongly absorbs UV light is transparent to visible light. It turns out that fungi and other microbes like cynabacteria naturally produce their own sunscreens called Mycosporing-like Amino Acids or MAAs, which are exactly what we need. For this homework I will focus on trying to produce MAAs in standard model organism.https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/final-project/index.htmlMon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/jay-handfield/final-project/index.html