Revision as of 15:02, 19 March 2014

iGEM 2013 Drug Delivery Projects

Paris Bettencourt 2013: Fight Tuberculosis with Modern Weapons!

Health & Medicine Track

Abstract: We are testing new weapons for the global war against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb), a pathogen that infects nearly 2 billion people. Our 4 synergistic projects aim to help in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of tuberculosis. 1) We are reproducing an essential MTb metabolic pathway in E. coli, where it can be easily and safely targeted in a drug screen. 2) We are building a phage-based biosensor to allow the rapid diagnosis specifically drug-resistant MTb strains. 3) We are constructing a mycobacteriophage to detect and counterselect drug-resistant Mtb in the environment. 4) We are programming E. coli to follow MTb into human macrophages and saturate it with bacteriolytic enzymes. We want to vanquish tuberculosis and build a TB-free world.

EPF Lausanne: Taxi.Coli: smart drug delivery

New Application Track

Abstract: EPF_Lausanne’s team is proud to participate to iGEM 2013 and excited to present their project: Taxi.Coli: smart drug delivery. The team’s vision is to build a biosynthetic drug delivery concept. The key word of this project is “adaptability”. Our goal is to explore a way of using E.Coli as a highly modular carrier, opening the gate to several applications and alternatives in disease treatments. Using the principles of synthetic biology, we engineered a gelatinase secreting E. Coli able to bind gelatin nanoparticles using a biotin-streptavidin interaction and release them in a corresponding location. The drug delivery system is built in three parts: 1) the nanoparticle binding and 2) the environment sensing that 3) triggers the gelatinase release of the engineered E. Coli, liberating the content of the nanoparticle. The nanoparticles made of gelatin are able to carry any type of organic compound leading to a wide range of applications.

Groningen: Engineering Bacillus subtilis to self-assemble into a biofilm that coats medical implants with spider silk.

Health & Medicine Track

Abstract: Approximately half of all implanted medical devices result in one or more medical complication, which have been found to increase mortality rates by 25%, and to cost the american society an additional 30 billion dollars every year. A possible solution for these complications is to form a protective biocompatible layer between the implant and the body by means of a spider silk coating. This is achieved through mathematical modelling, techniques from the synthetic biology, and the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis, which is redesigned to secrete silk and to self-assemble into a biofilm surrounding the implant. It uses a modified chemotaxis system coupled to the DesK heat sensing system to do so. B. subtilis is furthermore often used in the industry for the commercial production of extracellular proteins, and is generally regarded as safe.

NJU China: Biomissile: a novel drug delivery system with microvesicle

Health & Medicine Track

Abstract: Recently, small interfering RNA (siRNA) has emerged as a promising therapeutic drug against a wide array of diseases. However, site-specific delivery has always been a challenge in gene therapy. Microvesicles (MVs) are lipid-bilayer vesicles which are naturally secreted by almost all cell types, playing crucial roles in intercellular transport of bioactive molecules. Given the intrinsic ability to naturally transport functional RNAs between cells, MVs potentially represent a novel and exciting drug carrier. In our project we are trying to express both anti-virus siRNA within the cell and target protein on the surface of the MVs by engineering the HEK 293T cell, which is capable of producing large amounts of MVs. Thus, the MVs produced by our engineered HEK 293T cells will contain the siRNA and be able to specifically deliver the siRNA to the sites we want, acting as biomissile for the targeted destruction of the disease.

NTNU-Trondheim: VesiColi

Health & Medicine Track

Abstract: Gram negative bacteria produce outer membrane vesicles (OMV) in the size range of 20-200nm. Whereas their function and contents has been studied for decades, their potential as drug carriers has not been investigated before. We want to introduce protein G from Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis into Escherichia coli OMV's. Protein G is known to bind to human serum albumin (HSA) which helps S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis hide from the immune system. The second part of our project is to introduce fluorescent proteins (FP's) linked together into the vesicles. Introducing protein G and linked FP's into the vesicles will demonstrate that it is indeed possible to manipulate the content, and therefore the properties, of OMV's.

USTC China

New Application Track

Abstract:

Virginia

Foundational Advance Track

Abstract: