Team:Imperial College London/Release

=Release of the Protein of Interest into the Small Intestine=

Our polypeptide of interest is to be released past the stomach into the intestine. Once The E.ncapsulator reaches the intestine, gut microflora will digest the colanic acid coat, resulting in the release of the polypeptide therapeutic. Colanic acid represents a rich sugar source and many gut bacteria such as Citrobacter have been found to contain the necessary enzymes to break it down. In addition, a number of phages have a similar enzyme attached to their tail fibers which allows them to break into colanic acid coated cells.