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Team:UC Davis/Approach
From 2009.igem.org
Our Approach
We are going to break down gluten inside the stomach (before it arrives to the small intestine), because gliadin does not prompt an immune system response until it is absorbed in the small intestine. Another worry is a spread of our synthetic bug, so we engineered a ‘safety-switch’ via induction of cell death through a pH sensor system. Due to the change of pH from the stomach to the small intestine, our pH system is induced; cell death, thus limiting our bug to the stomach.
The advantages of our model are, that unlike other suggested treatments which require consuming capsules or tablets rapidly, by using Escherichia coli as our model chassis for this project: we can lower the number of times which this ‘cure’ needs to be consumed thus making it less troublesome, costly, and more convenient.
Induced Secretion
- Gene sequence for secretion system
- Adding Secretion
- Assay for measuring protein localization and activity
Sensing pH and Inducing Cell Death
- Finding an appropriate biological pH sensor
- Wiring the pH sensor into our system
- Assay for measuring the behavior of the pH sensor
