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Team:UC Davis
From 2009.igem.org
It
is estimated that about one in
every 133 Americans suffer from an autoimmune disorder called Celiac
Disease
(14, 11). Celiac Disease is a condition where the small intestines of
an
affected individual cannot properly digest gliadin, a protein present in gluten.
When
consumed, gliadin kick starts immune system responses, whose
side-effects are,
but not limited to abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea and vomiting (14).
One of
our teammate’s friends is currently suffering from this illness, which
motivated us to look into Celiac Disease as the focus of our project.
Currently, the only accepted treatment for this disorder is adhering to
a
gluten-free diet (14, 12). This can be very difficult as great
varieties of
food contain gluten. This inspired us to imagine an alternatives
treatment base on a probiotic organism
that could
survive and take residence in the stomach where it would secrete an
enzyme that
can degrade gliadin.
Then the design
elements of this organism should be able to satisfy at least two main
criteria.
First, it
should be able to survive ONLY in the stomach and, secondly, secrete an
enzyme
that can degrade gliadin. We envision that these parts would not
only be useful for our purpose probiotic, but could be useful to number
of other projects.
We have
decided to focus our summer project on building two key elements
required for
our “dream bug”. Therefore, our project has been split into two tasks:
1. Produce an
inducible secretion
system
2. Construct a
biological pH sensor limiting this secretion system to
the
stomach
Special thanks to Suzy Fenton,Wayne Fenton, Jeanne Joe-Fenton and Wayne Fenton Jr.
Also we thank Charles H. Halsted for reviewing our material regarding celiac disease.
