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Team:UC Davis
From 2009.igem.org
Project and team descriptions:
1 in 133 Americans are suffering
from a form of autoimmune disorder called Celiac Disease. Celiac
Disease is an
condition where the small intestines of an affected individual cannot
digest
gliadin, a protein present in gluten. If consumed, the body kick starts
its
immune system response. The effects of the immune response include, but
are not
limited to abdominal pain and vomiting.
One of our teammate's friends is
currently suffering from this illness, which
prompted us to look into Celiac Disease as our main focus. What we
learned that currently, no cure has been found and the only treatment
is a gluton free diet.
This treatment is very difficult as an overwhelming majority of food
contain
gluten and gliadin.
This year the University of
California: Davis entered the 2009 iGEM competition a focus on creating
a new
way to treat Celiac. Our project has been split into two tasks. The
first is to
produce an inducible secretion system; the second is to construct a
biological
pH sensor to compartmentalize this secretion system in the stomach.
Also, this
pH system will act as a kill switch if this system were to ever leave
the
stomach by inducing cell death via pH change. After weeks of reading
numerous
articles, we are confident that with the correct parts and timing, our
two
systems can be built in time to present to the iGEM community.
We
have recently moved into the synthesis
and assembly stage of our two systems.
