Module M1: Protein production

M1 consists of the controlled production of a protein of interest. The construct for this module is shown below:

• In the absence of IPTG, LacI represses the production of the protein of interest (which is our drug, cellulase or PAH)
• When we add in IPTG, the LacI repressing pathway is “de-repressed”, and some output protein is produced.

Goal of the modelling:

To provide an overview and better understanding of the M1 system’s function by:

• Characterizing the LacI-IPTG system that is responsible for the production of the drug of interest.
• Modeling and accounting for several factors that may reduce/hinder the production of our output protein of interest such as:
  • Lac promoter leakiness
  • IPTG toxicity
  • Stability of output protein

The conclusions from the models should help people from the WETLAB to plan their experiments and take into account these considerations as possible limitations/factors to look out for. Note that this module is an integral part of our design, as large-scale commercialization of our product of interest depends on finding the optimal conditions for protein production, and we would preferably like to produce a tuneable output. Hence why we think that our simulations will be useful.

Note that the pros of this type of modeling are that, although it provides us a general understanding of the system, there are several factors that we are still not accounting for. Biological processes are stochastic and there is no limit to how much “realism” we can include in our simulations. These are preliminary models, and the compromise level of detail is sufficient to provide us with the understanding we need, but the conclusion is that there is always room for improvement.