Team:NTU-Singapore

Hello iGEM.

Welcome to the official Nanyang Technological University project wiki for iGEM '09. We will be putting up all information pertaining to our project here. This site is a work in progress, so please check back regularly.

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pLaqUe

Atherosclerosis is a growing healthcare concern, affecting thousands of people worldwide every year. Conventional treatments are painful and invasive, yet they merely treat symptoms, but do not prevent or cure. The NTU iGEM ’09 team is proud to announce that we are working on a proposed alternative treatment for this disease.

Our system, pLaqUe Out!, ideally in a macrophage chassis, when introduced into the bloodstream, will be activated by a symptom that is typical of plaque buildup. Upon activation, our system will release a cholesterol degrading enzyme, a novel reporter protein and a vasodilator.

1. The cholesterol degrading enzyme will break down the plaque.
2. The reporter protein was chosen for expression because of its unique fluorescent property. This allows the plaque site to be identified in a manner similar to X-ray visualization.
3. Finally the vasodilator will simultaneously dilate the blood vessels for better flow, as well as switch off the extended activity of our system.

For now, E. coli is used as a model organism to test our system.

About the team

This marks the second year NTU-Singapore is taking part in this competition. The team consists of 8 undergraduates, guided by 7 instructors and 3 advisors. We are really looking forward to pitting our minds against top minds in universities worldwide, and eventually meeting everyone at the iGEM Jamboree. Good luck everyone!

Our top sponsors

We would like to sincerely thank our Gold sponsors, Genentech Singapore and Johnson & Johnson Singapore for their invaluable contribution to the team!

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