Team:Caltech

From 2008.igem.org

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==The big idea==
==The big idea==
[[Image:Gut_flora_color.png|right|thumb|200px|Engineered gut flora]]
[[Image:Gut_flora_color.png|right|thumb|200px|Engineered gut flora]]
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We aim to engineer a probiotic bacterium to improve its medical applications. Our work focuses on four main areas: (1) pathogen defense, either by expression of pathogen-specific bacteriophage or by targeted bursts of reactive oxygen species; (2) vitamin over-expression and delivery; (3) treatment of lactose intolerance, by preferentially metabolizing lactose and funneling it to vitamin production; and (4) regulation of these three treatment functions to produce subpopulations specialized for each function.
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We aim to engineer a probiotic bacterium to improve its medical applications. Our work focuses on four main areas: (1) pathogen defense, either by expression of pathogen-specific bacteriophage or by targeted bursts of reactive oxygen species; (2) vitamin over-expression and delivery; (3) treatment of lactose intolerance, by cleaving lactose to allow absorption in the large intestine; and (4) regulation of these three treatment functions to produce subpopulations specialized for each function.
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Revision as of 20:49, 8 September 2008

 
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The big idea

Engineered gut flora

We aim to engineer a probiotic bacterium to improve its medical applications. Our work focuses on four main areas: (1) pathogen defense, either by expression of pathogen-specific bacteriophage or by targeted bursts of reactive oxygen species; (2) vitamin over-expression and delivery; (3) treatment of lactose intolerance, by cleaving lactose to allow absorption in the large intestine; and (4) regulation of these three treatment functions to produce subpopulations specialized for each function.

Why engineer gut microbes?

The large intestine: an ideal bioreactor

The human digestive tract

Talk about the colon

Probiotic bacteria and other natural examples

Electron micrograph of Lactobacillus brevis, a probiotic lactic acid bacterium

Talk about probiotics

Nissle 1917: Probiotic, commercially available E. coli

Mutaflor - a commercially available preparation of Nissle 1917

Talk about Nissle 1917

For more details, please see our project page.

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