Team:Freiburg Bioware
From 2010.igem.org

Gene delivery using viral vectors holds great promise for the treatment of acquired and inherited diseases. The human Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) is a small, non-pathogenic, single-stranded DNA virus gaining increasing attention being both versatile and effective. Taking current knowledge into account, we generated a recombinant, modularized, BioBrick-compatible AAV ‘Virus Construction Kit’. We provide parts for modified capsid proteins, targeting modules, tumor-specific promoters, and prodrug-activating enzymes as well as readily assembled vectors for gene delivery and production of non-replicative virus particles. The viral tropism is altered by N-terminal fusion or by loop replacement of the capsid proteins. Functionality of viruses constructed from our kit was demonstrated by fluorescent protein expression in infected cells and by prodrug-induced killing of tumor cells upon viral delivery of a thymidine kinase. Incorporating multiple layers of safety, we provide a general tool to the growing field of personalized medicine and demonstrate its use in tumor therapy.
Project Results
Team Freiburg presents a functional, modular Virus Construction Kit for specifically targeting and killing tumor cells. [more]
Structural engineering of the three dimensional viral capsid by introducing four distinct targeting sites led to successful differential transduction of tumor cells. [more]
Efficient gene-directed enzyme prodrug activation was demonstrated by BioBrick-compatible constructs introduced into tumor cells. [more]
Virus Construction Kit - The Manual
Build your own therapeutical virus – 150 pages of knowledge. [more]
Statistics - In a Minute

What happened in the lab during iGEM?

Longest Wikipage:
with 222,795 bytes
Number of Biobricks:
116
Number of Ordered Oligos:
193
Mini-Preps total:
1085
Midi-Preps total:
106
Highest Midi-Prep Concentration:
5045,6 ng/µL
Number of Glycerolstocks:
763
Number of Team members:
15
Days in the lab:
170
Longest Labday:
18h
Coffee Consumed During iGEM:
2238 Cups
BioBricks
Modularization and modification of the viral capsids for retargeting approaches and directed gene delivery of suicide genes resulted in many different BioBricks.
Click here to explore them. [more]
Biosafety
Aspects of biological safety were considered throughout and a risk assessment and security profile of the Adeno-associated Virus were created. Read more about Biosafety issues. [more]
Notebook
From DNA to virus particle to cell culture?
Yes! Details on cloning, cell culture, flow cytometry analyses, quantifications by ELISA or Western Blot, cytotoxicity assays, time resolved microscopy ... [more]
Team
Fun and Science at the same time?
Yes! The iGEM team Freiburg did not only share the lab bench, but as well some nice days canoeing and initiated the photo contest Cuckoo Clock Competition. [more]
Sponsors
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