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Team:Washington
From 2010.igem.org
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| - | === 21st Century | + | === Antibiotics for the 21st Century === |
| - | + | While vital to our quality of life, traditional antibiotics face the serious | |
| - | + | problems of widespread bacterial resistance and destruction of natural gut | |
| + | flora - problems which call for improved twenty-first century antibiotics. | ||
| + | Using synthetic biology tools, we designed, built, and tested two new | ||
| + | systems to fight infections by both broad types of bacteria - Gram-positive | ||
| + | and Gram-negative. Our first project targets Bacillus anthracis, the | ||
| + | Gram-positive pathogen that causes anthrax. We re-engineered an enzyme to | ||
| + | remove the pathogen's protective coating, rendering it defenseless against | ||
| + | the immune system. In our second project, we re-engineered and transplanted | ||
| + | a protein secretion system capable of combating Gram-negative bacteria into | ||
| + | E. coli. This system was designed to target Gram-negative pathogens in a | ||
| + | modular and controllable fashion. These two systems are the vanguard of a | ||
| + | new era of antibiotics using the power of nature harnessed with the tools of | ||
| + | synthetic biology. | ||
Things to Do: | Things to Do: | ||
Revision as of 20:13, 20 September 2010
Antibiotics for the 21st Century
While vital to our quality of life, traditional antibiotics face the serious problems of widespread bacterial resistance and destruction of natural gut flora - problems which call for improved twenty-first century antibiotics. Using synthetic biology tools, we designed, built, and tested two new systems to fight infections by both broad types of bacteria - Gram-positive and Gram-negative. Our first project targets Bacillus anthracis, the Gram-positive pathogen that causes anthrax. We re-engineered an enzyme to remove the pathogen's protective coating, rendering it defenseless against the immune system. In our second project, we re-engineered and transplanted a protein secretion system capable of combating Gram-negative bacteria into E. coli. This system was designed to target Gram-negative pathogens in a modular and controllable fashion. These two systems are the vanguard of a new era of antibiotics using the power of nature harnessed with the tools of synthetic biology.
Things to Do:
- more pictures everywhere!
- main graphic
- abstract
- front page
- pic of secretion apparatus
- gram(+) therapeutic
- design
- foldit pictures
- captions
- explain foldit
- test results
- more descriptive images
- design
