Team:British Columbia/Project Introduction

With the aim of dispersing Staphylococcus aureus biofilms, the 2010 UBC iGEM Team is working to express an endogenous bacteriophage and biofilm matrix-degrading enzyme DspB under the control of the Agr quorum-sensing system. We will be using existing BioBrick parts (the P2 promoter and AgrCA genes) as well as creating our own DspB Biobrick part. In addition, we plan to develop a new standard for working with bacteriophages that are 15-50kbp in length. Our project will include all 3 components of an iGEM endeavor. The core of our project will be the design and engineering of a bacteriophage that disintegrates a S. aureus biofilm under the control of quorum sensing molecules. The quorum sensing will control when the phage switches from a lysogenic to lytic. The matrix-degrading enzyme will be part of the phage genome, putting it under the control of quorum sensing as well. The modeling component will produce a model that describes the population dynamics of the engineered bacteriophage and the affected biofilm. Simulations of our model will be implemented in MATLAB. The goals of the model are threefold: 1) Write a functional math model of the system, 2) Provide numerical simulations that may predict the outcome of the system 3) Use what we learn from making the model to make hypotheses that we can test with our system. The human practices project will be a compilation of creative works from each of our team members that addresses different issues and problems and conveys thoughts and ideas regarding the diverse aspects of synthetic biology and genetic engineering. This component will encourage thinking about modern biotechnology from different perspectives and promote the synthesis of viewpoints and notions of people from a broad range of backgrounds and disciplines.