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 bytesNumber of Biobricks:
116Number of Ordered Oligos:
193Mini-Preps total:
1085Midi-Preps total:
106Highest Midi-Prep Concentration:
5045,6 ng/µLNumber of Glycerolstocks:
763Number of Team members:
15Days in the lab:
170Longest Labday:
18hCoffee 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
The aspect of biological safety was considered well and a risk assessment and security profile for the Adeno-associated Virus were created. Read more about Biosafety issues..[more]
Notebook
Only cloning and cell culture?
Yes!... flow cytometry analysis, quantification based methos via ELISA or Western Blot and cytotoxicity assays have been performed (go to Methods)
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