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Team:UT-Tokyo
From 2010.igem.org
About Us
We are now tackling on SUDOKU Project mainly. The Sudoku project is designed to solve the popular mathematical puzzle Sudoku by using "intellectualized E.coli". But we also experimented Allergy and Bioaccumlation Project in Summer. In the Allergy project, we plan to modify E.coli to be used as an allergy cure by applying hyposensitization therapy. In the Bioaccumulation project, our C.elegans will collect a substance.
About our project
Sudoku is a logical game to fill numbers from 1 to 9 inside the 9x9 boxes. The rule is simple: Each number should be used once in the same row, column, and 3x3 block. In this experiment E.coli having information about the boxes will interact with other E.coli, and by applying a certain selection rule they decide the right numbers. This process is a kind of parallel computation and it mimics differentiation in development.
A lot of people are suffering from allergy every year. People sneeze and have trouble in stuffy nose because of house dust or pollen etc. Here, we mainly focus on the pollen allergy that is causing serious problems in many countries. To tackle on this problem, we use hyposensitization therapy which makes our body accustom to antigens by intaking them little by little every day. Our E.coli will constantly produce epitopes in our intestines, and the epitopes will be recognized by antibody. Here, we use epitopes of ceder pollen, but this method can be used in other types of allergy and we hope this method will be useful to cure allergy fundamentally.
Bioaccumulation refers to uptake and accumulation of a substance inside the bodies of living things. In this project, there are twice accumulation. First, E.coli absorbs some sources. Second, C.elegans eats that E.coli, then C.elegans whose gene is manipulated changes action to correct easily. As a result, we can collect substances more efficiently.
