Expressed the surface anchoring protein Alpha-Agglutin 2 (Aga2) fused to GFP in S. cerevisiae.
Designed a BioBrick consisting of Aga2 fused to GFP.
Successfully implemented an alpha pheromone-inducible expression system for myrosinase in S. cerevisiae. We showed that the yeast produces myrosinase when grown together with alpha pheromone.
We experimentally demonstrated the anti-cancer effect of our organism by incubating cancer cells with filtered culture media of our yeast plus glucosinolte, which resulted in the death of cancer cells.
Designed a BioBrick of the myrosinase enzyme connected to a secretion signal.
Modeling
Implemented a kinetic model of the alpha pheromone pathway and coupled it to the production of p28 and myrosinase in order to demonstrate and analyze the function of the alpha pheromone-inducible expression system.
Used kinetic modeling to compare the efficiencies of p28 and myrosinase. Based on the results we decided to move on with only myrosinase as the target molecule.
Reconstructed a genome scale metabolic model for S. boulardii, an organism of high research interest with no available GEM found in the literature. The reconstructed model is freely available for others to use as a draft, and can be found in our GitHub page.
Developed COM-dFBA, a community dynamic flux balance analysis tool and framework, which consists of six MATLAB functions and one script. This tool is also made freely available for others to use, and can be found in our GitHub page.
Implemented COM-dFBA to simulate the complex system that is the human gut. Using this framework, we evaluated the effect of S. boulardii on key species of the gut microbiome. We demonstrated that S. boulardii can compete and cooperate with the gut microbiota without dramatically changing the composition of it.
Used COM-dFBA to evaluate the anti-cancer effect of our engineered organism on a growing tumor.
Used genome-scale modeling to show that S. boulardii can produce myrosinase without depleting its amino acid resources or compromising its growth rate.
Used Community dFBA to determine the necessary inflow of S. boulardii needed for the yeast to grow, and how long it remains in the colon after ending the intake.
Human Practices
Considered how to design a pill that best delivers the yeast to the colon of a patient. We also investigated laws and regulations regarding drugs containing genetically modified organisms. This helped us evaluate the feasability of our project.
Evaluated the need for and use of our product on the market with an experimental survey. The survey showed that people seemed positive towards using our yeast for detection and treatment of colon cancer.
Reached out to the community and conducted interviews with several experts and got valuable feedback on our product. We used the feedback to improve our project design.
Analyzed the project from ethical and environmental points of views. Based on the analysis we considered how we in the future can avoid some of the ethical and environmental risks that come with our product.
Medal Requirements
We registered for iGEM, had a rewarding summer and all of our team members will attend the Giant Jamboree.
We have or will complete the following deliverables: Document the project on our Wiki page, Design a poster and display it during the Poster Session at the Giant Jamboree, Hold a presentation of our project on the Giant Jamboree, Fill out the Judging Form.
We have correctly attributed all of the work that was done during the course of the project on our attributions page.
We have designed two new BioBrick parts that have been characterized, documented and submitted to the Registry. Find the parts here and here.
We have exchanged knowledge and collaborated with several other iGEM teams. For more information on our collaborations, see the collaborations page.
We have considered ethical and environmental aspects of our project as well as evaluated the need and use of our product in society. Visit our human practices page for more information.
We have taken the knowledge gained from our human practices investigations as well as interviews with experts and let it guide us in the development of our project. Take a look at our human practices page to find out more.
We have modeled our system and used the results from simulations to make decisions regarding the path of our work. We have also used the modeling results to demonstrate the basic principles of our system and to make inferences about how our final product will work in practice. Please visit our modeling page for details.
