Team:Lambert GA

C A P T I V A T E

CAPTURE THE DATA | ACTIVATE THE RESPONSE

2018 Lambert iGEM

Our Project

Vibrio cholerae, a pathogenic waterborne bacteria, impacts millions of people annually. Cases are most prevalent in developing countries with a lack of practical diagnostic methods and clean water. Lambert iGEM created a proactive, inexpensive diagnostic kit for V. cholerae detection utilizing frugal hardware devices and toehold switches. Utilizing rainfall, conflict, and cholera case/death data, CALM is able to accurately model the Yemeni V. cholerae outbreak, forecasting outbreaks weeks in advance. These riboregulators activate gene expression in response to predetermined RNA sequences. Engineering E. coli to detect V. cholerae, we targeted ctxB, a non-toxic subunit of a gene specific to all pathogenic V. cholerae. Our Chrome-Q system quantifies aquatic V. cholerae presence utilizing HSV values while the Color-Q app inputs data into our machine learning model, CALM. With this diagnostic kit, Lambert iGEM addresses V. cholerae epidemics using Yemen as a test case by predicting outbreaks, thus providing low-cost sustainable diagnostic tools while enhancing quality prediction.