Difference between revisions of "Team:Paris Bettencourt"

Revision as of 12:54, 17 October 2018

Protein scaffolds for star-shaped antimicrobial peptides

StarCores are a new type of star-shaped Antimicrobial Peptide (AMP). Like antibiotics, AMPs can be used to kill harmful bacteria. But because AMPs attack bacteria differently than conventional antibiotics, killing bacteria with AMPs slows down the evolution of antibiotic resistance.
We designed StarCores in response to the specific needs of veterinarians, farmers, and policymakers in France. Our goal was to provide a specific solution for killing Gram-negative bacteria on pig farms. Over the summer, we successfully designed, produced, tested and optimized a novel class of bacteria-killing peptides with high activity and reduced toxicity.
The story of our project unfolds sequentially. For the best experience of our wiki, we invite you to read the sections below in order, starting with Integrated Design.

Human Practices II (Public Engagement)

Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Faculty of Medicine Cochin Port-Royal, South wing, 2nd floor
Paris Descartes University
24, rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques
75014 Paris, France

paris-bettencourt-2018@cri-paris.org

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-<p>Antibiotic overuse in livestock industry is one of the major drivers to the antibiotic resistance evolution; motivating calls to reduce, replace, and re-think the antibiotic usage in animals. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a promising alternative to conventional antibiotics. Recently, a class of chemically-synthesized, star-shaped AMPs has been shown to exhibit broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity while maintaining biocompatibility with mammalian cells. In this project, we combinatorially fused a set of known AMPs to structurally diverse, self-assembling protein cores to produce star-shaped complexes. Over 200 fusions were designed and expressed in a cell-free system, then screened for activity, biocompatibility, and membrane selectivity. In addition, we selected 4 AMPs for rational mutagenesis (~12000 variants), and a subset of fusions for molecular dynamic modeling, to identify features of surface charge and star geometry that impact AMP performance. Overall, we aim to create a novel class of selective, non-toxic AMPs which are biologically-produced.</p>
+<p>StarCores are a new type of star-shaped Antimicrobial Peptide (AMP). Like antibiotics, AMPs can be used to kill harmful bacteria. But because AMPs attack bacteria differently than conventional antibiotics, killing bacteria with AMPs slows down the evolution of antibiotic resistance.</br>
+We designed StarCores in response to the specific needs of veterinarians, farmers, and policymakers in France. Our goal was to provide a specific solution for killing Gram-negative bacteria on pig farms. Over the summer, we successfully designed, produced, tested and optimized a novel class of bacteria-killing peptides with high activity and reduced toxicity.</br>
+The story of our project unfolds sequentially. For the best experience of our wiki, we invite you to read the sections below in order, starting with Integrated Design.</p>
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