Team:Tuebingen/Description
Project
A creative project is a moving target. You never end up where you start.- Evangeline Lilly
Introduction
BoNT C - Licence to enter
In modern medicine treatment options involve many substances modified from natural sources, occasionally even toxins.
We modify botulinum toxin in a way that leads to its detoxification. Thus, it can be coupled with a variety of other substances while not losing its specific shuttle mechanism for neuronal cells. In detail, we develop a library of different detoxified botulinum toxin derivatives which can accommodate other proteins, small molecules, and fluorochromes by specific linkers.
To investigate the influence of the point mutations leading to detoxification in the active site, we conduct MD simulations. Since our shuttle mechanism could potentially be used in patients, we remove the most prevalent immune epitopes by a theoretical bioinformatics approach.
Ultimately, our system is supposed to be utilized for therapy strategies and specific neuronal targeting in basic research.
With our project we want to encourage future teams to think outside the box while keeping safety in mind.
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Background
Project Development
Safety