Team:MIT

Preliminary Project Overview

Dental caries or ‘tooth decay’ affects the large majority of the population and even spawned its own field of study, dentistry. As a chronic but non-lethal condition it is often overlooked as a target for modern therapeutics, and its quality of treatment has lagged behind more life-threatening diseases such as cancer. However, considering how dental caries is a life-long disease requiring specific self-treatment twice daily as well as (at minimum!) bi-annual visits to a specialist - it’s still prevalent. Our team seeks to create a new therapy for dental caries based on synthetic biology. Hit the road, plaque!