NERVE GROWTH FACTOR AND NEURON CULTURE
We successfully cloned a part coding for secretion of NGF in pET43.1a and iGEM plasmid backbone pSB1C3, creating a new part Bba_K2616000 and confirmed the production of proNGF by Western Blot and mass spectrometry.
We designed self-made microfluidic device in order to implement our final proof of concept.
We grew neurons on our self-made microfluidic chips ans successfully observe axon growth in the presence of commercial NGF.
KILL SWITCH
We successfully cloned a part coding for toxin/antitoxin (CcdB/CcdA) system in iGEM plasmid backbone, creating a new part Bba_K2616002
We observed survival and normal growth of our engineered bacteria at 25°C and 37°C and absence of growth at 18°C and 20°C, showing the efficiency of the kill switch if our bacteria are released in the environment.