Team:Freiburg/Home
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Want to use our detection device in your next iGEM project? We built our own simplified and affordable setup. Here you can find a detailed description of how to build and use it.
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In need for expressing tons of protein? We provided a new backbone for protein overexpression meeting all the iGEM standards. We also expanded the iGEM Registry with our
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What does the public think about the DiaCHIP and systems based on synthetic biology? Would people want to use it? Check out the results of our survey.
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Numerous complex processes take place during cell-free expression. Modeling the generation of proteins as well as their diffusion in our system helped us obtaining better results. Get more information here.
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We obtained great results during summer! Our successful measurements of tetanus antibodies in human serum and GFP antibodies binding to cell-free expressed GFP can be found on our results page.
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Modern everyday life is fast...too fast for medical diagnosis relying on huge amounts of time-consuming and costly serological tests. This is why we thought about a fast, universally accessible and affordable diagnostic device.
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Simultaneously screening for hundreds of diseases within a few hours? See how the DiaCHIP achieves this by the revolutionary combination of cell-free expression with an emerging optical method allowing label-free antibody detection.
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Generating a protein array on demand and detecting antigen-antibody interactions in real-time: Find out about our own cell-free expression mix and our specific surface binding system.
Abstract
In modern medicine, fast detection and differentiation of diseases is a crucial and fundamental task. Typical ELISA-based assays are time-consuming and expensive. We propose an advanced procedure for the simultaneous detection of various diseases in a fast and inexpensive manner, the DiaCHIP. Our approach is based on the interaction of antibodies with their respective antigens. Different antigens are immobilized on a protein array generated by cell-free protein expression, using the corresponding DNA array as a template. Placed in a microfluidic chamber, the protein array is incubated with a patient’s blood sample. The interaction between an antibody in the sample and the corresponding immobilized antigen results in a local change of the optical thickness of the surface. This change can be detected using a label-free and real-time measurement technology called iRIf (imaging Reflectometric Interference)which is based on a laser detecting the interference of reflecting light from our chip. Offering simultaneous screening for several diseases, our DiaCHIP has strong potential to improve future diagnostics.
