Team:WHU-Pharm

WHU-Pharm Project Overview

Tumor cells are found to have increased ability to consume glucose due to their high growth rate, thus causing the surrounding glucose concentration to drop. Therefore, it is possible to discriminate tumor cells from other tissue cells by detecting the low glucose concentration. Using liposome as a vector, we hope to design a drug expression system with the ability to respond to different glucose level. To achieve this, we combine the CRP activator, a regulatory protein activated by cAMP, with red fluorescent protein (RPF) as a reporter of expression level. Since glucose concentration is reversely related with cAMP level, a change of glucose level can influence the binding of CRP with target operon, thus altering the fluorescent intensity. By expressing our desinged gene circuit with ''in vitro'' protein expression system, we then test the expression level of the gene and find out how it relates with glucose concentration.