Difference between revisions of "Team:Manchester-Graz"
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 60px;"> Project Outlines</h1> | <h1 style="margin-bottom: 60px;"> Project Outlines</h1> | ||
− | <p style="text-align:justify">iGEM Manchester-Graz’s objective as a team is to find a better way to treat and alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) through the use of synthetic biology. Degradation of dopaminergic neurons and therefore low levels of dopamine is the main cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD), for which the current treatment involves oral doses of L-DOPA (or levodopa), which unlike dopamine itself is able to cross the blood-brain-barrier. Within the brain L-DOPA is enzymatically converted into dopamine and therefore able to relieve many of the motor symptoms of PD (Figure 1).</p><div id="pictureright"> <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/b/b3/Manchester-Graz_Human-Gutbacteria.jpg" alt="human gut bacteria" width="400"> <br> <b> Fig 1 </b>Administration of | + | <p style="text-align:justify">iGEM Manchester-Graz’s objective as a team is to find a better way to treat and alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) through the use of synthetic biology. Degradation of dopaminergic neurons and therefore low levels of dopamine is the main cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD), for which the current treatment involves oral doses of L-DOPA (or levodopa), which unlike dopamine itself is able to cross the blood-brain-barrier. Within the brain L-DOPA is enzymatically converted into dopamine and therefore able to relieve many of the motor symptoms of PD (Figure 1).</p><div id="pictureright"> <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/b/b3/Manchester-Graz_Human-Gutbacteria.jpg" alt="human gut bacteria" width="400"> <br> <b> Fig 1 </b>Administration of L-DOPA via bacteria in the patient's gut</div> |
<p style="text-align:justify">Our aim is to take the first steps in the development of a novel technology of drug delivery by developing self-regulating drug-producing bacterial strains that, in the future, could be incorporated into patients’ gut microflora to secrete medicines directly inside the body. To control the bacterial L-DOPA production, we plan to develop a multidimensional cell density dependent auto-regulation system that could also be used to control other multistep enzyme pathways.</p> | <p style="text-align:justify">Our aim is to take the first steps in the development of a novel technology of drug delivery by developing self-regulating drug-producing bacterial strains that, in the future, could be incorporated into patients’ gut microflora to secrete medicines directly inside the body. To control the bacterial L-DOPA production, we plan to develop a multidimensional cell density dependent auto-regulation system that could also be used to control other multistep enzyme pathways.</p> | ||
− | <div id="pictureleft"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/e/ef/Manchester-Graz_Pathway.jpg" alt="Pathway" width="300"> <br><b> Fig 2 </b> | + | <div id="pictureleft"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/e/ef/Manchester-Graz_Pathway.jpg" alt="Pathway" width="300"> <br><b> Fig 2 </b>dopamine and L-DOPA biosynthesis pathways</div> |
<p style="text-align:justify">The Manchester section of the team are working on L-DOPA and dopamine biosynthesis in <i>E. coli </i>BL21 and Nissle 1917 via various enzyme pathways. The focus is on three enzyme pathways, the main one being the conversion of L-tyrosine to L-DOPA via tyrosine hydroxylase and tyrosinase. In addition we are also synthesising dopamine in two different ways using aromatic amino acid decarboxylase, cytochrome P450 and transaminase. Although the primary goal would be to implement the L-DOPA synthesis within patients, we also aim to create a greener, more efficient way of the industrial synthesis of each of the above products using our modified bacteria. (Figure 2) </p> | <p style="text-align:justify">The Manchester section of the team are working on L-DOPA and dopamine biosynthesis in <i>E. coli </i>BL21 and Nissle 1917 via various enzyme pathways. The focus is on three enzyme pathways, the main one being the conversion of L-tyrosine to L-DOPA via tyrosine hydroxylase and tyrosinase. In addition we are also synthesising dopamine in two different ways using aromatic amino acid decarboxylase, cytochrome P450 and transaminase. Although the primary goal would be to implement the L-DOPA synthesis within patients, we also aim to create a greener, more efficient way of the industrial synthesis of each of the above products using our modified bacteria. (Figure 2) </p> |