Difference between revisions of "Team:Danzi Kesh 8"

Team Danzi-Kesh 8

Team characteristics:

Team DANZI-KESH-8 is a biotechnology class from Danziger High School, the high school is situated in the northernmost part of Israel. The school is located in a small town Kiryat Shmona.

We, 23 students aged 16 and majoring in biotechnology, may be young but full of ambition and motivation for success and learning different fields of science. The entire school staff is recruited together with us to prepare for competition - the English teacher, science teacher, math teacher, and of course the school administration.

The Project's Goal:

1. Develop an innovative biological method for identifying gluten in food.
2. Assuming that the system is proven to be successful we can pack it into a personal kit for a quick check of the presence of gluten in food.
3. To promote as much as possible the legal treatment of food allergy cases in the school education system, meaning, to require schools to offer on the menu gluten-free food to ensure equality for students who are sensitive to gluten.

The considerations that motivated us to make the decision:

1. The scientific design of the method is fascinating and innovative in our opinion, and can create a turnaround in the field of diagnostics. So far, most of the materials identification systems based on planning that includes antibodies, this kit includes the use of transmembrane proteins, and this is the innovation.
2. We would like to create conceptual change in relation to a person who is sensitive to a specific food component. To give the patient the ability to decide whether or not to buy a food product. The ability to control knowledge will be in the consumers' hands and not the food manufacturers. As of today, the majority of food products in Israel have a marking: "The product may contain allergic bodies". In most cases, the sick person will refrain from foodstuffs and buy a similar product at a much higher cost.
3. The State of Israel in 2016 does not give sufficient attention to nutritionally disabled people. We see this disability as a sort of cripple which requires some degree of legal reference. All students in the education system eat the same general menu - Kindergartens, elementary schools, high schools and even in academic institutions. None of these institutions address celiac patients/sufferers, for example - there is no alternative menu and allergic students have only one option, that is to look after himself.

The "Alergln kit" will:

1. To promote an innovative detection technique which is not based on antibodies but transmembrane protein.
2. The laboratory team worked to identify transmembrane proteins that can be used as biosensors.
3. On the 21/5, we announced a starting point at a conference which dealt entirely on synthetic biology. It was a major regional meeting that delved in contemporary research in this field along with the exposure of the iGEM competition to more students from the State Israel. iGEM teams attended the conference from the Technion, Ben Gurion University and the Technion's high school.
4. To convey a preliminary survey for school children and adults about the necessity of the kit within the school and about addressing nutrition toward allergic people.
5. Receiving the first shipment from the directors of iGEM. The laboratory team has begun producing plasmid where the genes will be cloned.
6. Planning interviews with two people who are connected to the field.
7. Genes were prepared in advance while performing a deliberate mutation in them. The goal to produce the margins of a suitable restriction site and a promoter strong enough to express the protein we are interested in.

Our project - Development of biosensors to detect food allergens

The focus is on developing a gluten binder protein. Principles - A protein changes conformation in response to ligand binding coupled to a reporter gene. The Gln_H protein is a protein which is able to detect glutamine. The two ends join a half-reporter enzyme called HAD. each half of the enzyme is attached a molecule such as color coded GFP. When the Gln H comes into contact with glutamine the closed ends, when the two halves of HAD enzyme connect the enzyme becomes active, followed by a color reaction which can be seen by the human eye. The source HAD enzymes comes from TERMOTOGA MARITIMA ,This bacteria is found in regions of hot springs and is therefore an extra Thermopile bacteria, and its enzymes are very stable.