Team:Czech Republic

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Project description

We feel strongly about the mission of synbio/iGEM to develop standardized DNA parts that can be used in imaginable ways to create useful and inspiring applications. You can even build modular systems with them. However, constructing a cell that is stimulated by a specific input and as a consequence releases a particulars output molecule or signal has to be done from scratch. Currently, there are no means of easily and quickly creating complex input/output intercellular pathways. We aim to change that.

Our idea of a solution is mating of yeast haploids. We will develop two different yeast haploids - one mating type for the input and the other one for the output cells. By their mating, diploids that react to specific input and produce the desired output can be rapidly constructed. By the use of orthogonal signals, we will be also able to use them in more complex circuits in order to detect specified input combinations

We are not only developing a modular I/O system platform, but also applying it to a real-world problem - cancer diagnosis from blood. Circulating tumor cells are cells that have shed from a primary tumor of the patient and are present in blood of a sick individual. In contrast to other healthy cells, tumor cells express proteins or glycoproteins on their surface, which are specific for a certain type of cancer. By recognizing these surface proteins and their combinations we could determine their exact origin. We hope to prove that amplification of signal from only one tumor cell is possible and that it can lead to a specific agglutination reaction based on the marker being detected. Moreover, all of it done simply and rapidly. Firstly, the system ensures that sufficient amplification of signal from a single circulating tumor cell is produced. Secondly, our modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells respond to such signal with a visible agglutination reaction.