One award (Europe) :
Best Human Practices, Overgrad
Advance to World Championship (USA)
https://2013.igem.org/Team:Evry
Abstract
This year, our project focuses on diseases that are subsequent to an iron overload such as hemochromatosis and thalassemia.
Nowadays, iron overload is mainly treated by bloodlettings for hemochromatosic patients but this treatment cannot be extended to thalassemic patients who suffer from anaemia. The aim of our project is to prevent the intestinal absorption of iron by engineering Escherichia coli to produce siderophores, chelators of iron. This strategy acts directly at the source.
We engineer Escherichia coli using the Ferric Uptake Regulation (FUR) couple to an inverter system, in order to produce these siderophores in presence of iron. To reduce the patient’s iron absorption, our bacteria is encapsulated in a pill. Once it arrives in the duodenum, our bacteria will produce the siderophore at their full potential and chelate the iron.
For further information about the 2013 iGEM competition, visit the iGEM 2013 website.
