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From 2012.igem.org

Fatty Acid Degradation Device

Purpose

To help people lose weight without the need of food restriction. We designed a genetically modified E.coli that can sense and degrade excessive fatty acid intake by the host. We hope that, together with other two devices we designed, we can introduce our E.coslim as resident in intestine to consume the excessive calories intake by the host and regulate intestinal microbiota.

Outline

Genes that are responsible for degradation and transportation of fatty acids (FAs) from E.coli K12 and from Salmonella enterica LT2 were cloned. Also, promoter that can under the sole regulation of fatty acids was also designed. By placing those fatty acids degradation genes downstream of the artificially designed promoter that can sense the concentration of FAs. We hope to create a device that to degrade FAs only when the concentration of FAs is high.