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- | {{Team:Trieste/head}}
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- | <html>
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- | <div id="body">
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- | <div id="container"> <!-- start container -->
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- | </html>{{Team:Trieste/menu}}<html>
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- | <div id="content"> <!-- start content -->
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- | <h1 id="h1_lf" class="main_tit"><div>Abstract</div></h1>
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- | <h1 id="h1_rt" class="main_tit"><div>More</div></h1>
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- | <div id="box_main"> <!-- start box_main -->
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- | <div class="box_contenuti">
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- | <h3 id="back">Background:</h3>
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- | <p class="fancy">
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- | Recent studies have evidenced that the intestinal microflora can
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- | actually be considered an organ of the body. It has several functions
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- | in the human gut, mostly metabolic and immunologic, and it constantly
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- | interacts with the intestinal mucosa in a delicate equilibrium. It
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- | is therefore believed that having a beneficial and healthy intestinal
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- | microflora is very important for human health.
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- | </p>
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- | <h3 id="proj">Project:</h3>
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- | <p class="fancy">
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- | Our aim is to modify a bacteria normally found in human gut and create
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- | a safe, controllable and versatile molecular platform which can be used
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- | to produce a wide range of molecules (as for example other antibodies
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- | or enzymes) leading to a beneficial probiotic.
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- | </p>
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- | <p>
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- | For this purpose we have chosen the E. coli strain Nissle 1917 which has been
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- | used for many years as a probiotic. We designed a robust gene guard system
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- | regulated by a novel and easy to control inducible switch that activates
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- | the production of a human antimicrobial peptide that can kill the bacteria
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- | and also avoid horizontal transfer.
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- | </p>
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- | <p class="fancy">
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- | Our gene guard system is based on the cumate molecule present in the common
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- | spice: cumin. In absence of this molecule our system produces a repressor
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- | (CymR) which inhibits the expression of an antimicrobial peptide. When
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- | administered and therefore present in human intestine, cumin recognizes and
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- | disables the CymR repressor resulting in the production of the antimicrobial
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- | peptide cathelicidin LL-37 which causes bacterial death. In case of plasmid
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- | transfer into other bacteria of the plasmid carrying the expression system,
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- | the expression of the antimicrobial peptide will be activated immediately
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- | because the receiving bacteria do not produce the CymR repressor needed to
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- | repress the expression of the antimicrobial peptide.
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- | </p>
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- | <h3 id="appl">Application:</h3>
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- | <p>
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- | The safe probiotic constructed here can be used to produce nutritious,
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- | preventive or therapeutic molecules. For example, we have used it to
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- | produce an antibody against the emerging virus called Norovirus; this
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- | virus which has a dramatic spreading speed: rates of reported Norovirus
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- | outbreaks reach 21 million cases of acute gastroenteritis per year,
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- | 70.000 of those need hospitalization and 800 die.
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- | </p>
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- | </div>
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- | </div> <!-- end box_main -->
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- | <div id="box_right"> <!-- start box_right -->
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- | <ul id="sub_menu">
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- | <li><a href="#back">Background</a></li>
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- | <li><a href="#proj">Project</a></li>
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- | <li><a href="#appl">Application</a></li>
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- | </ul>
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- | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/b/b0/Team_trieste.jpg" alt="Team iGEM 2012" id="igem_team" />
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- | <div class="box_contacts">
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- | <h2>Contact us</h2>
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- | <p>For other information, write to:</p>
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- | <a href="mailto:igem2012@gmail.com" class="btn">igem2012@gmail.com</a>
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- | <div class="social">
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- | Follow us also:
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- | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IGEMUNITS?ref=ts" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/f/f4/Ico_fb.png" alt="Facebook" class="fb" /></a>
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- | <a href="https://twitter.com/igemunits" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/2/21/Ico_twitter.png" alt="twitter" class="tw" /></a>
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- | </div>
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- | </div>
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- | </div> <!-- end box_right -->
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- | </html>{{Team:Trieste/footer}}<html>
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- | <!-- end content is included in template -->
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- | </div> <!-- end container -->
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- | </div>
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- | </html>
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