Team:Virginia

Our project idea has finally crystallized! This summer we plan to engineer a bacteriophage to improve a clinical method for the detection of Bordetella pertussis, the pathogenic bacterium that causes whooping cough. Whooping cough outbreaks arise periodically every three to five years (in the 2010 epidemic in California, there were 9,143 reported cases of pertussis, including ten infant deaths). It is difficult to diagnose whooping cough because other respiratory infections cause similar symptoms, and common diagnostic methods can yield false positive results. Our test would be fast, reliable, easy-to-perform, and sufficiently low-tech such that it could be implemented in place of the current test and in developing regions that lack advanced medical infrastructure.

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect only bacteria, and each phage is extremely specific to a particular bacterial species. Their specificity is an excellent property to use in a diagnostic test. When bacteriophages lyse bacteria in a cell culture, the absence of bacteria becomes visible as a clear area called a plaque. If a clinical sample is obtained from an individual suspected to have whooping cough, and plaques form after the addition of Bordetella bacteriophage to the sample, then this is a positive test result for the presence of Bordetella pertussis.

This summer we plan to genetically engineer Bordetella bacteriophage to replicate faster so that the results of the diagnostic test will be available within one day. We will increase the speed of the viral life cycle by economizing the phage genome and substituting genetic parts for existing parts in the phage. We will also insert a gene that induces a color change in the sample if the bacterium is present, further speeding up detection. We foresee the use of the engineered phage in clinical tests as a faster alternative to current detection methods. Faster detection of Bordetella pertussis will enable earlier treatment for patients with whooping cough and decrease the incidence of mortality.

Please email us if you would like to collaborate or discuss an aspect related to this project. You can can leave a message at igemvirginia at gmail dot com or you can comment below.