We present you the Jolly JoCare

Background
Recent studies have evidenced that having a beneficial and healthy intestinal microflora is very important for human health.

Project
Our aim is to modify a bacteria normally found in human gut and create a safe, controllable and versatile molecular platform which can be used to produce a wide range of molecules leading to a beneficial probiotic. For this purpose we have chosen the E. coli strain Nissle 1917 which has been used for many years as a probiotic. We designed a robust gene guard system regulated by a novel and easy to control inducible cumate switch that activates the production of a human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 that can kill the bacteria and also avoid horizontal transfer.

Applications
The safe probiotic constructed here can be used to produce nutritious, preventive or therapeutic molecules. For example, we have used it to produce an antibody against the emerging virus, Norovirus.