Team:TU-Eindhoven/Future applications/Human interest

• Introduction
  • Home page
  • Background
    information
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Our photos
• Project
  • Project description
  • Lab approach
  • Device information
  • Initial model
  • Yeast model
  • Lab results
  • Our BioBricks^TM
  • Our
    accomplishments
• Considerations
  • Public outreach
  • Safety questions
  • Other thoughts
• Future applications
  • Human interest
  • Further
    developments
• Notebook
  • Before week 1
  • Week 1
  • Week 2
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
  • Week 5
  • Week 6
  • Week 7
  • Week 8
  • Week 9
  • Week 10
  • Week 11
  • Week 12
  • After week 12
  • Lab protocols
• Partners
  • ICMS TU/e
  • Team collaborations
  • Attributions and Contributions
  • Our sponsors

Multiple purposes for calcium kinetics and GECO proteins

A biological multi-colored display, in which genetically engineered yeast cells function as pixels, is of course an invention on its own. However, multiple purposes exist for our yeast cells.

Research, to investigate calcium fluxes or unraveling the mysteries of calcium pathways in yeast, is often done with the help of aequorin. This is a fluorescent protein, which was isolated from jellyfish by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. It is often used in multiple researches with mammalian and bacterial cells. However, incorporating aequorin in yeast cells requires an addition of coelenterazine to the medium. The GECO proteins used in our project are variants of the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and these were made calcium dependent by directed evolution. Calcium research done with GECO proteins does not require the addition of coelenterazine. Therefore, yeast expressing GECOs, as in our project, represents a manageable system which can save time and effort when compared to aequorin and variants of GFP research.

Another important aspect lies in calcium channel research in the world of medicine. Nowadays, animal testing is done in order to test the functioning of drugs on mammalian calcium channels. Our genetically engineered yeast cells contain calcium channels which are homologues of the channels in mammalian cells and function similarly. Therefore some degree of animal testing may become obsolete by using our yeast cells and the knowledge gained from our project. All in all, the results of this year’s iGEM team of Eindhoven University of Technology serve multiple purposes.