Team:TU-Eindhoven/Future applications/Human interest

• Introduction
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  • Background
    information
  • About us
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• Project
  • Project description
  • Lab approach
  • Device information
  • Initial model
  • Yeast model
  • Lab results
  • Our BioBricks^TM
  • Our
    accomplishments
• Considerations
  • Public outreach
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• 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

Our yeast cells: contribution to calcium research on a fundamental level

A biological multi-colored display, in which genetically engineered yeast cells function as pixels, is of course an invention on its own. However, our project also contributes to calcium flux or pathway research on a more fundamental level. Our yeast cells with an overexpression of MID1/CCH1 and incorporated GECO proteins can serve as a model system for calcium research.

Calcium homeostasis in yeast cells is similar in mechanisms and involved proteins to other eukaryotic cells, including human cells. However, performing experiments with yeast cells is more manageable and raises less ethical questions compared to experiments using human cells. By using our yeast cell as a model system, more insights can be gained in the calcium fluxes and the mysteries of calcium pathways. Once these are well understood within the concept of yeast, one might also be able to translate the conclusions to mammalian cells. It will at the very least provide a starting point for unraveling the unknowns of calcium pathways in mammalian cells. Understanding these pathways may lead to important insights in pathologies, such as aortic valve stenosis, deranged neuronal calcium signaling or muscular diseases (to name only a few examples of diseases involving calcium pathways).