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Team:TU-Delft/Safety
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| - | As working with MRSA requires a BSL- | + | As working with MRSA requires a BSL-2 permit, and the lab in which we work has a BSL-1 permit, we did an intense literature study to find closely related organisms of same genera other than <i>S. aureus</i>. We chose <i>S. delphini</i> which has close similarities to <i>S. aureus</i>. The antimicrobial peptides where chosen in such a way that they have minimum toxicity to humans and a low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for <i>S. aureus</i>. |
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Revision as of 09:39, 2 October 2013
Safety
The MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) problem is our inspiration for this project. This project will focus on killing Staphylococcus species with the use of antimicrobial peptides expressed in E. coli.
As working with MRSA requires a BSL-2 permit, and the lab in which we work has a BSL-1 permit, we did an intense literature study to find closely related organisms of same genera other than S. aureus. We chose S. delphini which has close similarities to S. aureus. The antimicrobial peptides where chosen in such a way that they have minimum toxicity to humans and a low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for S. aureus.
The effect of antimicrobial peptides (both de-novo and natural) on humans were evaluated by testing their effects on COS 1 Kidney cells from Cercopithecus aethiops (African green monkey). These cells were used as they were easily accessible. The effects can be very well correlated to the effect of peptides on humans because of their shared simian nature. In order to cater to guidelines of releasing of GMO to the environment, we added a kill switch that is controlled by a timer. This will allow the self destruction of the cells after the desired effects are attained
