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Team:Evry/Project
From 2013.igem.org
Overall project
Abstract
Bloodletting consists of the withdrawal of blood for therapeutic purposes. It is one of the oldest medical techniques and is nowadays abandonned. However in hematology, bloodletting (phlebotomy) seems to remain the only valuable solution to cure diseases consisting of a blood iron load such as hemochromatosis and thalassemia. Despite its real efficiency, some patients cannot bear this archaic way of treating their disease. We focused on illnesses based on iron load and decided to design an Escherichia coli capable of chelating iron in the intestins. This will not only allow to reduce the amount of iron absorbed by the duodenum, but also split the bloodletting or even lower the amount of medication which has a lot of side effects.
Hemochromatosis
Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease responsible for an abnormal iron accumulation in blood. This illness is due to a mutation on the HFE protein, which leads to a massive iron absorption by the intestines. As a consequence, the organism starts stocking the iron in tissues causing chronic deficiencies. Nowadays, the only efficient way to treat hemochromatosis is by bleed draining. This treatment is invasive and archaic compared to the actual advances in the medical field.
Thalassemia
Constructions
Our goal is to lower the iron absorption from the intestines by using an iron chelating bacteria. The gain will be to decrease the frequency of blood draining process and improve the patients lifestyle. We have two main objectives: developping an iron-sensing promoter and overexpressing the siderophore pathway under the control of iron concentration.
Project Details
Part 1
Bacteria engineering and reversed Fur system for iron sensing
Part 2
Modeling on bacteria interaction with duodenum.
