Team:Calgary

From 2013.igem.org

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<h2>Our Sensor</h2>
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<p>Check out what we did in the lab this year in response to <i>E. coli</i> contamination in the beef industry. Learn about the design of our detector, linker, reporter as well as the development of a prototype and mathematical model.</p>
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<p>Check out what we did in the lab this year in response to <i>E. coli</i> contamination in the beef industry. Learn about the design of our detector, linker, reporter as well as the development of a prototype and mathematical model.</p>
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<p>Want to see a summary of what we accomplished this season? Click here to check out our data page where we outline all of the work that we’ve done to date!</p>
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<p>Want to see a summary of what we accomplished this season? Click here to check out our data page where we outline all of the work that we’ve done to date!</p>
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<p>Check out how Human Practices helped to guide the development of our sensor. Learn how we spent time talking to various experts in the beef industry in order to design our project with our end-user in mind.</p>
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<p>Check out how Human Practices helped to guide the development of our sensor. Learn how we spent time talking to various experts in the beef industry in order to design our project with our end-user in mind.</p>
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<p>We worked hard with the Paris Bettencourt team this season to develop useful tools for the rest of the iGEM community. Click here to find out what our collaboration can add to iGEM. </p>
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<p>We worked hard with the Paris Bettencourt team this season to develop useful tools for the rest of the iGEM community. Click here to find out what our collaboration can add to iGEM. </p>
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Revision as of 04:13, 26 September 2013

Our Project

Outbreaks of foodborne illnesses are a growing problem in our lives. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, identified 767 outbreaks affecting nearly 14,000 people of foodborne illnesses. Of these, pathogenic E. coli was a recurring theme in many of these outbreaks. In Alberta, we recently experienced our own foodborne disease outbreak in late 2012. This outbreak was the result of pathogenic E. coli serotype O157 and led to significant food recall alongside many hospitalizations, deaths, massive economic losses and an overall loss of consumer confidence in food safety. Current detection methods require long incubation times to amplify E. coli in the sample and followed by amplification to verify the presence of known genes that are associated with pathogenic E. coli.

One of the contributing factors connected with the outbreak in Alberta was the lack of rapid on-site detection systems available. Thus, the University of Calgary 2013 iGEM Collegiate team is using synthetic biology to develop system to rapidly detect the presence of pathogenic E. coli in the beef industry. By using engineered biological nanoparticles and DNA binding proteins we can specifically detect pathogenic DNA sequences. Our biosensor functions at the genomic level to detect the presence or absence of pathogenic E. coli in a given sample. This system allows us to pinpoint contamination during meat processing and also provides the ability to prescreen cattle in a preventative way to limit potential sources of contamination from the processing chain. Our system provides a powerful new tool for food safety, but also shows promise as a platform for the rapid detection of target organisms that are identified as key targets in a myriad of sectors from health to environment to biosecurity.