Team:Leiden

iGEM Leiden | 2019

S.P.L.A.S.H.

Suckerin Polymer Layer to Achieve Sustainable Health

Experiments Notebook Safety
Team Attributions Collaborations
Human Practices Entrepreneurship Newsletter Education &
Public Engagement Sponsors
Description Demonstrate Model Parts Results

S.P.L.A.S.H.

Suckerin Polymer Layer to Achieve Sustainable Health

Our project

Burn wounds are one of the leading causes of morbidity and lead to the life-long disfigurement and disability of millions of people annually. Current treatments still lack necessary features leading to a high demand for alternative treatments. The biomaterial suckerin combines all required characteristics for a wound dressing, due to its unique properties. Our aim was to use this protein to create a hydrogel dressing. The implementation of a cleavable linker system allows for the coupling of antimicrobial peptides and wound healing agents. Thereby, our suckerin-based hydrogel can improve the prognosis for burn wound victims by both preventing infections and promoting wound healing.


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Severe burn wounds constitute a major public health problem causing 300,000 casualties annually. In 42%-65% of cases, these fatalities are caused by bacterial infections. Besides this, 11 million victims a year are hospitalized, many of whom are left with lifelong disfiguration and disabilities.

Donor skin, used in current treatments, is scarce due to specific requirements and many processing steps leading to high demand for alternative treatments. Various materials have been investigated for the production of wound dressings to substitute donor skin. Even though improvements have been made in the form of hydrogels, many features are still missing. The biomaterial suckerin combines all required characteristics for a wound dressing, due to its unique properties and can be used to further optimize hydrogel treatment. Therefore, a suckerin-based hydrogel can improve the treatment of third-degree burn wounds.
Suckerin is originally found in the sucker ring teeth of the Humboldt squid Dosidicus gigas. Suckerin has unique features such as flexibility, strength, and ability to self-assemble into β-sheets, making it ideal for hydrogel formation. As a protein, suckerin can be produced by microorganisms. This opens up possibilities for molecular engineering enabling fast and high-yield production. The iGEM Leiden 2019 team strives to use these assets to produce a suckerin-based hydrogel as a donor skin substitute.
Introducing a cleavable linker system enables the joining of antimicrobial peptides, numbing agents and wound healing stimulators. Therefore, our suckerin-based hydrogel can improve the prognosis for burn wound victims by both preventing infections and promoting wound healing.

Model

To improve and optimize large scale production of suckerin, we created a model of E. coli metabolism, as well as metabolic pathways, including suckerin-19 production. We also provided a step-by-step guide through the making of our model that can be used by future iGEM teams as a reference.

Human practices

In our project, we interacted with a large variety of stakeholders and combined their feedback with knowledge from previous iGEM teams and literature. This enabled us to make informed decisions regarding the product design of our suckerin-based hydrogel.

Entrepreneurship

Our entrepreneurship program is the result of numerous conversations with potential customers, as well as entrepreneurs within the medical biotechnology field. We constructed a novel three-phase comprehensive roadmap to launch a successful business to serve as a guide for future iGEM teams.

Public engagement

The public opinion towards applied synthetic biology is predominated by unfamiliarity. Since synthetic biology played an essential role in the development of our product, we strived to make people more aware of the advantages and the ethical regulations concerned in this field, through practical workshops and discussion events.