Team:Moscow
About our project
We are the Moscow iGEM team. The project that we decided to create
is associated with ticks, which are carriers of various diseases that have serious consequences, for
example, borreliosis. Ticks are very common in Russia, as well as in general in the middle zone of
Eurasia. After being bitten by an infected tick, it is necessary to start treatment as quickly as you can.
Taking this into account, the question of the rapid detection of infected ticks arises. This is the main
part of our project — creating a detection system of infected ticks.
Project plan
Step 1
Bioinformatics
The first part of the LymeExpress project is Bioinformatics. It consists of searching for the conserved
genome
regions between different species of Borrelia and metagenomic analysis of the Ixodes
microbiome
for possible interference with the biosensor targets from Borrelia sp. Then the molecular type of
biosensor targets will be provided.
Step 2
Biosensor Development
In this part of the
project the targeting system (CRISPR-Cas) and the detection system will be determined. In parallel,
computer modeling of the biosensor work will be carried out. This step also contains quality check
and testing.
Step 3
Device development
The last step of
LymeExpress project is creating a portable spectrophotometer. Then combination of the biosensor and
device will be checked and tested.
