brainstorming

Overview

Following the rush of inspiration we felt when we learned about all the possibilities that synthetic biology opened to us to develop a project of our choice, we began brainstorming. We wanted to solve a real-world issue and have a meaningful impact in our community. With this in mind, we looked for and reviewed problems of importance and tried to come up with possible solutions. Thousands of ideas flooded our heads, and we chose a couple of them to develop them as proposals for our team’s project. The following ideas are some of the strongest proposals:

Previous Ideas

Staphylococcus aureus biofilm

Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram positive bacterium known for being able to create a resistant biofilm, which can stick to tissues, prosthesis, and implants. Added to this, S. aureus is one of the main antibiotic resistant microorganisms, which has led to numerous public health issues. Hospitals and health centers have to deal with these biofilms every day. Not only are they especially hard to remove but they can also have disastrous health consequences, such as removal of the implant, severe infections or treatment interruption. Our plan was to produce recombinantly and purify a series of specific enzymes with proven antimicrobial activity against S. aureus biofilms. With this approach we could offer a new therapeutic option.

Ulcer treatment via L. Sericata larvae

Hard-to-treat and easily infected wounds such as diabetic ulcers or chronic injuries are a common problem in Mexico. An alternative treatment based on the use of larvae of the green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata) has shown effectiveness healing these wounds, due to the peptides and enzymes released in the insect's secretions. Our objective was to produce a hydrogel that contained three of these proteins, to accelerate the debridement and healing process of the wound, as well as preventing bacterial infections.

Lead accumulation

In our state there are a lot of water bodies contaminated by lead, a heavy metal extremely polluting and harmful for people’s health. Our idea consisted of taking a protein from Cupriavidus metallidurans called PbrR, which has lead affinity, and modifying a microorganism for it to remove lead from water. This way, the water quality in our state could improve as well as the lives of people affected by it.

Our Final Choice:

V-TION: Verticillium Inhibition

Recombinant production of plant defense peptides to inhibit Verticillium wilt in cotton crops

Agriculture is one of the major sectors for our country and an essential activity for our society in a worldwide level. There is a phytopathogenic fungus called Verticillium dahliae that affects many crops all over the world. We heard about this when we delved into the cotton industry, one of the main crops in our state, and how it was affected by this specific fungus. To fight this we proposed to produce recombinantly antifungal peptides with shown activity against Verticillium dahliae. This would allow us to produce a biopesticide that inhibits and attacks the fungal disease, helps the producers in our state, and saves millions of crops worldwide.

Team:Tec-Chihuahua/Brainstorming