iGEM projects become complex and labour intensive very quickly and quite often the amount of work that has to be or can be done exceeds the scope of one iGEM year. This also applies for our project which is not yet finalized before wiki freeze or the giant jamboree. We are planning to build upon the foundation laid out during the last twelve months and to extend our work with fruitful collaborations, precise wetlab experiments and in-depth data analysis. We are especially eager to bring our work from bench to bedside and to create a viable business around our ideas.

After iGEM 2019, we will continue to work on our ambitious project to realize the fully applicable probiotic. It is our vision to build a functioning therapeutic for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes. Therefore, we will continue our cloning efforts and introduce our constructs into the genome of E. coli Nissle 1917. Finally, we will test the secretion and quality of our CPP-Exendin-4 protein via mass spectrometry with our partner company Synovo. The penetration efficiency through the epithelial cells will be evaluated via Transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) assay, as well as monolayers provided by the group of cellular physiology at the University Hohenheim, formerly supervised by Prof. Hanke.

2020/2021 - Mentoring the Experimenta iGEM Team

After approaching our partner, the Experimenta Science Center in Heilbronn, they got highly interested in participating in iGEM 2020 with motivated students by providing the required laboratories, supervision and funding. Since the Experimenta requested a long-lasting partnership and supervision, we’re happy to be serving as advisors for the planned iGEM high school team next year.

2020 - Collaboration with the Institute for Technology Transfer

In 2020, our team, together with next years iGEM team Tübingen, will attend a life science business school organized by Dr. Rolf Hecker and the Institute for Technology Transfer. The institute is highly interested in our work and we’re eager to form a partnership with them to bring our ideas from the research lab into practice.

2020 - Publication RNA-Seq data

Due to our generous sponsors and collaborators at the European Molecular Laboratory in Heidelberg and the NGS Competence Center Tuebingen, we have already conducted a first analysis of the E. coli Nissle transcriptome via RNA-Seq. We will extend our set of in-depth analyzed, differentially expressed genes and try to identify even more affected pathways. Due to the lack of publications on the E. coli Nissle 1917 transcriptome, we want to contribute to the knowledge on this already used probiotic bacterium. We aim to publish the already promising data in a peer-reviewed journal, suggesting ways of improving the effectiveness and survivability of E. coli Nissle 1917.

2020 - Publication of the CRISPR/Cas3-based kill-switch system together with the group of Prof. Angenent

The Environmental Biotechnology group of the University of Tübingen is still highly interested in the CRISPR/Cas3 based chassis and will put severe efforts into building upon our foundational work. Several bachelor and master thesis projects around the topic are already planned. Moreover, members of our team will continue our work with the group, supervised and supported by the prestigious group of Professor Largus T. Angenent.

2021/2022 - Starting a Business with GLP.exe

By 2021, we hope to have developed a feasible chassis, which we could use as a therapeutic. As stated in our business plan we’re planning to use our expertise on our novel chassis to offer custom made constructs for other companies to improve the financial foundation of our future company. This will allow us to continue our research on our Type 2 Diabetes solution and enable large-scale production of our E. coli Nissle constructs.