IGEM:Harvard/2007/Brainstorming/

Adhesion Targets

Brainstorming of Possible Adhesion Targets (feel free to add/reorganize/whatever--I just thought I'd get this started):

• Keratins -- was thinking of new lines of "hair conditioners" --> these tend to add body to the hair shaft by using bonding polymers; I was thinking that bacteria could be the new line of "bonding polyproteinecious entities" etc etc

textiles

• silk
• wool
• polyester
• nylon fibres
• Could use the MIT idea to clone E coli that secrete pleasant smells and similarly bind to these fibers -- a living deodorant!

eukaryotic cells

• Mosquito gut epithelial cells as targets

other mammalian

• Laminins
• fibronectin

Mammalian cell surface proteins

Protozoan membrane proteins

• By the way, I was thinking about expressing plasmodium falciparum proteins on the surface of E coli and maybe showing somehow that an immune rxn can be elicited in mice or something like that e.g. in humans, "High levels of plasma chitotriosidase are a marker of macrophage activation..."
• Speaking on targets, heregoes:
• MSP-1 --> well characterized
• CSP
• EBA-175, a 175 kDa 'erythrocyte binding antigen' from P. falciparum
• DBP, Duffy-binding protein from P. vivax and P. knowlesi
• SSP2, Plasmodium sporozoite surface protein-2. Also known as TRAP (thrombospondin-related adhesive protein).
• Proteins with homology to SSP2/TRAP from Toxoplasma (MIC2), Eimeria (Etp100), and Cryptosporidium
• CTRP, circumsporozoite- and TRAP-related protein of Plasmodium found in the ookinete stage
• (see http://www.tulane.edu/~wiser/malaria/cmb.html#junction)
• MSP-1 polypeptide fragments

Viral Membrane Proteins

• Hepatitis C surface proteins
• Influenza A M2 Protein
• Neuraminidase
• Hemaglutinin
• Semliki Forest membrane proteins
• Epstein Barr LMP1
• Epstein Barr LMP2
• HIV gp120

Cancer-Related Membrane Proteins

• Eag1 Potassium Channels
• Muc1
• NGEP-L
• HP59
• gp75 - Surface expression of gp75 on mouse melanoma cells correlates with the ability of a monoclonal antibody against gp75 to reject melanomas in syngeneic mice

Assorted

• Presenilin

2 Component Systems

• We should start researching these as well as the tagets.
• Perhaps The TF's (myself included, of course) can help point out some papers with which to start.

- Nick

• How about arsenic sensor using an ars regulator, ars promoter and GFP gene -- we can have it just warn one if the arsenical concentration is greater than 5 ppb.

• Maybe look over the light sensitive bacteria paper again, they use a 2 component system there.

1. Levskaya A, Chevalier AA, Tabor JJ, Simpson ZB, Lavery LA, Levy M, Davidson EA, Scouras A, Ellington AD, Marcotte EM, and Voigt CA. Synthetic biology: engineering Escherichia coli to see light. Nature. 2005 Nov 24;438(7067):441-2. DOI:10.1038/nature04405 |

• Controlled spider-silk production in the presence of calcium ions or vitamin K
  • Could have the bacteria attach to skin (keratin, using LppOmpA+appropriate peptide sequence) and then , since Ca2+ ions increase when one bleeds, could have the bacteria respond to this by spritzing out spider silk protein (antimicrobial). It will matter less that monocytes will attack these bacteria since we just want them to play a role early on during the wound-healing process (they may very well contribute to debris used to create a wound plug upon their death.
  • A second application would be to select bacteria that have peptides with binding affinity to silks and then have them attach to individual silk yarns --> Thus, when the yarns are soaked in culture media, the bacterial secretions (silk) increase the thickness of the yarns --> conversely, when dried out, the bacteria are inactivated and subsequent washing reduces yarn thickness through shrinkage and wear. In effect, you'd have clothes that replenish themselves. Additionally, we could use the research by MIT's group last time on sweetsmelling E.coli to make yarns innately sweet-smelling.

Cascade Network Structure

• Some loose brainstorming on a possible reporter network that can be activated from the membrane protein as we discussed would be beneficial as well, if we plan to do something like that.
• May be good to start with something similar to what has been done previously and hook it up to GFP.
• Some TF direction would be warranted here as well.

- Nick

Previous Brainstorming Ideas

Btw, can we reorganize the brainstorming page to put the older brainstorming into folders or something and only have the stuff relevant to our project still on the front page? I have no idea how to do this...thanks. -Shaunak

Hope you like the formatting.
--Stephanie (5/12)

Brainstorming, 4/23 to 5/9
Misc Brainstorming, pre-5/9
Brainstorming from Second Meeting, 4/05
Brainstorming from First Meeting, 3/19

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