We, this year’s iGEM-team from Bielefeld, develop a system to generate and select the binding proteins named by us as Evobodies.
iGEM stands for international Genetically Engineered Machine and is the most renowned non-commercial competition in synthetic biology which is held in Boston.
Our Evobodies are antibody-like proteins that gain affinity
towards a target protein in the process of directed evolution. From
this originates the name:
Evolution + Antibody = Evobody
As an organism for the generation we chose Escherichia
coli, a common bacterium used in synthetic biology. Directed
evolution in our matter means favored growth for those bacteria,
that generate Evobodies that are binding to the target protein. To
realize our concept, we divided our team into three taskforces:
The library-taskforce is responsible for the construction of
DNA-Sequences with randomized variable regions. This represents the
starting point of our project and guarantees a high variability of
Evobodies.
The mutation-taskforce wants to achieve the integration of an error
prone polymerase I, that slightly changes the sequence of the
Evobodies in the process of replication, thereby further increasing
their variability.
Finally, the selection-taskforce filters for those bacteria
generating Evobodies with affinity to the target protein. Mediated
by the binding of our protein and the target, the bacterium in
concern is granted a selective advantage directly increasing the
evolutionary fitness. In this way, only bacteria generating binding
Evobodies to the target protein will prevail against their
competitors.
At the end we want to obtain the sequence of the functional Evobodies for industrial-scale production. Within the scope of our project we want to test our system against an envelope protein of the Zika-virus.
Feel free to write us at info@igem-bielefeld.de if you have any questions!
Viruses are changing rapidly. Because of their transmission
both, from human to human as well as between human and animal, this
can constitute a great danger for everyone.
Our goal is to establish a system to stay one step ahead of viral
mutation rate by modifying our Evobodies accordingly. Evobodies
generated in this matter can subsequently be produced on a large
scale and utilized for the detection and therapy of many
pathogens.
Not even a century ago the 1918 flu pandemic caused a death toll
of up to 50 million people deriving from a regular flu virus. It
took several years to control the outbreaks and defeat the disease.
Caused by their high mutation rate, a lethality rising mutation
could occur anytime.
With this project we want to contribute to the fight against
mutated or newly arisen viruses by generating Evobodies against
specific target proteins. Also, our Evobodies could not only be
generated faster and cheaper than conventional antibodies,
additionally no animals need to be harmed due to
immunization.
As we need to finance both, the registration fee for the competition and the travel to Boston, we need sponsors supporting us with money and laboratory utensils. But finding enough sponsors is a hard job. The money from Startnext would be used to guarantee that every team member is able to come to Boston as well as financing the stay there and for laboratory expendable items.
We are eleven young Bachelor- and Master-students from the
Bielefeld University studying the courses Biochemistry,
Bioinformatics and Genome Research, Genome Based Systems Biology
and Molecular Biotechnology. We form this year’s iGEM-team from
Bielefeld.
Students from all over the world compete this competition organized
by the iGEM Foundation (Boston, USA) every year. 2016, 304 teams
originating from 30 countries are present. Participation is a great
opportunity for us to improve ourselves and learn new
techniques.
