Team:McMaster II
Our Project
Our project this year aims to build a genetic circuit in E. coli using the Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing compound N-(3-oxo-acyl) homoserine (C12) as a potential cancer treatment. C12 has been shown to induce apoptosis in multiple types of tumor cells independent of the BCL-2 pathway. C12’s natural identity as a quorum sensing compound raises an interesting possibility of the implementation of a negative feedback loop downstream of quorum sensing receptor LuxR. Furthermore, logic gating systems allow the synthesis of multiple input signals (ex. cell type, tumor microenvironment, etc.) that could be used to dictate the activity of the engineered bacteria. Theoretically, such an engineered bacterial colony could self-regulate its activity and exert its effector function through the same compound, C12.
