Team:Michigan/Applied Design
Applied Design
Public concerns about working with pathogenic bacteria in laboratory settings are centered around containment. Several kill-switches that rely on using small molecules to suppress the cell’s function have been previously designed. Many of these switches require exogenous molecules or cloning a complicated combination of transcription factors into bacteria in order for proper functioning. Since our kill-switch is under temperature control, any bacteria exposed to temperatures under 34C for an extended period of time will engage in autolysis. We envision incorporating the switch into the genomes of commercial cell lines as a standard safety feature. For example, the use of kill-switch incorporated bacterial strains would be ideal for educational laboratories. The applications for this kill-switch are varied and go beyond preventing infection. Autolysis may replace the need for sonication-induced lysis of bacteria in biochemical labs. Many synthetic biologists are also developing genetically modified organism for medical and agricultural purposes. When these organisms are released into the human body or into the wild, an internal “kill-switch” will ensure that these organisms do not escape into unintended environments. Another potential application of our design would involve future modification, such as the type suggested by Dr. Stockbridge when our team spoke with her for feedback on our project. Dr. Stockbridge suggested creating a “conditional auxotroph” in which production of a vital amino acid could be dependent upon being within a temperature range, and in this way the temperature-controlled promoter could also act as a safety mechanism. Or, in an alternate manner, the temperature-controlled promoter could direct the repression of some essential cellular building block, such as alanine.
