Team:ColumbiaNYC/Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Our first steps towards a business model
Our Product
SilenshR is a synthetic biology solution that leverages the innate capacity of bacteria to colonize the hypoxic and immune-privileged cores of tumors conferring specificity to a systemic therapeutic approach. Once the SilenshR E. coli reach a cell density of 2*10^11 colony forming units (cfu) per milliliter within the tumor, genetic circuits are activated allowing SilenshR recombinants to invade cancer cells and release a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting an expressed oncogene thereby halting the unchecked cellular proliferation of cancer. By circumventing the need for systemic delivery of chemotherapy and the inevitable off-target cytotoxicity, SilenshR keeps the immune system intact, spares the digestive epithelial lining from damage and relieves anxiety surrounding hair loss.
