Description

Tell us about your project, describe what moves you and why this is something important for your team.

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• A clear and concise description of your project.
• A detailed explanation of why your team chose to work on this particular project.
• References and sources to document your research.
• Use illustrations and other visual resources to explain your project.

A special, civilian-friendly treatment of cancer

According to statistics, there are more than 14 million people suffering from cancer every year, and more than 32 million people died of cancer. Causes of it are complex and variable, which means that it’s difficult to cure. Among these causes of cancer, BRAF is one of the most common proto-oncogene. BRAF is the most common mutant gene of melanoma, of which changes have become the most probable genetic mutations in adamantoblastoma. The incidence of mutations reach up to 40% - 60%. BRAF is also the most common mutant gene of melanoma. The incidence of mutations reach up to 40% to 60%.

Nowadays, the treatments to cancer are mainly surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, which are very harmful to human body. In addition, these methods have a long treatment cycle and the price is too expensive. In fact, these treatment are not quiet useful for most of the patients. All these aspects need to be improved now.

In order to improve current treatment, we are exploring the relationship between the genetic mutation of BRAF and the growth of the tumor. We, the SFLS_iGEMers, are hoping to complete the "discovery, marking and killing" three steps to achieve small damage and low cost of personalized treatment by using Crisper-Cas9 and short microRNA to interference the growth and removal of tumor.

A new therapeutic agent for Staphylococcus aureus infection: improvement and application of human defensin HBD3

Staphylococcus aureus infection is a worldwide health problem. The US Centers for Disease Control reports that infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus are second only to E. coli. Among them, this infection caused by food poisoning, have a considerable proportion in all countries.

Due to the presence of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), penicillin is generally not useful. So people suffering from the infection generally use erythromycin, new penicillin, gentamicin, vancomycin or vindicamycin vi treatment.

Our goal is to use the human defensin hBD3 - a broad spectrum of antibacterial peptides to solve the problem. The current recognized HBD3 bactericidal mechanism is: HBD3 with a large number of positive charge can bine with negative-charge cell wall, which causes the death of cell. Because of the specific bactericidal mechanism, it’s extremely difficult for hBD3 to make Staphylococcus aureus drug-resistant. Meanwhile, synthetic biology provides the possibility for mass production.