Team:SCU China

Team:SCU China - 2017.igem.org

Rhythmic Production of Melatonin in E.coli

SCU_China

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Rhythmic Production of Melatonin in E.coli
SCU_China

      Nowadays, insomnia and circadian rhythm disorders are increasingly plaguing individuals' daily life. The circadian rhythm in human is predominantly under the regulation of melatonin, a hormone produced by pineal gland periodically in accordance with day-and-night photoperiod. This year we wanted to use engineered E.coli to mimic this process in human as a promising dosing machine. We proposed to construct the melatonin biosynthesis pathway in E.coli to produce melatonin, and simultaneously couple this process with optimized repressilator, a synthetic genetic oscillator with higher precision and stability, to magnify the function of repressilator and render melatonin production resemble mammalian periodicity in E.coli.

1. Our human practices were integrated to the whole process, which made us complete the project better.
2. We improved two previous part BBa_I13521 and BBa_E2050 and our BioBrick work well in lab condition.
3. Our experimental design based on modelling results, such as the optimal proportioning of synthetase.
4. Engineered E.coli is cultured with artificial gastrointestinal juices and gut flora to validate the substantial integration and survival condition based on the consideration for better safety and higher efficiency.

1. There are 4 new BioBrick parts in our project as follow, BBa_K2276001, BBa_K2276003, BBa_K2276004 and BBa_K2206005.
2. We collaborated with SCU-WestChina and SiCAU-China in experiments and human practice, received key assists from Peking University and offered wiki design suggestions to team Purdue.
3. We consulted experts of China Food and Drug Administration and West China Sleeping Centre for both experimental designs and safety problems. Also, we collected and analyzed convincing datas from our survey.