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Our 2019 Project - Mutatis Mutandis
Our 2019 Project - Mutatis Mutandis
The 2019 team brought home a silver medal, for evolving a more efficient lead sequestering bacterium and characterizing a lead biosensor in E.coli.
PI : Dr Chaitanya Athale
The 2019 team brought home a silver medal, for evolving a more efficient lead sequestering bacterium and characterizing a lead biosensor in E.coli.
PI : Dr Chaitanya Athale
Overview
Overview
Our labs use various techniques for directed evolution such as chemical mutagens, error prone PCR and bacterial hypermutator strains. These techniques, however, have a variety of drawbacks making their use tedious and unsuitable for certain scenarios. Chemical mutagens are generally harmful for the user and the system on which it is being used. Error-prone PCR and hypermutator strains require the knowledge of the gene or gene network. Hypermutator strains end up accumulating a lot of deleterious mutations in vital genes leading to the crashing (death) of the system. This means that they need to be constantly screened and once the mutation of interest occurs, the genes must be immediately removed and cloned into a stable strain.
Keeping in mind all these drawbacks, the team decided to design a system that can regulate the mutation rate of E.coli (the genetic workhorse) and thus can be used as a useful tool for directed evolution.
More about the project can be found on the official wiki here.
The Team with Project mentors and PI Dr.Chaitanya Athale
2017 Project - TB OR NOT TB?
2017 Project - TB OR NOT TB?
Our 2017 team worked on creating a device that is cheaper and faster diagnosis of Tuberculosis and won a silver medal for their work.
Our 2017 team worked on creating a device that is cheaper and faster diagnosis of Tuberculosis and won a silver medal for their work.
PI: Dr Chaitanya Athale
PI: Dr Chaitanya Athale
Overview
Overview
World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics for 2011 gave an estimated incidence figure of 2.2 million cases of TB for India out of a global incidence of 9.6 million cases. Traditional detection techniques take a lot of time owing to the extremely slow cell cycle(48 hours) of M. tuberculosis. Moreover, we require microscopes and staining techniques for detection which may not be available in the economically backward regions of our country. Using synthetic biology tools, the team aimed at creating a device which will facilitate faster and cheaper diagnosis of TB.
The project was named 'TB or not TB', which addresses the growing need for faster and cost-friendly detection of the tuberculosis bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. They plan to do so with the help of the following three modules: Hijack module, Detection module and Termination module. The idea is to make the above modules function in E.coli as a proof of principle and replicate the same in M. tuberculosis later.
More about the project can be found on the official wiki here.
2017 iGEM IISER Pune Team members
2015 Project - Mycobacterium Revelio !
2015 Project - Mycobacterium Revelio !
Our 2015 team brought home the bronze medal, for designing a genetic device that helps in easy identification of Tuberculosis.
Our 2015 team brought home the bronze medal, for designing a genetic device that helps in easy identification of Tuberculosis.
PI: Dr Chaitanya Athale
PI: Dr Chaitanya Athale
Overview
Overview
Tuberculosis is an infectious pulmonary disease, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis which spreads through air. The minimum duration of treatment is 6 months and if not treated properly, this disease can be fatal. According to the WHO Global TB Report 2014, India has the highest TB incidence, with factors like a large population combined,poor hygienic conditions, moderate temperatures, socio-economic conditions being responsible.
The average duration from the appearance of symptoms to the beginning of treatment is 2-4 months. The reason for this large gap is that M. tuberculosis is a slow growing pathogenic bacterium, and this property of the bacterium hinders rapid detection in sputum samples obtained from patients. The commonly used diagnostic techniques in India cannot detect low concentrations of the bacterium, and require a time of 2-4 weeks.
The team aimed to bridge this gap by creating a genetic device, which when added to a sample, would give an easy to identify output, significantly reducing the need for high-end diagnostic techniques in Tuberculosis detection.
More about the project can be found on the official wiki here.
The 2015 iGEM Team members PI Dr.Chaitanya Athale
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