University of Calgary (Calgary)
B.s. Detector – we are developing a nucleic acid-based, rapid point-of-care device capable of diagnosing multiple infectious diseases
| Team Grade Level: | University |
| STEM Focus: | Synthetic Biology |
Infectious diseases symptomatically similar to malaria are often misdiagnosed in resource-poor, developing countries. Misdiagnosis of such diseases prevents administration of the appropriate treatments in a timely manner, resulting in economic burdens and human suffering. The 2014 Calgary iGEM team has engaged with international infectious diseases experts and end-users to address this issue. We are developing a novel, nucleic acid-based, rapid point-of-care device capable of diagnosing multiple infectious diseases in parallel. Bacillus subtilis is being engineered to generate a chromophoric reporter in response to genetic markers from disease-causing pathogens. B. subtilis spores in a portable, handheld device will be used to detect pathogen DNA capitalizing on an innate mechanism of homologous recombination to express a reporter through a transcriptionally-regulated genetic circuit. Our platform technology can be adapted to detect a myriad of pathogens by modifying the genetic markers to which the system is targeted.
iGEM Medal Achieved: Gold
