University of Calgary (Calgary)
Snip Equip Flip – our project aims to address some of the key issues affecting targeted gene integration
| Team Grade Level: | University |
| STEM Focus: | Synthetic Biology |
iGEM Calgary 2018 sought to address some of the key issues affecting targeted gene integration: accuracy of desired insertions, maximum size of recombinant DNA, and expression of integrated DNA after integration with the host genome. To this extent, Calgary developed three main systems in order to construct a cell line which could facilitate large, precise gene insertions which are protected from transcriptional silencing and methylation. These three systems were:
A CRISPR/Cas9 system, to introduce a recombination target site into the host genome
A FlpO/Beta resolvase system, to swap desired sequences into the genome at the recombination target site and lock them in
A Chromatin Modifying Elements system, to stop transcriptional silencing and promoter methylation, as well as reduce gene crosstalk
