A group of students from Ben Gurion University is developing a solution that circumvents the problem of mutations that may occur in bacteria that perform an action required for us - for example, cleaning polluted water - a self-destruct mechanism in the wake of the action * They are currently raising the budget required for development through crowdfunding (see reference at the bottom of the article)
The progress that has taken place in the field of synthetic biology in recent years opens up a new and diverse world of possibilities for researchers. The ability to program bacteria and produce them artificially, so that they will do various jobs for us - such as producing medicines or vitamins inside the body, turning waste and infections into energy sources, purifying rivers and water sources, and more - is in terms of a leap forward for all of humanity. The bacteria are an available and cheap substitute for the expensive and polluting chemicals. So why do they still remain in the laboratories and do not fill our lives?
Every technological breakthrough is accompanied by fear of the unknown. In our case, the fear is about introducing a significant amount of bacteria into some environment. The great danger is that the ecological balance will be violated. This is because an encounter between the mesosynthetic bacteria and unique environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, can cause a mutation in the bacteria. This could lead to a serious ecological imbalance, the consequences of which are disastrous. A real problem has arisen, which hinders the development of the entire field.
A group of students from Ben Gurion University is developing a solution that circumvents the problem. Instead of dealing with a complex and complicated prediction of the future, iGEM-BGU developed a method to produce a self-destruct mechanism in the bacterium. Thus, within a short time after performing the desired action, the bacterium will destroy itself. Uncertainties in the use of bacteria will disappear. The ecological danger will no longer be an obstacle. A new world of possibilities will open before the human race.
How do they do it?
According to Assaf Kazakov, one of the members of the group, the researchers actually developed two parallel methods: PASE 1 (programmable autonomous self elimination), which is based on the number of generations of the bacterium, and PASE 2, which is based on the lifetime of a certain acid. In the first method, toxic proteins and the drug for them - a repressor protein, known as a repressor - are introduced into the bacteria at the same time. The repressor is inserted in a limited amount, and after a certain number of generations the bacterium does not have enough of this protein left. Then the toxic proteins are expressed and the bacterium dies. The second method, pase 2, is a little more complex. With the help of world-renowned protein engineering experts, the students created a synthetic amino acid. Amino acids are actually "the fuel of the bacteria". The bacteria have been engineered so that they must have this amino acid in order to survive. Now, a simple calculation of the protein's half-life will yield the bacteria's remaining life time. The complex development requires integration between different fields of knowledge. That's why the team from Ben Gurion includes students from biotechnology engineering, bioinformatics, computer science and chemistry."
iGEM is a prestigious international competition, which aims to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the fields of synthetic biology and genetic engineering. The competition, which is organized by the American MIT University, is considered one of the most important in the global scientific arena today. The competition is intended for undergraduate students and hundreds of teams from around the world participate in it. iGEM-BGU is the only group from Israel participating this year and will compete against all the leading universities in the world.
The semi-final stage will be held this October in Lyon, France and the final stage will be held on November 1 at MIT University in Boston, Massachusetts. The group obtained the most funding for the competition, but not all of it. To complete the recruitment The group started a crowdfunding campaign on the Adstart website. In addition, the group produced a short and simple animated video explaining the project also to the general public, the one who does not speak the language of DNA and acids. You can find it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da4Rj3W3asI.
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Ran,
Great that you respond in the forum and good luck!
First of all, full disclosure - I am a member of the student team in question. And in our case, I will try to address the variety of responses here, in the hope that an interesting and fruitful discussion will be created.
The first thing that is important to understand is that there are currently no mechanisms designed in this way that provide this type of protection, of course there are many questions and doubts, but try not to throw out the water with the baby, this is just one step on the way to a real and effective safety mechanism.
Yes, there can be a malfunction, yes there is a reasonable chance that there will be a mutation, but first let's see in the laboratory that it is possible to design a self-destruction mechanism from scratch, we will see the feasibility, after that we will learn more and make optimizations.
The world of synthetic biology is a new world and is developing at breakneck speed, so try not to disqualify in advance.
Now a little more detailed-
1) The weapon that the bacterium turns against itself as well as the additional protein in the A. are shields that are not new to the world of bacteria, they were taken from well-known phages (viruses of bacteria), and have an effect only against bacteria, and only when they come as part of a very specific A., that is , their genetic information has been circulating among bacteria for quite some time, and only the "puzzle" in which they are assembled now is a genetic innovation.
2) To the "questioner" the M.A. of the repressor was not properly described, what happens is that the bacterium has a mechanism that knows how to produce the repressor only under laboratory conditions (in the presence of an unnatural substance that exists only in the laboratory), and as soon as it is released into the environment it cannot produce any more repressor and slowly with The divisions from the repressor stores produced under laboratory conditions deplete until it is no longer effective, and then the cell that produces the toxin (the "poison") ceases to be suppressed and goes into action.
The trait that is inherited is the trait of "producing a repressor under laboratory conditions" and therefore the offspring that are already outside the laboratory no longer produce it. The amount of repressor present in the mother bacterium (the one that still produced it in the laboratory) is a physical amount of protein that is distributed among its offspring.
The more innovative M.A. in terms of bacterial genetics and no less interesting is precisely the second M.A., where we introduce the ability of the bacterium to use an unnatural amino acid (this is no longer genetic information that circulates in the world of bacteria), and make it dependent on this acid.
We follow the publications so feel free to ask (best in our Facebook group) and we will try to respond to the matter 🙂
"The repressor is inserted in a limited amount, and after a certain number of generations the bacterium does not have enough of this protein left"
I didn't understand, when the bacterium reproduces, isn't it supposed to inherit exactly the same amount of repressor that its own body contained to its offspring? What is written here sounds a bit like an animal whose offspring will have a tail that is half the length of the parent's tail, and whose offspring will have a tail that is again half the length of their tail, how is this possible genetically?
It is known that destruction mechanisms are always working and it is impossible for a malfunction or mutation to cause it to not work, or even to use the poison to its advantage...
that bacteria are the world champions in mutations and have been doing it for billions of years in response to environmental stress.
So let's take a mechanism that we don't fully understand (bacteria have tremendous complexity), arm it with a weapon (currently directed at itself) that has unlimited reproductive capacity and release it into the environment. Will be fine…
Nice ideas and I hope they succeed.
But there is a term that is important to use correctly. Usually, projects that raise money do so after they have conceived or conceptualized an idea, and now they are required to develop it. Therefore, the use of the term 'developed' (first line in the fourth paragraph) may be inaccurate and even misleading.
There is something called lateral transfer of genes
There are many bacteria that can take or give genes to bacteria from another species. There are several different mechanisms for this, such as plasmids and phages. Therefore, even if the bacterium dies, the engineered genes can still be transferred to phages or another species, although the chances are significantly reduced.
1) If their mechanism is biological then it can also be mutated
2) It is enough that their mechanism is only 99.99999% effective for their whole concept to collapse...
But interesting. strength