2022 Winner: Progenie: Programmable Gene Disruption in Pathogenic Bacteria

Project Information
Progenie: Programmable Gene Disruption in Pathogenic Bacteria
Engineering
iGEM 2021 (BME 188A, 188B, 188C)
The 2021 iGEM team began our journey with the goal of combatting Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), an agricultural and health issue in our local community. Our solution was Progenie, a method to disarm pathogenic bacteria without the need for antibiotics, instead utilizing sequence-specific gene elimination in the target bacterium. This method utilizes bacteriophages as delivery vessels, INTEGRATE—a CRISPR RNA-guided transposition technique—to knock out the target gene, and bacterial conjugation to further propagate through the target bacteria. Not only is our system applicable to STEC, but it could easily be adapted to target harmful genes in a variety of pathogenic bacterial species, preventing foodborne illnesses and slowing the spread of antibiotic drug resistance.

----Additional note below----

There are more students involved in this project than can fit in the "Students" Section of this application, so I will be listing all involved here:
Torrey Brownell, Stephen Hwang, Alfonso Gamino, David Kelaita, Denise Calderon, Emily Hallamasek, Franklin Zheng, Julia Howard, Nabil Mohammad, Rhea Kamath, Rose Delvillar, Tanya Ivanov, TaraBryn Grismer, Tobin Berger-Cahn, Wen Liu, and Yi-Chi Chu
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Students
  • Torrey Delphine Brownell (Porter)
  • Franklin Zheng (Ten)
  • Tobin Lior Berger-Cahn (Porter)
  • Denise Rosalinda Calderon (Kresge)
  • Yi-Chi Chu (Merrill)
  • Rose M Delvillar (Eight)
  • Alfonso Cazarez Gamino (Merrill)
  • Tarabryn Shepherd Grismer (Cowell)
  • Emily Marie Hallamasek (Eight)
  • Julia Andrianna Howard (Crown)
  • Stephen Jen-Der Hwang (Merrill)
  • Tanya Elise Ivanov (Crown)
  • Rhea Rajesh Kamath (Ten)
  • David James Kelaita (Porter)
  • Natasha Amy Liu (Eight)
  • Nabil Mohammed (Ten)
Mentors