Synthetic biology provides the possibility to extend our defense against disease by employing our intelligence. In the spirit of synthetic biology we can combine different functional parts with known properties to assemble new cellular functions which do not yet exist in nature.
And the winner of the iGEM Competition is … the Slovenian team:
Abstract for nonspecialists
HIV-1 virus is one of the most difficult targets for therapy because it hijacks the cells of our immune system and particularly because the virus mutates rapidly making it drug resistant. Current therapy uses combinations of different drugs, since it is less probable for the virus to develop the resistance against all of them simultaneously. We propose a different strategy, where we target a specific FUNCTION of virus, rather than any particular sequence. This viral function triggers a cellular response which can either employ antiviral defense or lead to a destruction of infected cells to prevent spread of the infection. The effect of mutations can thus be avoided since those mutations that cause the loss of the function also render the virus harmless. We successfully implemented two types of defense devices – one based on the viral attachment to the cell and another based on the viral maturation. In our system activation of any of them activates the antiviral cell defense or alternatively kills the infected cells, preventing further spread of infection. The same approach could be implemented for defense against other viral infections.
HT Coturnix
