Synthetic Biologists Extend Functional Life of Cancer Fighting Circuitry in Microbes (VIDEO)
Caption
This is a research video from bioengineers at the University of California San Diego who have developed a method to significantly extend the life of gene circuits used to instruct microbes to do things such as produce and deliver drugs, break down chemicals and serve as environmental sensors. In this particular video, the rock-paper-scissors strains are coupled to a synchronized lysis circuit (SLC) that causes population lysis once a threshold population density is reached. The synchronized lysis circuit has been used to deliver therapeutics to cancer tumors in vivo. Here, we demonstrate the ability to cycle strains without interrupting the synchronized lysis. In this case, rather than produce a therapeutic, the strains produce fluorescent proteins in order to visualize the dynamics of the SLC and cargo release. This video is tied to the paper "Rock-paper-scissors: Engineered population dynamics increase genetic stability" published in the 6 September issue of the journal Science by M.J. Liao et al.
Credit
University of California San Diego / Michael Liao
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photo credit: University of California San Diego / Michael Liao
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