Team:UNIK Copenhagen/Quenchibodies

The Ultra Quenchibody Project focuses on the construction of a fluorescent antibody fragment (FAB) covalently linked to a fluorophore at the N-terminal site. Light emission from the attached fluorophore is quenched by tryptophan residues in the FAB fragment. Upon binding of the antigen, the FAB fragment undergoes structural changes, which displace the fluorophore away from the tryptophan residues eliminating the quenching effect. In this way binding of the antigen results in fluorescence.

Estradiol and progesterone are both environmentally damaging hormones, which in excess are environmentally hazardous due to interference with the reproductive systems of animals, and can lead to various types of cancer including breast and uterus cancer. Within the Quenchibody project we will construct two fluorescent detection FAB fragments. The FAB fragments will be derived from antibodies binding to the sex hormones estradiol and progesterone. These products will thus allow for fast and easy ne step detection method of the levels of both hormones.

Touch the lego bricks to see what sequences the gene consist of and click on the sequences to read more about their function.

Gene construct 1: