Team:Warwick/Parts/Aptazyme

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Click here to learn about our Aptazyme.

An aptazyme is an allosteric ribozyme acting as a regulatory riboswitch. It self-splices in response to theophylline, a drug used to treat asthma and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases acting as a bronchodilator. This differs from caffeine by one methyl group and a nitrogen atom creating the structure seen below. This is not endogenous to the body therefore we used this element as a "kill switch" for our system.