Project overview

The Bactisille is the future of microbial combat. In your body, in drinking-water, in important ecosystems, in food and in sewage plants harmful bacteria can fester and cause problems both for the individual and for society as a whole. The conventional way of combating these bacteria is with chemicals such as antibiotics that kills not only bad microbes, but the good ones as well. Harming the natural bacterial flora in the body and in nature can cause as much trouble as the bad bacteria that we intend to kill in the first place.

Enter the Bactissile. The Bactissile kills one bacteria, and one alone.

By sensing that one harmful bacteria, targeting it and killing it, the Bactissile is a modern weapon to fight bacteria in many environment and systems, without harming the surroundings. Sensing, targeting and killing is the backbone of the Bactissile, but to prove it functional, we needed to chose one of the many possible pathogens to target. In light of the numbers of deaths due to gut bacteria in the world, and the menacing issue of antibiotic resistance we decided to prove our concept by battling the gut pathogen Yersina enterocolitica.

The natural approach to battling a bad gut bacteria is through a good gut bacteria, which is why we intended to apply the Bactissile system in a probiotic, such as Lactobacillus, which Team Uppsala 2013 worked with last year.

Yersinia enterocolitica

Y. enterocolitica is a pathogenic bacteria related to Y. pestis, the cause of the Bubonic plague. Y. enterocolitica thrives in uncooked food and grows well even in refrigerated temperatures. This pathogen is especially dangerous for young children, causing fever, diarrhea and severe dehydration. All pathogens causing food poisoning and diarrhea are particularly dangerous in underdeveloped countries, where hygiene, access to water and medical care is highly inaccessible.