Team:Pitt/Skin Probiotic/Cathelicidin/Intro

Cathelicidin

The objective of this part of the project was to engineer P. Acnes already on our skin to produce an anti-microbial peptide, which would reduce inflammation by inhibiting local bacteria growth. We chose Cathelicidin as our anti-microbial peptide because it is a natural antibiotic produced by the immune cells of many mammals, including humans.

A key factor of this construct was making sure that the cathelicidin production was not constitutive, leading to the death of all bacteria and destruction of our skin’s natural biome. Therefore, we decided to combine the cathelicidin production with the YF1/FixJ and FixK2 blue light induction system. This allows regulation of cathelicidin production by blue light, giving the means to suppress the P. Acnes when, and only when, it becomes elevated.

When designing this system, four main parts were going to be objectives:

1. hsp60 (no RBS) – mRFP1
   
   This objective of this part was to test the novel promoter hsp60 with the fluorescence of mRFP1.

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