Project Summary

Every year, traumatic brain injury, stroke and neurodegenerative disease collectively cost the Canadian medical system millions of dollars while effective neural regenerative therapies remain elusive. Astrogliosis, a cellular response common to such neural insults, leads to the formation of a non-functional “glial scar” and an inhibitory cellular environment that impedes neural regeneration and further recovery. Our proposed project involves engineering microglia, the mobile immune cells of the brain, to package and deliver a therapeutic plasmid DNA construct specifically to the reactive astrocytes that comprise these glial scars. The plasmids will contain a reprogramming factor that converts reactive astrocytes into new neurons, helping to both restore the functional neuronal population and permit regrowth of damaged connections. Altogether, this study provides the basis for a novel, tissue-specific, personalized, non-immunogenic, non-invasive neural rehabilitative therapy that has the potential to significantly improve current methods of stimulating functional recovery following brain injury or disease onset.
WHAT?

• Our project is directed towards converting astrocytes from glial scars into functional neurons

WHY?

• As the field of synthetic biology grows, so should its toolset. By introducing a standardized method of implementing programmed ribosomal frameshifts in synthetic gene networks, we could not only enable others to reduce plasmid size and regulate operon expression, but also enable them to come up with new, exciting applications

HOW?

• We have brought pseudoknots to the iGEM community by:
  • Characterizing their function in a biobrick system
  • Designing software that enables others to dual code proteins
  • Ensuring that the release of these tools to the wider public does not pose a significant risk to the rest of the world

Sponsors