CAREER: Engineered Quorum-Sensing Systems for the Production of Protein Therapeutics in E. coli

SunEngineered群体感应系统有望成为在大肠杆菌中生产蛋白质疗法和药物的有效工具。这些系统是高度模块化的，可用于酵母、昆虫和哺乳动物细胞，以调节人类治疗性蛋白质的产生。此外，本项目将产生关于自然群体感应系统的分子机制的信息，这些系统通常被感染性细菌用于调节发病机制。因此，在这个项目中获得的见解将对设计有效的群体感应抑制剂来控制各种传染病有价值。群体感应也广泛用于构建人工遗传电路，工程群体感应系统将成为微调电路的宝贵工具，可用于针对癌症和艾滋病毒的基因和细菌治疗。该教育计划包括生物工程课程的开发以及研究生和本科生的指导。为研究生开设了分子与系统生物技术课程，为本科生开设了生物分子工程导论课程。生物工程实验课程也正在开发中。

0747728, SunEngineered quorum-sensing systems are expected to be effective tools for the production of protein therapeutics and pharmaceuticals in E. coli. These systems are highly modular, and can be used in yeast, insect, and mammalian cells to regulate the production of human therapeutic proteins. In addition, this project will generate information about the molecular mechanisms of natural quorum-sensing systems, which are commonly used by infectious bacteria to regulate pathogenesis. Therefore, insights gained during this project will be valuable for the design of effective quorum sensing inhibitors to control a variety of infectious diseases. Quorum sensing has also been used extensively in constructing artificial genetic circuits, and engineered quorum-sensing systems will be valuable tools for the fine-tuning of circuits with applications in gene and bacterial therapies targeting cancers and HIV. The education plan includes the development of bioengineering courses and mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students. A course in Molecular and Systems Biotechnology for graduate students and Introduction to Biomolecular Engineering for undergraduate students has been developed by the PI. A bioengineering laboratory course is also being developed..