Bio-contained Bacillus subtilis for infection control

合成生物学领域的新兴和持续繁荣带来了丰富的创新解决方案，以应对各种工业挑战。生物技术部门大量投资于工程微生物，如枯草芽孢杆菌，以创造设计微生物，服务于工业相关目的，同时对人类或其设计作用的设备无害。**总部位于安大略省布兰特福德的Germiphene生物技术公司开发了一种名为Gobble的疏散系统清洁器。该产品中的“活性”成分是一种通常被认为是安全的（GRAS）枯草芽孢杆菌菌株，它能产生一种生物膜，清洁和除臭牙科吸引管，防止致病菌污染。虽然有效，但该产品的设计菌株在吸入管中生长过快，导致堵塞和过滤堵塞，这需要昂贵的补救措施，此外还需要在牙科检查室进行日常清洁。**Germiphene要求我们开发一种新的枯草芽孢杆菌菌株，该菌株的生长可以通过添加或去除外部惰性化学补充剂来控制。在这里，我们提出改造一株枯草芽孢杆菌，它需要一种天然氨基酸，这种氨基酸在自然界中是不存在的，作为生长和生物膜生产的必需营养物质。通过创造一种依赖于自然界中不存在的营养物质的菌株，我们可以通过限制这种非自然营养物质的供应来防止枯草芽孢杆菌的过度生长

The emerging and ongoing boom in the field of synthetic biology has led to a wealth of innovative solutions to meet diverse**industrial challenges. The biotechnology sector is heavily invested in engineering microorganisms, such as the bacterium Bacillus**subtilis, to create designer microbes that serve an industrially relevant purpose while remaining non-harmful to humans or the**equipment they are designed to act on.**Germiphene, a Brantford Ontario-based Biotech company has developed an evacuation system cleaner called Gobble. The**'active' ingredient in the product is a generally-regarded-as-safe (GRAS) B. subtilis strain that produces a biofilm that cleans and**deodorizes dental suction lines, preventing contamination with pathogenic bacteria. While effective, the product's designer**bacterial strain grows too quickly in the suction lines, causing clogging and filtration blockage, which requires expensive**remediation in addition to daily cleaning protocols in dental exam rooms.**Germiphene has requested that we develop a new B. subtilis strain in which the growth of the organism can be controlled by**addition or removal of an external and inert chemical supplement. Here we propose engineering a strain of B. subtilis that requires**an unnatural amino acid, which is not available in nature, as an essential nutrient for growth and biofilm production. By creating a**strain that depends on a nutrient that is not found in nature, we can prevent B. subtilis from overgrowing by limiting the supply of**the unnatural nutrient.**