About This Project

Our health care system is built around frequent hospital visits and lengthy medical testing. We hypothesize that using a combination of zincfinger arrays in recombination with unique DNA-aptamers binding the target of interest, we can synthetically engineer a biosensor with significantly faster detection time including an adaptable health risk biosensor. We'll design biosensor kits suitable for heart disease or travelers' diseases, so it can be used at home and on the road.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

By using a very selective and universal method, we can make a biosensor that has never been made before, by incorporating three grand systems: zincfinger arrays, split enzymes and DNA aptamers that bind the target of interest. Each aptamer can bind a specific target, be it DNA, RNA, protein or any other macromolecule, specific for a threatening compound or a disease. To make this way of detection available all around the world, we are designing a pre-composited kit that holds, not only the disc for your sample, but also up to eight aptamers. We will design standard kits, but you can also design your own. For instance, a heart disease risk with aptamers for blood clotting and heart muscle markers; but also a traveler’s kit with aptamers for malaria, worm infections and hepatitis.

What is the significance of this project?

With the funds requested we can help ourselfs with enough materials to perform enough experiments. In our project we will need to perform a lot of cloning and protein purification and that alone takes a lot of kits. Furthermore, the funds will help us make the custom DNA that we want and pay for our travel expenses to our school. During official school days, we had the chance to travel for free to our school with our student card. But now that the summer vacation has started, we have to pay for the metro's and trams to go to the lab and some of us come from far. Last but not least, the funds will help us a lot for paying for the materials needed to make our product more physical.

What are the goals of the project?

Our goals are to make several variants of aptamers and fusion proteins, by which we can test different markers. Some aptamers have already been published. We will buy synthetic DNA comprised of our Zn finger binding domains and the aptamer sequences. For the targets where no aptamers are available yet, we will use an iterative enrichment technique such as SELEX to select for DNA sequences that can be used as aptamers. When the aptamers are ready, we will test parts of the system separately in a controlled environment, to see if the individual parts perform and correctly perform what they are supposed to. When this phase is done, we will bring the system together and test it in the cell, lysate and ultimately on specific discs, which will designed by ourselves.