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We are the first UK BIOMOD team.

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We've designed riboswitches to cooperatively regulate protein translation. 

 

The clip you saw above is a short illustration of our creation.

Read on or watch the video below to find out more.

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TEAM: OXFORD UNIVERSITY BIOMOD 2017

TITLE: RibOxSwitch: design, construction and characterisation of novel cooperative riboswitches

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ABSTRACT:

The rational redesign of gene regulatory processes in prokaryotes has applications throughout the pharmaceutical, chemical, and medical industries. Efforts have largely focused on the repurposing of natural mechanisms such as protein transcription factors and promoter sequences. As these involve proteins, the folding of which is difficult to predict, they are difficult to redesign. In contrast, domain-based RNA switches (riboswitches) have great potential for the design of synthetic genetic circuits. Domain-based riboswitches are regulatory regions of mRNA that bind specific nucleic acid sequences to regulate gene expression, largely by regulating the rate of transcription initiation. Synthetic riboswitches have been developed, but lack the inherent cooperativity of some transcription factors and natural aptamer-based riboswitches, leading to broad dose-response relationships rather than useful ‘switch-like’ responses to changes in inducer concentration. Here we present the design, construction and characterisation of several novel cooperative domain-based riboswitches. Modelled on molecular beacons and DNA origami staples, our designs incorporate modular and tunable features to enable the predictable regulation of gene expression by short complementary RNA trigger strands. These riboswitches could be readily utilised in the rational design of advanced biosynthetic circuits, from gene therapy to logic-gated biomolecular computing.

Cooperative control of Gene Expression
Awarded a GOLD medal at the 2017 BIOMOD Jamboree
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