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Revision as of 09:18, 28 June 2016
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Overview
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The problem: Wilson's disease
Wilson’s disease is a genetic disorder which causes the body to accumulate too much copper. This causes liver failure and brain damage in affected patients. Wilson’s is a rare disease because it affects about 1 in 30,000 people (250k worldwide). The drugs currently used to treat Wilson’s are copper-binders, but there are two major problems with these:
1) Toxicity: these drugs have severe side effects, and treatment course often has to stop
2) Administration: tablets need to be taken before every meal for the rest of the patient’s life
Our solution: probiotic bacteria
A growing field in medicine is ‘probiotic pills’ – using micro-
organisms to provide health benefits. At Oxford iGEM we are exploring the potential to introduce a special bacterial population in the gut – which have been genetically modified to bind copper. This would reduce the amount of copper that can be absorbed into the blood, and therefore prevent its accumulation in the blood. Compared to current drugs, this solution offers:
1) Lifelong cure: bacteria persist in the gut and excrete the copper they bind to as they are turned over
2) Fewer side-effects: copper binding occurs in the
bacteria and is isolated from the body
