The March of the Superbugs

As the onset of the post-antibiotic era approaches, we may be forced to take a step back in modern medicine and enter a world where antibiotics are no longer useful. WHO has declared antibiotic resistance as “one of the biggest threats to global health” at present. A major factor contributing to this is the prescription of antibiotics when they are least needed - in the event of a viral infection. With overlapping symptoms, the common cold or flu can often be misinterpreted in the short span of doctor’s appointment.

We at iGEM Sheffield aim to address this problem by building a device that helps to slow down the buildup of resistance in the future. We are directly addressing the absence of a useful diagnostic tool in the market by building a device that can, within a short span, detect a bacterial infection from a sample of bodily fluid. Thus, eliminating wasted uses of anitibiotics.

What are we going to do?

How we plan to do this is by engineering bacteria to fight our war against them! Bacteria produce iron-scavenging machineries called siderophores, which when present in bodily fluids, can be detected by E coli receptors. Another engineered strain of E coli will then be able to detect iron uptake by producing a colour change.

Our detection system involves the use of the protein hemerythrin, a high-affinity iron-binding protein, that turns blue when bound to iron. By comparing the colour against a standard, the cause of infection can be determined, i.e. viral or bacterial, confirming the need of an antibiotic, producing a more informed prescription all within your doctor’s appointment.