As a foundational technology, our project was centred around the creation of an ideal strain of E.coli to produce OMVs. The purpose of creating this foundational platform was to enable the customisation and functionalization of the strain, allowing the OMV technology to be adapted for a multitude of uses. As OMVs are non-replicative, they have a reduced biosafety risk, and so we envisioned a number of potential uses for them.
As part of our human practices, we wanted to assess the possible suitability of OMVs for application in environmental bioremediation and medical biotechnology. By talking to researchers in these fields, we assessed the important factors to consider in these applications, and gauged the suitability of OMVs for these uses. Our conversations enabled us to highlight some essential points of product design which need to be considered, should research into OMV application in these fields be pursued in the future.
Environmental Bioremediation
As a non-replicative, stable transport mechanism able to be decorated with functional proteins and molecules, the potential for OMVs to aid in bioremediation without posing a biosafety risk was evident. To investigate this application, we met with Mike Manefield, a researcher and founder of Environmental Biotechnology company Micronovo, which specialises in bioaugmentation of polluted environments.
Picture of the team with Mike or something relating to environmental bioremediation?
A key question which our team had for Mike was how to successfully implement environmental biotechnologies into Australian Industries, and what barriers exist to this implementation.
- Scientific communication
- Environmental protection agencies
- Discrepancy between states
- Dispelling preconceived notions biasing against progression of these technologies
- Emergent technologies accidentally captured in legislation not specific to the technologies
Considerations:
- What gap in the market is it filling: this must be established to be successful
- Learn from the commercialisation effort of putting enzyme straight into the environment (Dupont Orica)
- Replication: consider that although it may be a positive, or may also be a hurdle? Numbers to degrade the pollutant need to be made in the lab
- Potential by-products
- Longevity and shelf-life
Importance of interdisciplinary integration
Medical Biotechnology
The production of OMVs by bacterium has been theorised as a means of passing information between pathogenic organisms. Extending upon this potential for OMVs to transport biologically significant molecules, our foundational technology could be customised for medicinal use, as a drug delivery system, or biosensor.
To discuss the potential of this application, we met with Lawrence Lee, an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellow at the University of New South Wales, who specializes in the artificial synthesis of complex nanoscale biological machines and other bio-inspired technologies. As supervisor of the Biomod Australia team, Lee has a keen interest in synthetic biology, and the potential it holds for the future of medicine.
Picture of the team with Lawrence or something relating to medical biotechnology?
Potential Synbio and our project:
- Utilising nature as a blueprint, capitalising on an existent biological process
- Targeted drug delivery
- Point to care diagnostics
Considerations:
- Immune Response, LPS
- Loading with drugs- periplasm: concentration of your target, entropic cost of holding something in a confined space
- Biophysics considerations
- Scheme as proof of concept
- Contact with clinicians
Future of synthetic biology, and the importance of programs such as iGEM.