Team:UiOslo Norway
Urinetrouble
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The 2016 Oslo team
We are the 2016 iGEM team from the University of Oslo, which lies in Oslo, the heart of Norway. We are a total of 7 students who studies in different fields; informatics, pharmacy, nanotechnology and molecular biology. We have 2 supervisors, Dirk Linke and Eric de Muinck. If you want to get to know us better press the TEAM button.
We decided to name our project URINETROUBLE. Our project is about detecting Extended Spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing bacteria in urinary tract infections. ESBL producing bacteria are antibiotic resistant bacteria which secrete a substance called β-lactamase. β-lactamase will cleave a ring in β-lactam antibiotics and make them ineffective. This would affect what kind of antibiotics the doctor should prescribe to you, as the most common antibiotics would be ineffective to treat the infection.
Antibiotic resistance
We pick up the mantle in the battle towards antibiotic resistance, one of the biggest threats to the world as we know it.The World Health Organizaion (WHO), has listed antibiotic resistance as one of the biggest threat to global health. This threat affects all of us, independent of age and country. The consequences of antibiotic resistance are that smaller operations and treatable infections today, such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections, can become deadly.
By improving diagnostics,unnecessary and wrong use of antibiotics may be prevented, enabling us to contain the spread of resistant microbes before it becomes too late for all of us.
Phonelab
With PhoneLab, we present a product that could easily be commercialized. By creating our own unique hardware and software, we aim for enormous market of handheld devices. By utilizing the power in a smartphone and our design, PhoneLab could grow to be a mobile, easy-to-use and cheap detection tool usable in many different biological samples. This means that PhoneLab could be apart of changing the face of modern diagnostics.
Todays detection of resistant bacteria is either too expensive and require expertise or take too much time and create risk waste. Therefore, a lot of patients unfortunately get a prescription for antibiotics before having any resistance testing done. With our device, Phonelab, these problems are overcome. By utilizing the full potential of a smartphone, the patient only needs to wait 10 minutes before the test results are back and antibiotics can be prescribed justifiable.
