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A Synthetic Biology Project – Developing a single‐molecule device for screening drug–target interactions
Author(s) -
Firman Keith,
Evans Luke,
Youell James
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2012.01.057
Subject(s) - synthetic biology , computational biology , helicase , biology , dna , gene , nanotechnology , systems biology , biosensor , computer science , combinatorial chemistry , genetics , chemistry , materials science , biochemistry , rna
This review describes a European‐funded project in the area of Synthetic Biology. The project seeks to demonstrate the application of engineering techniques and methodologies to the design and construction of a biosensor for detecting drug–target interactions at the single‐molecule level. Production of the proteins required for the system followed the principle of previously described “bioparts” concepts (a system where a database of biological parts – promoters, genes, terminators, linking tags and cleavage sequences – is used to construct novel gene assemblies) and cassette‐type assembly of gene expression systems (the concept of linking different “bioparts” to produce functional “cassettes”), but problems were quickly identified with these approaches. DNA substrates for the device were also constructed using a cassette‐system. Finally, micro‐engineering was used to build a magnetoresistive Magnetic Tweezer device for detection of single molecule DNA modifying enzymes (motors), while the possibility of constructing a Hall Effect version of this device was explored. The device is currently being used to study helicases from Plasmodium as potential targets for anti‐malarial drugs, but we also suggest other potential uses for the device.