About 245 teams of undergraduates from around the world will converge on Boston for the iGEM Giant Jamboree, presenting genetic engineering projects in environment, health and medicine, food and nutrition, energy, and other fields.
The WPI project aimed to come up with a test for caprine arthritis encephalitis virus, which can quickly spread through goat herds, reducing milk production and shortening the animals’ life spans. Goats are important livestock in many developing countries. There is no cure or vaccine for CAEV, and symptoms are slow to appear. Early detection, so infected animals can be isolated or destroyed, is crucial.
The team spent 10 weeks researching its project before going into the lab this summer to genetically engineer bacteria that can be used to detect the presence of a pathogen in a blood sample, according to Farny. While the test for CAEV has yet to be developed, she said, the team’s work has proved that the concept is viable.
Livestock are given three times the amount of antibiotics as humans, Farny said, and there is no good test for infections.
“If we had better diagnostics, not only for livestock viruses but also for any livestock infection, if we know exactly what’s ailing them, then we would be able to treat it specifically and appropriately, and therefore reduce the need for blanket antibiotic dosing of livestock animals,” she said.
The testing technology could also be used to target a human infection, Farny said when the project was announced in the spring.
This is WPI’s first entry in iGEM competition, and its first try for the Longitude Prize, last offered in 1714.
“It’s exciting for students to feel they’re part of an international competition,” said Farny, who noted that a patent has been filed for the team’s work. “The students have learned a lot, and that’s really the reason why we do this.”
Team member Corbyn Lamy said the project took longer and required different skills than a typical lab course. Shawna Henry added that she liked seeing an idea researched, tested in the lab and proven to be plausible.
And the possible significance of the work is not lost on her.
“It’s kind of cool that something we’re working on has been deemed important,” she said. “We’re making a step toward something that’s definitely a big issue in the world.”
Besides Lamy and Henry, the WPI team members are Chloe LaJeunesse ’17, Kayla DeSanty ’16, Michael Giroux ’16, and Alex Turland ’15. Joseph Duffy, associate professor and head of WPI’s Department of Biology and Biotechnology, is co-advisor of the iGEM team.
For more information on the iGEM project, visit http://2014.igem.org/Team:WPI-Worcester.
– BY DAVE GREENSLIT
