iGEM 2022 : TWB supports Toulouse team
TWB supports the DAISY project, driven by a team of students from INSA Toulouse and the University Paul Sabatier, which will be presented at iGem 2022 – Grand Jamboree : an international contest of synthetic biology, which will take place at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The students will present a new method of allergies detection and treatment.
Photo by Brice Enjalbert
About DAISY
In industrialized countries, allergies represent a major public health issue as it concerns from 25 to 30% of the population. That is the reason why these students decided to work on the topic – all the more so as one of them suffers from multiple allergies.
Currently, it is only possible to test a few dozens of allergens and as the most common test is done directly on the skin, it is very unpleasant to the patient. The DAISY method, which uses a blood sample, makes it possible to test several thousands of allergens at high-throughout, thus becoming a more precise and less restraining technique to detect allergies.
DAISY, which means Darpin-Allergen-IgE-Screening for immunotherapY, uses two strains of bacteria designed to aggregate to a class of antibodies responsible for allergies. When the bacteria are presented with a blood sample, they bind and form aggregates with the antibodies which makes them easily detectable with a microscope or even to the naked eye. Furthermore, it will be possible to use one of the two strains designed for the project to treat the allergy by desensitization with a specific treatment for each patient.
Results
During iGEM, DAISY won a gold medal and was nominated in three categories : best diagnostic project, best education and best entrepreneurship! Congratulations to Toulouse’s students!
About iGEM 2022
iGEM is an international synthetic biology competition, created by the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 2004, which became a major event in the biotechnological world. Last year, the INSA-UPS team from Toulouse won the contest with their project Elixio.
7000 participants, making up 360 teams, are expected to take part in this year’s 19th edition of IGEM. They will present innovative projects addressing current issues in different fields: food-supply, health, environment, etc. The event will take place on October 26, 27 and 28, 2022 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
