A synthetic biology approach to promoting angiogenesis at traumatic wound sites

We use a synthetic biology approach to promote tissue regeneration at traumatic wound sites. Tissue regeneration is composed of three primary processes: the regrowth of functional parenchymal tissue, the regrowth of support tissues, and the regrowth of vasculature to sustain the nascent tissue formation (angiogenesis).

Although tissue engineering has offered several effective solutions to address the first two processes, our project attempts to build upon these ideas and develop a more cost-effective and robust method to promote angiogenesis at traumatic wound sites. We have devised a circuit to be incorporated in a yeast chassis that efficiently expresses two vital angiogenic proteins--vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet derived growth factor (PDGF-B)--in a sequential and time-dependent manner that approximates the natural cascade of growth factor release in the human body. We also intend to submit a Biobrick-compatible yeast plasmid backbone for future use.

The Virginia team has been competing at iGEM competitions since 2007. Our current team is made up of 5 undergraduate students interested in fields ranging from biomedical research to law and economics to chemical engineering to psychology.

We've developed a set of easy-to-use tools to aid in manipulating sequences to meet the requirements of various assembly methods. We've also published a human practices paper that introduces intellectual property as it relates to synthetic biology and presents alternative methods of driving innovation.