Leicester's iGEM Team

Hi, 
We are the iGEM team from the University of Leicester. That means we are using synthetic biology approaches to try and think of novel and useful ideas! One of our ideas is to use genetically modified bacteria to help combat muscle fatigue and potentially neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s. Our idea is to use the bacteria as delivery system which excretes an enzyme called NMNAT. This enzyme is part of the NAD+ pathway and increasing NMNAT concentrations in the human body (via the bacteria) should increase NAD+ production. More NAD+ in the human body, according to some literature, aid in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

However, we have to fund ourselves to buy reagents such as enzymes to modify the bacteria, bacteria themselves, equipment for our lab work over the summer and to get us all to Boston, USA for the Giant Jamboree presentation! This is run by iGEM and is a synthetic biology competition, meaning our team will be competing against teams from all over the world! We started raising money from cake sales and donations but it’s not enough. We need your help to achieve this, so please donate. 

Thank You :)
Our Twitter and Facebook Page can be found: 
https://twitter.com/igemleicester 
https://www.facebook.com/LeicesteriGEM2015