Targeted disruption and over expression of critical enzymes

SysMO is a European transnational funding and research initiative on "Systems Biology of Microorganisms".

The goal pursued by SysMO was to record and describe the dynamic molecular processes going on in unicellular microorganisms in a comprehensive way and to present these processes in the form of computerized mathematical models.

Systems biology will raise biomedical and biotechnological research to a new quality level and contribute markedly to progress in understanding. Pooling European research ...

The SilicoTryp project aims at the creation of a “Silicon Trypanosome”, a comprehensive, experiment-based, multi-scale mathematical model of trypanosome physiology. Trypanosomes are blood-stream parasites transmitted by tsetse flies; they cause African sleeping sickness in humans and livestock. Currently available drugs have severe side effects, and the parasites are rapidly developing resistance. In this project, we collect a wide range of new experimental data on the parasite in its various ...

Multiply perturbations of trypanosome redox metabolism, closing the feedback loop between experimentation and in silioc modelling, allowing model refinement or, where there are unexpected outcomes, re-evaluation. Providing a dynamic picture of cell physiology by examining programmed metabolic changes during the developmental life-cycle of these parasites as they adapt to very different external milieus, including distinct levels of oxidative stress and unique adaptations of their redox balance ...

We routinely select specific RNAi gene targets (400–600 bp) and primers using the RNAit software http://trypanofan.path.cam.ac.uk/software/RNAit.html. A single pair of PCR primers are designed that incorporate four selected restriction sites (not present in the RNAi target fragment) such that a single PCR product can be differentially digested and sequentially cloned. For example, using MCS1/2, the following primers could be used to clone antisense followed by sense fragments: Primer 1, XbaI–BamHI-5′ ...