Team:TUDelft/Model

Team

Team Members Collaborations Team Bonding

Project

Project Description Contribution Design Engineering Success Partnership Sustainability

Lab

Experimental Details Notebook Results

Models

Overview Phage infection and toxin production 2D biofilm simulation

Parts

Overview Basic parts Composite parts Part collection

Human Practices

Human Practices Integrated Human Practices Education & Engagement Inclusion Proposed Implementation Safety

Entrepreneurship

Overview Customer Product Company Business Plan

Acknowledgements

Attributions Crowdfunding Sponsors

Achievements

Judging Form Achievements Awards and Nominations

Models

The core of PHOCUS is that it has to be fast and safe. For our project, we chose to model the temporal evolution of the number of bacteria, phages, and produced toxin. The aim of modelling is to gain insight in the feasibility of our biopesticide. Furthermore, as speed is one of design requirements of PHOCUS, we used modelling to gain insight in the production speed of the locust specific toxins inside the locust gut.

Model of phage infection and toxin production

To answer our research questions, we started with a mechanistic model describing the temporal evolution of the number of bacteria, phages and produced toxins.

With this model we demonstrated:

• The capability of our biopesticide to produce lethal concentrations of each toxin (Cry7Ca1 and shRNA) to kill the locust within 7 days. In combination, these toxins have the potential to kill the locust even faster.
• Which main design strategies improve the effectiveness of our biopesticide.
• That the rate at which bacteria acquire resistance is not a direct threat to our biopesticide.

2D biofilm simulation

Most likely, the bacteria in the locust gut reside in so-called microcolonies, which are small groups of cells packed close to each other. The spatial organization of these bacteria in the locust gut can influence phage propagation and toxin production. To investigate the influence of the spatial organization of bacteria on phage infection and toxin production we modelled phage propagation and toxin production using a 2D biofilm simulation framework.

With this model we demonstrated:

• The importance of phage mobility inside the biofilm for effective toxin production.
• That spatial organization of bacteria in such biofilm structures promotes phage propagation and toxin production.
• How biofilm heterogeneity must be taken into account in the design of our biopesticide.

Special thanks to our sponsors!