Using synthetic biology to explore the design principles of bacterial persistence

The overall goal of this project is to understand persister formation and survival using synthetic biology and mathematical approaches. Our specific goals include:Goal 1. Develop queueing-based models of toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems based on protein degradation, and then test these models using synthetic circuits.Goal 2. To quantify transcription and translation in Escherichia coli persister and vegetative populations.Goal 3. To develop a synthetic persister platform to probe simple and complex TA networks.