What progress have you made since your last update?

Several things have moved forward. Work completed prior to the award has been published and is available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-62693-w/ We have designed localization sequences for our original four targets (nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum/sarcoplasmic reticulum, plasma membrane) and additionally designed a “humanized” mitochondrial variant, replacing the tardigrade mitochondrial targeting sequence with a human version. The genes have been synthesized, cloned into appropriate vectors, and transformed into bacterial stocks. The genes have been transposed into human cancer cells.

What are your next steps?

We are currently working towards validating expression and localization. Following that, we will proceed with stress tolerance testing of the human cells.

Is there anything others could help you with?

Not at this time, we are making steady progress and eager to share future results.