The Subtilis Defense: Developing a transdermal patch to deliver Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor peptide synthesized in situ to protect against ionizing radiation iGEM Research Article Rachelle Varga (1), Nicholas D’Aleo-Sotas (1), Tiffany Dang (2), Shalpinder Dhothar (1), Elena Fekete (1), Siddhartha Goutam (3), Syed Jafri (3), James Johnston (3), Noshin Karim (2), Miriam Li (3), Neliza Mendoza (2), David Nguyen (2), Nishi Patel (1), Christine Phan (1), Nilesh Sharma (4), Daniel Ziemianowicz (3), Nicholas Jette (3), Anders Nygren (2) Darren Derksen (5), & Mayi Arcellana-Panlilio (3)*. 1. Department of Biology, University of Calgary 2. Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary 3. Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary 4. Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary 5. Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary *Corresponding author: Mayi Arcellana-Panlilio (
[email protected]) Author Contributions Conceptualization: RV, ND-S, TD, SD, EF, SG, SJ, JJ, NK, ML, NM, DN, NP, CP, NS, DZ, AN, DD, MA-P Investigation: RV, ND-S, TD, SG, SJ, JJ, NK, ML, NM, DN, NP, CP, NS Formal Analysis: NK, NM, NS Visualization: ND-S, SJ, JJ, CP Writing - Original Draft: RV, ND-S, TD, EF, SG, SJ, JJ, NK, ML, NM, NP, NS Writing - Review & Editing: RV, ND-S, TD, SD, EF, SG, SJ, JJ, NK, ML, NM, NP, NS, MA-P Funding Acquisition: RV, ND-S, TD, SG, SJ, JJ, ML, DN, DZ, AN, DD, MA-P Project Administration: AN, DD, MA-P Supervision: DZ, NJ, AN, MA-P Abstract Exposure of astronauts to high-energy ionizing radiation is a substantial barrier to long-term space travel.