Team:Mingdao/Achievements

iGEM Human Practice

 

Achievements


Medal Criteria
Special Prizes

Applied Design

To simulate the process of the acid-resistance capsule traveling in human body, our team designed a device consisting of three blocks, representing mouth(neutral), stomach(acid) and intestine(alkaline). On the other hand, we designed a machine to transport the capsule from one block to the next by a cable. Combining the two parts of the device we can inspect whether the capsule dissolves under alkaline environment, which means that the engineered bacteria would be released at the right place, intestine, and then start to work effectively.

Furthermore, the device we designed can not only simulate the digest system but other body system since the blocks are changeable. For the attribution and the potential of the device, there’s no doubt that we are suitable for the prize.

Best New Basic Part

BBa_K2230022, Salmonella typhimurium LT2 has two glucose-specific transporter systems, PTS system and sodium/glucose cotransporter. PTS system contains two subunits IIA encoded by crr and IIBC by ptsG which are assembled to a high-affinity active transporter. The other is a Na+/glucose cotransporter encoded by STM1128 that contributes to facilitated transport with lower glucose affinity.

Best New Composite Part

BBa_K2230017, Suicide genes of lysis and nuclease (NucA) were driven under the PhlF-repressed promoter (Pr). And the expression of the repressor (PhlF) would be induced upon glucose by a glucose responsive promoter (Pcar). That is, the bacteria can be killed by the suicide genes in the absence of (or running out of) glucose.

Integrated Human Practices

Based on our knowledge and iGEM spirit, integrated human practices is all about the interactions between “give, gain and grow.” Mingdao iGEM 2017 acknowledged the core spirit and true meaning of it. First of all, to get in deep into our project and also validate our ideas and product design, we have consulted some experts including medical doctors, a nephrologist, a nutritionist, and a fitness coach. All of them provided us valuable advices that helped us improve our project proposal and experimental design. Moreover, we not only visit experts but also organizations — FDA(Food and Drug Administration) and FIRDI(Food Industry Research and Development Institute) in Taiwan. By doing so, we understood the regulations and how to develop a product, which led us to a great direction toward our final goal. Furthermore, we also integrate activities for education and public engagement like doing survey, sharing iGEM experience and educate kids in synthetic biology in the campus and outside the school. To sum up, what we’ve done are definitely qualified for the prize.

Education and Public Engagement

To promote public education, we “give” what we know to those who are passionate in synthetic biology and sugar controlling. To understand what the public think about the correlation between health and sugar consumption, we did a survey with more than 900 participants. Additionally, the sugary drink party let us learn about people’s preferences to sweetened beverages. Moreover, for students in our school who want to get to know more about synthetic biology experiments, in the S&T(Science and Technology) month, an activity annually held in our school, we let them experience the charm of science. For the purpose of conveying what we had known about our project, we held not only a lecture and participate in Mingdao Voice, a club where students discuss their opinions, but also an activity in a local elementary school. Consequently, we thoroughly complete what should be done in public education, and thus, we deserve the prize.

Model

To estimate how our product will function the best, we analyzed the data we got from the experiments. First of all, conducting the glucose up take experiment, not only did we find the relation between time and the percentage of glucose absorbance, but proved that the engineered E.coli work perfectly. Additionally, we also carried on an examination to see whether the acid-resistance capsule containing bacteria dissolves in alkaline environment, representing intestine. Likewise, we learnt how much time does the capsule take to dissolve and release the bacteria. With the results we got from the above experiments, we can tell how long before meal should consumers take the capsule depending on the amount of sugar contained in the food, which would let the product function most effectively. For those achievements, there is no denying that our team is truly qualified for the prize!

Best Part Collection

[BBa_K2230000~BBa_K2230028]:
  1. Lactobacillus recombination vector (BBa_K2230000-4): A novel homologous recombination vector for transforming Lactobacillus was created and designed based on the standard BioBrick assembly rule
  2. Glucose responsive suicide circuit (BBa_K2230005-17): The suicide process was induced upon the loss of glucose which extends the functions of the existing parts glucose response promoter, repressor system, lysis and nuclease genes
  3. Glucose transporter system (BBa_K2230018-28): Glucose transporter with high efficiency was cloned from Salmonella which enhanced the glucose absorption in the engineered E. coli.

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