Rhythmic Production of Melatonin in E.coli
Nowadays, insomnia and circadian rhythm disorders are
increasingly plaguing individuals' daily life. According to NIH reports, around 50-70
million U.S. adults are suffering from sleep insufficiency and poor-quality sleep. The
circadian rhythm in human is predominantly under the regulation of melatonin, a hormone
produced by pineal gland periodically. This year we want to use engineered E.coli to mimic
this process in human. We propose to construct a melatonin biosynthesis pathway in E.coli to
produce melatonin, while simultaneously couple this process with periodically-optimized
repressilator, a synthetic genetic oscillator with higher precision, with the intention to
render melatonin production resemble mammalian periodicity in E.coli.