Team:UCSC/Silver
SILVER REQUIREMENTS AND HOW WE MET THEM
Handbook: "The language for this criteria this year has been changed this year, asking teams to demonstrate to the judges that they have thought carefully and creatively about whether their work is safe, responsible, and good for the world. They could, for example, consider the regulatory, economic, ethical, social, legal, philosophical, ecological, security or other societal aspects of their projects. We want to see thoughtful and inventive approaches to examining these complex issues in ways that are relevant to teams’ work. One way (but not the only way) teams may accomplish their examination is by engaging with stakeholders in their local, national and/or international communities. We also want to recognize other creative approaches to exploring these issues. If teams choose to use surveys, we expect them to follow best practices for conducting a scientific and legitimate surveys, and have provided resources and information on the HP Hub. Many good examples of Human Practices work and additional information can also be found on the hub" "Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is safe, responsible and good for the world. You could accomplish this through engaging with your local, national and/or international communities or other approaches. Please note that standard surveys will not fulfill this criteria."
We sought out widespread, real-world problems in order to take the first steps towards creating a healthier world.
Our preliminary research sought to answer the question, "What major environmental and health problems affect people today?" An important aspect of a biological engineering project is to first start with a problem that people want to have solved. We discussed the research on this issue and came up with yet more poignant and open-ended questions: What problem are we trying to solve? What is the scope of that problem? What current methods exist in addressing the problem, and what new approaches might be tried? How does engineering biology provide a tool, or act as a component in a larger plan of action to solve the problem? Is engineering biology a necessary or desirable approach in this solution? Before attempting any wet-lab work, we considered these questions carefully. Our process of asking these questions, reaching out to doctors, and looking at current synthetic biology solutions were crucial in helping us determine our project.
To be more specific, we began our research by contacting health care practitioners around the world, including professionals in Brazil, Palau, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, Hait ́ı, Nicaragua, and The Dominican Republic. We asked these doctors what ailments are most common and what medicines are most needed. Nearly all the practitioners mentioned lack of adequate access to vitamins, pain relievers, and other pharmaceuticals due to insufficient supply, high cost, and high demand. Therefore, we chose to focus on the topics of vitamin deficiency and pharmaceutical shortages.
At this point, it was clear that there was a need for a new approach to provide doctors with adequate access to essential medicines and vitamins. How would we address this? What questions did we consider, and who did we talk to about the implementation? Why is engineering biology a feasible approach for the scope of the problem? The questions about feasibility and implementation were important to decide on a photosynthetic host organism.
Our correspondance with doctors in other countries contributed to the decisions on which medicines we would produce, and what kind of host organism to use. The correspondance helped us answer the questions, "what is the purpose of an engineering biology approach?" and "what is the feasibility of producing a medicine using the host organism?"
We are currently using the cyanobacteria genus Synechococcus as a model for the FDA- approved Arthrospira platensis, commonly known as Spirulina. By focusing on an edible cyanobacteria, we hope to generate an easily consumable, photosynthetic culture of vitamin or pharmaceutical synthesizers.
Of the three non-opioid pain reducers on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of essential medicines, we have decided to pursue acetaminophen, the active ingredient in TylenolTM, due to the feasibility of recreating the metabolic pathway in a cyanobacteria. With respect to vitamins, we aim to produce human usable vitamin B12 because it is one of the few vitamins that A. platensis does not adequately produce.
We hope to accelerate a growing movement to shift production of medicine delivery to the regions that need them. While it is important for us to develop the technology, essentially a living factory synthesizing acetaminophen and vitamin B12, it is also important for us to address aspects of the problem unsolvable with science alone. We hope to analyze and understand how our project fits into existing policies and attitudes surrounding poverty and malnutrition.
