Team:NCKU Tainan/Demonstrate
Demonstrate
After months of hard work and effort, iGEM NCKU Tainan 2019 is proud to reveal that ‘Oh My Gut’ is now complete! Our team has spared no effort in giving their all to ensure that our project goes smoothly. With this project, we hope to achieve our vision of providing a comprehensive solution to chronic kidney disease, and also spreading awareness on the significance of p-Cresol on human health.
Blood p-Cresol Reader
Our device, CreSense consists of three major parts: a centrifugal platform for blood plasma separation, a fluorescence intensity reader and a WiFi-module to monitor the fluorescence intensity online. In this section, we will demonstrate how our blood p-Cresol reader works.
Whole blood is injected into our microfluidic chip. All the user needs to do is to press a button to start the blood centrifugation. After approximately 15 minutes, the blood will be separated into two layers. The blood plasma will flow into the reaction chamber and react with our p-Cresol sensing bacteria. Then, the reader will show the real time fluorescence intensity reading on the LCD screen and simultaneously send it to an online database.
This device is meant to be placed in the diagnostic center and other healthcare service providers. However, this device is not limited to just patients who take our live therapeutic. Patients who are concerned about their health or is at a high risk of developing chronic kidney disease may also use this device as a preventative measure.
To demonstrate our engineered system works, we have made a video to explain each part of CreSense and the operating process.
Alternative Tyrosine Fermentation Pathway
iGEM NCKU Tainan 2019 engineered E. coli Nissle and introduced an alternative pathway for tyrosine in the gut by adding Tyrosine Ammonia Lyase. It converts tyrosine into a beneficial product, p-Coumaric acid. In the co-culture system with Clostridioides difficile that is known to fermentate tyrosine into p-Cresol, we hope to see that our engineered E.coli Nissle can reduce the total p-Cresol outcome by preventing tyrosine fermentation into p-Cresol. This way, we can demonstrate the reduction of p-Cresol production in the gut. For more information, please refer to our Design and Results pages.