Team:NCKU Tainan/Criteria
Awards
- Registration and Giant Jamboree attendance.
- All members of the team have registered for an undergraduate team in iGEM 2019.
- Competition deliverables.
- According to the Deliverables( hyperlink: to https://2019.igem.org/Competition/Deliverables ) page on iGEM’s website:
- We have created a wiki( hyperlink: to https://2019.igem.org/Team:NCKU_Tainan) page, which includes an Attributions page.
- A wiki page is also dedicated to the Safety( hyperlink: to https://2019.igem.org/Team:NCKU_Tainan/Safety) part of our project.
- Designed a poster for display at the Giant Jamboree.
- Submitted the Judging form( hyperlink: https://igem.org/2019_Judging_Form?id=2997) and safety forms before the deadline.
- According to the Deliverables( hyperlink: to https://2019.igem.org/Competition/Deliverables ) page on iGEM’s website:
- Attributions
- We have received lots of help from professors and other people during the development of our project. As such, we have an Attributions( hyperlink: to https://2019.igem.org/Team:NCKU_Tainan/Attributions) page for whom that has helped us along our iGEM journey.
- Project Inspiration and Description
- Our project aims to develop a bio-therapeutic method to reduce p-cresol and the health complications caused by the accumulation of which. To learn more, do look at our project inspiration and description which are listed on the Description( hyperlink: https://2019.igem.org/Team:NCKU_Tainan/Description) page.
- Characterization/ Contribution
- To reduce the amount of p-cresol, we devised a method to divert tyrosine metabolism by using an existing iGEM part. For more info, please refer to our Part( hyperlink: to https://2019.igem.org/Team:NCKU_Tainan/Parts) page which we have completed before the deadline.
Bronze
Unlike other[1] treatments for the disease that focuses on treating the side complications of uremic toxin accumulation, iGEM NCKU Tainan 2019 tackles the problem from the root - the accumulation of uremic toxins. The current treatment for p-Cresol accumulation that adsorbs p-Cresol directly does not show satisfying results. Therefore, Oh My Gut proposes a synthetic biology approach to avoid p-Cresol production. We believe that targeting the root of the problem is going to bring a greater effect in solving this issue.
What Oh My Gut proposes?
Oh My Gut wants to slow down the accumulation of p-Cresol in CKD patients’ blood and at the same time to raise awareness on the importance of treatment against p-Cresol accumulation. To reach these goals, iGEM NCKU Tainan 2019 engineered E. coli Nissle 1917, which is an FDA approved probiotic. This engineered E. coli will be able to convert tyrosine, the precursor to p-Cresol, into a beneficial byproduct by diverting the original fermentation pathway. This product, p-Coumaric acid is an antioxidant with many beneficial health aspects. It has been shown that it reduces the risk of one of our greatest modern western diseases, atherosclerosis[10]. As quantification of uremic toxins is uncommon in the healthcare providers due to the high cost, we will also design an economically affordable blood p-Cresol reader that use live bacteria for detection to be placed at the healthcare providers and reach more patients.
Silver
Taiwan is crowned the “Kingdom of Dialysis”. The prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is around 10%-11% of the population. CKD remains Taiwan's most costly disease for 4 years successively. CKD treatment in Taiwan cost 1.6 billion USD in 2018 alone. As iGEM NCKU Tainan 2019 aims to solve a local problem and thus we decided in pursuing this area. Throughout our brainstorming sessions, we realized that p-Cresol accumulation has not been paid enough attention in the past. Now, It has been proven to be associated with the worsening of CKD and many other side complications. Currently, the only approach to solve this problem is AST-120 but it did not demonstrate a satisfying result. With synthetic biology, we will be able to look deeper into the problem and solve it from the root. Prevent the production of p-Cresol in the first place is believed to be a more effective way to stop the accumulation of p-Cresol.