Team:NCKU Tainan/Criteria
Bronze
Competition Deliverables
Attributions
Project Description
Contribution
(1)We have created a wiki page, and show it online.
(2)We have designed our Poster, and put it on wiki.
(3)We have upload our Presentation video on time.
(4)We have put our project promotion video on wiki.
(5)We have submitted the Judging form and safety forms before the deadline.
We have received lots of help from professors and other people during the development of our project. As such, we have an Attributions page for whom that has helped us along our iGEM journey.
Our project aims to develop a synthetic biology method to reduce eyes pressure caused by glaucoma. To learn more, do look at our project inspiration and description which are listed on the Description page.
To reduce eye pressure, we devised a method to release NO by using an existing iGEM part. For more info, please refer to our Parts page which we have completed before the deadline.
Silver
Engineering Success
Collaboration
Human Practices
Proposed Implementation
This year, through following the engineering design cycle provided by the official, we tackled and solved many problems of our design of growth switch. For example, we changed the blue light-sensitive system into heat activation system because the bacteria grew poorly with the former system. And we also changed the FRT mechanism due to the wrong design checked by DNA sequencing. From the first version of design to the final one, after met and overcame many difficulties, at last, we successfully built the growth switch as a new part and also showed that it can work as expected which is proven by gene deletion experiment. As more details, you can see more on Engineering success.
Despite the pandemic, there's nothing that can stop iGEM teams worldwide from working together. Instead, it pushes the limit of what collaboration can be in an iGEM competition. We collaborated with 24 teams so that we were able to create and achieve numerous meaningful results like I’ve Gotta PhD and contact lens recycling. You can see more on Collaboration.
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Gold
Integrated Human Practices
Improvement of an Existing Part
Project Modeling
Proof of Concept
Partnership
Science Communicationt
Excellence in Another Area
Eye kNOw is a pair of contact lenses tailored for glaucoma patients to slow down the progression of glaucoma. To ensure our product can benefit them, we not only visited experts in different fields but launched a survey to understand the needs of the general public. Through these interactions, we explored other important aspects that might be ignored to enhance our product development. We first met with the ophthalmologist to ensure our product can meet patients' needs and contacted the optical corporation to refine our techniques for contact lenses fabrication and further mass-production. We also improved our plan for marketing and promotion based on advice from a biotech company. Through the discussion with engineering professors, we further optimized Eye Screen and established a more comprehensive system targeted for glaucoma. Through integrated practice, we are able to develop our idea into a potential product. You can see more onHuman practice.
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This year, we developed two models, namely IOP-contact lens deformation model and Eye kNOw efficacy model to further investigate our project and perform as the bridge between wet experiment and dry design. For the IOP-contact lens deformation model, we used mathematical ways to describe the deformation of contact lens according to IOP levels. Fitting with experimental data helped us enhance the accuracy and reliability. We can use this model to make future adjustments for the design of Eye kNOw. For the Eye kNOw efficacy model, we proposed a new model describing the concentration profile of nitric oxide (NO). We established the formula of NO concentration, and used pharmacodynamic approaches to further validate the efficiency of Eye kNOw compared with current treatment. These models can help future iGEM teams who are also adopting ocular drug delivery systems in their project, by simply changing the parameters. You can see more on Model.
Because we cannot use live porcine eyes to verify the function of contact lenses, we use step-by-step experiments to verify that our contact lenses are effective and can be used in the treatment of glaucoma in the future. The proof of concept is divided into three parts. In the first step, we used Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to verify that the change in IOP can cause the deformation of the contact lens, and calculated the concentration of the cavity change. With this concentration change, we can use the enzyme kinetics model in the second step to calculate the amount of NOS produced by bacteria. Finally, because NOS will convert L-arginine into NO, we can measure the NO concentration in the aqueous humor of the porcine eyes and know whether NO successfully penetrates the cornea and effectively acts on the trabecular meshwork. You can see more on Proof of Concept.
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