It all began with the story of a feral cats rescue team run by a 65-year-old woman named Li Feng-hua. She has helped hundreds of cats in Beijing since 1998. To bring cats to the vet, they need to be put into a cage, which proves to be a very time-consuming and challenging task. Attracting the cats into the designated cages is difficult using only cat food. This year, International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) team GreatBay_China, consisting of 13 high school students, found a solution to the above-mentioned problem. They have found a way to mass-produce nepetalactol, the precursor of nepetalactone — the active ingredient in catnip. Nepetalactol is a platform molecule, meaning we can synthesize other valuable natural compounds from nepetalactol, such as vinblastine, an anti-cancer alkaloid which is one of the most widely used anti-cancer drugs nowadays. Due to its complex structure, chemosynthesis is rather difficult, so it is mainly extracted directly from the plant. The cost of extraction is high because of the low content of vinblastine in plants. Therefore, if we can mass-produce nepetalactol through microorganisms and then synthesize vinblastine from nepetalactol, we can lower the cost of production and selling price of such anti-cancer drugs. This will require the team to put their knowledge of synthetic biology into actual use. Synthetic biology is one of the most rapidly developing fields in the 21st century, a rising star in STEM. It engages engineering thinking, and combines biology with other subjects like computer science, chemistry, physics and mathematics in order to design and construct artificial biological systems to tackle real-life issues such as energy, environmental protection, and more. The iGEM is the world’s top academic competition of synthetic biology, founded by MIT. Every team must use standardized biological parts to construct bio-bricks with certain functions, thus generating a whole synthetic biology project. Apart from using the characterized biological parts, teams can also develop new parts, bringing more possibilities to future teams. This Friday, team members of GreatBay_China will come to x.factory, sharing this amazing project with you. Come learn about the splendor of synthetic biology and the experience with constructing engineered organisms. Hopefully, through this meetup and your input, we can all move a step forward on the path toward creating a better life for the street cats. Time: 7:30-9:30 p.m., July 6 Venue: x.factory, Design Commune, Vanke Cloud City, Dashi Road 2, Nanshan District (南山区打石二路万科云设计公社x.factory) Metro: Line 5 to Liuxiandong Station (留仙洞站), Exit A (SD News) |