UNews - Luke Saville

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge iGEM team earns gold for project that designs oral insulin delivery system

trevor.kenney — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:34:18 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Collegiate iGEM team set its sights on solving a problem that affects nearly nine per cent of the world’s population, and earned a gold medal for their efforts at the recently concluded International Genetically Engineered Machines World Jamboree in Boston, Mass.

The collegiate team, accompanied by the U of L’s High School iGEM entry that achieved a silver medal standing for its project, presented Algulin, which is the development of a novel method for the manufacturing and oral delivery of insulin to diabetics.

U of L iGEM collegiate and high school team members and their advisors in Boston. Back row (L–R) Catrione Lee, David Basil, Mark Lea, Dia Koupantsis, Laura Keffer-Wilkes, Thomas Byrne, Angeliki Pantazi and Chris Isaac. Middle (kneeling L–R) Linda He, Dewuni De Silva, Michelle Wu and Luke Saville. Front – Julien Todd.

“We wanted to do something different and meaningful, something that will have a positive effect on the people around us,” says Dia Koupantsis, a third-year biological sciences student. “So, we developed the project Algulin, an oral insulin manufactured in microalgae, in an attempt to democratize the manufacturing of insulin so that it can be widely available for individuals who need it.”

Diabetes is a massive global issue that requires lifelong management for those affected, imposing an enormous economic health burden that amounts to a $673 billion global expenditure annually. Currently, the most common method of relieving diabetes symptoms is through painful, expensive insulin injections. Some patients must self-administer the drug up to six times per day.

After interviewing diabetic patients, doctors and pharmacists, the iGEM team went about trying to find a way to deliver insulin to patients orally. The challenge, which has thwarted previous attempts, is to find a way to get the insulin through the stomach acid and into the small intestine for absorption without becoming seriously degraded. Their solution – microalgae.

Algulin is an oral insulin produced in microalgae. After testing three different microalgae, the group determined Cyanidioschyzon merolae, with its innate acid resistant membrane, could survive the stomach environment. Additionally, with a carbohydrate-based cell wall, C. merolae would degrade in the small intestine and allow for the therapeutic insulin to be absorbed through to its intended target — the portal vein.

“It was a challenging project because it involved working with an organism we’d never used before,” says Luke Saville, a fourth-year biochemistry student. “This promoted challenges in learning how to grow the organism and how to genetically engineer it to produce our insulin.”

U of L chemistry & biochemistry instructor Dr. Angeliki Pantazi is one of the team’s faculty mentors and lauds the team for the work they put in and the further potential of their project.

“The gold medal is exciting but it’s a little bit less about what we came back with and more about how we are training the next generation of scientists and leaders through these programs,” she says. “It’s a very student-driven program and I was impressed with why they wanted to pursue this project. They were concerned about people not being able to afford insulin and inspired by the first two Canadian scientists who isolated purified insulin and how they didn’t patent it for themselves but instead offered it to humankind for free.”

Now that the iGEM season is over, it’s up to the group to find possible investors to continue their work and eventually try and get a product to market. The next stage would be performing animal studies to see how the insulin is being transferred into the bloodstream and how it functions.

“I think it has great commercial potential,” says Saville. “By moving away from injectables and purification free insulin growth, we can dramatically lower the cost of diabetes management while providing a more comfortable way to administer medicine.”

Other members of the collegiate team included: Catrione Lee, Kalob Barr, Jesse Holbein, Allyson Lawrie-White, Landon McCabe, Joshua Omotosho, Kera Whitten and Dong Ju Kim. Graduate student advisors included Sydnee Calhoun, Aubrey Demchuk, Chris Isaac and Kristi Turton while Dr. Trushar Patel (chemistry & biochemistry) was the secondary investigator.

High school team earns silver

All four local high schools contributed to the team that presented CADAR (CRISPR assisted detection and removal) at the World Jamboree, a project designed to create a rapid diagnostic tool for identifying bacterial pathogens.

“Our team decided to choose CADAR because we saw the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria,” says Mark Lea, a Chinook High School graduate who is now in his first year at the U of L. “We found, through initial research, that there is a lot of over-prescription of antibiotics that further increases the amount of bacterial resistance. We thought finding an alternative and more novel approach to traditional antibiotic methods of identifying and then eliminating those pathogens would be an interesting project.”

Dr. Laura Keffer-Wilkes, the manager of Synbridge and high school team advisor, says the project was very ambitious for the high school group and she was pleased with the work they put in to try and develop a product that could be used in health care and patient care settings, in processing plants and even ambulances as a means to validate cleaning practices.

“It’s really student-driven, so they go after whatever motivates them, whatever passions they have,” she says. “As a high school instructor, I don’t want to stifle their creativity, and they used some very advanced technology in their work.”

The high school team consisted of: Alice Zhang, Andy Sun, Aroma Pageni, David Basil, Dewuni De Silva, Elisha Wong, Julien Todd, Karen He, Linda He, Katie Vienneau, Mark Lea, Michelle Wu, Mina Akbary, Natasha Woitte, Rachel Avileli, Rebecca Avileli, Shada Aborawi and Thomas Byrne.

iGEM culture the real driver of student success

trevor.kenney — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:06:54 +0000

The headlines for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s consistently successful international genetically engineered machine (iGEM) teams read like a wash, rinse, repeat cycle. Achieving a gold-medal standing at the annual iGEM World Jamboree is almost a surety, but those who participate as team members and advisors say the results they achieve are far less a focus than what is learned throughout the iGEM experience.

Members of the High School iGEM team speak to judges and other participants during a poster session at the iGEM World Jamboree in Boston, MA recently.

“This is an exceptional program that really opens up a window for our students,” says U of L chemistry & biochemistry instructor Dr. Angeliki Pantazi, in her second year as an iGEM faculty advisor. “At the competition there is a list of things you have to check off to see whether you earn a gold or a silver but that doesn’t really reflect the background work they put into their project. At the end, we have students who understand and apply science more effectively, and who are also able to present in front of experts and deliver presentations that reflect months of work.”

The skills they acquire, beyond the hard science they do in the wet-lab setting are many, including teamwork, networking, business development and more.

“The team takes a multifaceted approach to produce a project that is safe and will contribute to the lives of all of the people it will impact,” says fourth-year biochemistry major Luke Saville, an iGEM veteran who worked on this year’s Algulin project that won gold. “This is done through engaging with the community, using sociological approaches to understand how it affects the community and entrepreneurship — to take it from the lab and into the real world.”

Dia Koupantsis is in her third year of biological sciences and says the culture of iGEM is family oriented, with senior members mentoring newcomers to the group in a continual cycle that keeps the projects fresh and innovative.

“I say it’s like a family because you have a group of individuals from different sciences or non-science backgrounds who all come together and for six months, they spend countless hours working side-by-side,” she says. “Everyone has something to contribute. It can be a very intense environment, but you have your teammates, advisors and principal investigators who understand the pressure, inspire you to continue on and enhance your passion for the project. And they remind you that your goal is pure and important.”

Mark Lea, who is in his first year at the U of L, was part of the high school iGEM team that also travelled to Boston for the World Jamboree. His iGEM experience revolved around the well-established culture of teamwork.

“It is a very collaborative environment between the high school and collegiate teams because wet lab, dry lab, and team meetings all take place at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” he says. “This helped our group significantly as we knew we could always send our questions to our advisors to ensure we understood the complex science behind our project.”

Lea’s first exposure to iGEM opened his eyes to the research world and the opportunities that exist for undergraduate students. Their project, CADAR, earned a silver medal.

“I was drawn to iGEM initially because I wanted to use and apply the things I was learning in school to the real world,” he says. “Having access to the laboratories seemed too good to be true, and I thought that it was amazing that high school students could gain experience in so many different areas. iGEM has increased my skill inventory in so many areas in science, but also non-scientific areas such as the ethics of our project. It has definitely helped me grow as a person, and I would suggest it to anyone.”

The recruiting season is now underway for next year’s iGEM projects, which begin in January. Anyone interested can contact Drs. Laura Keffer-Wilkes (kefferwilkesl@uleth.ca) or Angeliki Pantazi (angeliki.pantazi@uleth.ca).

U of L iGEM teams tackling relevant issues, awarded gold and silver at Giant Jamboree

trevor.kenney — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 21:13:23 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s iGEM students have proven once again they are among the best and brightest scientists in the synthetic biology field.

The U of L's collegiate iGEM representatives who presented in Boston.

From over 300 teams, representing countries from all over the world, the U of L’s collegiate team secured a gold medal and the high school entry a silver at the 2018 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition in Boston, MA.

The collegiate team’s project VINCEnT focused on developing tools for other synthetic biology researchers. Targeting specific tissues, cell types, or cellular organelles is important for the correct treatment of many diseases. The U of L team created software that would help others overcome these problems. The team members also demonstrated how they can successfully encapsulate cargo within P22 “nanocompartments” that can target Zebra and Quagga mussels with species-specific toxins. One of the largest problems facing Alberta waterways, Zebra and Quagga mussels are considered aquatic invasive species and a threat to the Alberta economy, specifically agriculture, tourism and recreation as they destroy natural lake ecosystems and fisheries. Work on this application will continue in the future.

The U of L's high school team impressed with a silver medal standing.

The U of L team of Sydnee Calhoun, Kristi Turton, Catrione Lee and Luke Saville presented at the jamboree and were supported by team members Keith Aiken, Maya Degrood, Simmone D’Souza, Travis Haight, DJ Kim, Jessica Semmelrock, Reanna Takeyasu and David Tobin. Aubrey Demchuk, Graeme Glaister, Zak Stinson and secondary investigator Dr. Trushar Patel served as advisors.

The Lethbridge high school team is comprised of students from Winston Churchill High School, Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, Chinook High School and Catholic Central High School. Members Mark Lea, Michelle Wu and Andy Sun travelled to Boston to represent the team. Their project, Cu Later, described a method for the capture and removal of metals from tailings ponds and effluent water using an engineered bacteriophage system and received a silver medal and nomination for best model.

Dewuni De Silva, Aidan Sander, Nicolas Parra, Aroma Pageni, Rebecca Avileli, Tyler Black, Logan Black, Alice Zhang, Karen He, Mina Akbary-Zheng, Emily Huynh and Nimaya De Silva supported their teammates’ efforts from Lethbridge. Recruitment for the 2019 Lethbridge high school iGEM team will begin in January.

Representatives from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge were also involved in core activities for the iGEM Giant Jamboree. Dr. Hans-Joachim Wieden, also a primary investigator for the U of L collegiate team, was one of the competition judges, and Chris Isaac, U of L biochemistry graduate student, participated in the iGEM Safety Committee.

The projects and accomplishments of the university and high school teams are available on their wiki websites. Also, follow the high school team’s progress on social media: @LethHS_iGEM and @lethbridgehsiGEM. The U of L team can be followed here: @LethbridgeiGEM.

UNews - Luke Saville

��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge iGEM team earns gold for project that designs oral insulin delivery system

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