UNews - Linda He

U of L iGem teams gear up for international competition with early successes

trevor.kenney — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 17:46:48 +0000

Despite the current COVID-19 crisis, funding insecurities and campus closures, Canadian iGEM teams came together October 3 & 4 to celebrate synthetic biology and science innovation.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and Lethbridge High School iGEM teams were two of 10 teams from across Canada to participate in the inaugural event. This year, only five Canadian teams are moving on to participate in the International Genetically Engineered Machines Giant Jamboree virtual competition, including both Lethbridge teams. The high school entry will be the only Canadian high school participating.

The conference started with a welcome address from Dr. Bettina Hamelin from Ontario Genomics, and included many workshops and fireside chats on how students can communicate their scientific work and create a start-up from their project. Many judges and speakers were from North American biotech companies, and were able to share their personal journey towards success with the students.

The U of L team presented its “FRIGEM” project which focuses on making local potatoes more resistant to fungus infections while increasing the nutritional value of potatoes and all their “fried” successor products. The judges at cGEM awarded the U of L project a silver medal.

“Presenting our project at cGEM and getting feedback from the judges was a great opportunity for our team to gain experience and will help us improve our project for the Giant Jamboree,” says Emily Hagens, a neuroscience student at the U of L.

The high school team's project, tPECTIN-ACE, aims to make at-home composting as efficient as possible by engineering an enhanced pectin-degradation enzymatic pathway. As the only high school team to participate in the conference and competing against solely university teams, the Lethbridge group was was thrilled with its bronze medal standing.

“It was a good experience getting feedback. Talking to other iGEM teams and judges was super valuable. It will really help us to prepare for the giant jamboree,” says Linda He, a grade 12 student from Chinook High School.

With the current global situation, it is clear the impact science and research can have on our society. The iGEM program is a great way of introducing young people to science, technology, engineering and math, while empowering students to engage with real-world local and global problems.

To support the Lethbridge high school iGEM team, please consider donating to our GoFundMe.

For more information contact iGEM@uleth.ca

Follow the teams on social media:

Instagram @lethbridgehsiGEM/@uleth.igem

Facebook @lethbridgehsiGEM/@LethbridgeiGEM

Twitter @LethHS_iGEM/@LethbridgeiGEM

��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.

Lethbridge iGEM teams hit the ground running

caroline.zentner — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:05:57 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines) teams are once again demonstrating their innovative spirit.

The collegiate team is attempting an ambitious project inspired by the works of Banting and Best, the researchers who were the first to extract and administer insulin in 1922, later selling their patent to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto for a dollar.

Magda Pop and Callista Rothwell (GeekStarter); iGEM team members Luke Saville, Sydnee Calhoun, Kristi Turton, Dia Michailidou-Koupantsis and Chris Isaac.

Now, almost a century later, diabetes mellitus affects approximately eight per cent of the global population and the price of insulin is soaring. The collegiate team aims to democratize insulin production as an oral alternative in recombinant microalgae. Their project designs have already been validated by GeekStarter, who awarded them $2,000 for demonstrating the think-design-test cycle for lean start-ups. Additionally, they were also one of 10 teams at iGEM to receive an Opentrons OT-2 Pipetting robot (value $10,000) that they will use to improve their measurement standards. They hope to continue their success throughout the season as they demonstrate their project’s value through various wet-lab experiments and participation in the 2019 iGEM Jamboree.

Shada Aborawi, Linda He, Mina Akbary-Zheng, Karen He, Aroma Pageni, Rebecca Avileli, Dewuni De Silva, Michelle Wu, Elisha Wong, David Basil, Thomas Byrne, Katie Vienneau, Mark Lea, Rachel Avileli, Natasha Woitte (missing Julien Todd, Alice Zhang & Andy Sun).

Meanwhile, the Lethbridge High School team presented its project as part of the GeekStarter 2019 High School Jamboree, hosted by Our Lady of the Snow Catholic Academy in Canmore. Teams from Lacombe, Fort McMurray, Calgary, Edmonton, and Canmore also competed. Team members Shada Aborawi, Rachel Avileli, Thomas Byrne, and Elisha Wong, all first year iGEM participants, made their team proud during the presentation. Judges agreed and awarded the Lethbridge team the Best Potential Impact award.

The high school iGEM team’s project will utilize synthetic biology to help fight the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. The team aims to develop a rapid diagnostic device to help identify bacterial pathogens, resulting in more specific antibiotic prescriptions. The team will also design a therapeutic that can be used against bacterial infections. More project information will be available in their forthcoming BioTrekspaper.

“I love the interdisciplinary aspect of iGEM,” says Linda He, a Chinook High School Grade 10 student. “I get to learn wet lab skills, coding skills, and marketing skills but I also get to talk to people in our community, experts in the field and work as a team.”

The team is made up of students from Winston Churchill High School, Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, Chinook High School and Catholic Central High School.

UNews - Linda He

U of L iGem teams gear up for international competition with early successes

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