Hypatia 2| Better Together
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Hypatia 2 has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Better Together
Be12 - Equality through food
Summary
Due to the need of lots of land and water to exist, the meat market brings with it the destruction of natural resources around the world. In poverty stricken countries, facing this challenge sometimes pushes people to resort to the hunting of wildlife animals. Some of these animals are vectors of disease that sprawl populations. Inspired by this, Be12 was created with the mission of ending inequality in nutrition caused by the inefficiency of certain diets around the globe. This is made possible through the use of transgenic potatoes, of easy cultivation, containing the gene of production of B-12 vitamin, a component exclusively found in animal products.
How We Addressed This Challenge
This challenge proposed to create a resource to help close a gap in inequality in any way. After analyzing the data of the Canadian space agency, we choose to face this challenge by developing Be12, with the mission of creating a genetically modified superfood that provides vitamin B12, which is only found through animal products. With this project, we hope to lessen nutritional inequality caused by the concentration of a nutrient found only in an expensive food by an industry that has a highly negative impact on the environment. It is also easy to replicate, which allows this project to find home in tiny farms or in space.
How We Developed This Project
We have a multidisciplinary team formed by students of genetic engineering, synthetic biology and design, we also share in the fact and most of our members are vegetarians. Using this as inspiration and with our knowledge, we developed the idea to create a superfood that provides a nutrient that we realized was missing from many diets.
To make this possible we will mount a plasmid with the gene AT1G15730, related to the production of the B12 vitamin in Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant, a promoter linked to glucose to encourage the production of the vitamin in the final phase of the plant and preventing its degradation. This genetic circuit will be inserted in the potato plant through the bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
With this we will obtain Be12 in a safe and efficient way, to bring nutritional equality to everybody
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
Data from the Statistics Canada website (duly referenced below) was used, so that we could understand the production and trade of meat and potatoes in some regions of the world, such as Mexico and Canada. Through statistical analysis, we found that the numbers referring to the area, production and values applied to meat manufacturing and potato planting during the years 2015 and 2017 do not differ significantly, considering that there was an increase in the number of cattle registered per farm and hectares harvested potatoes. In this way, we could see that world consumption, considering the export rates, popularity and access to these foods, enables the project to be implemented, since the consumption of potatoes is as active as that of meat.
Project Demo
Data & Resources
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA. BC Greenhouse Gas Emissions Individual Facility Locations. Disponível em: https://open.canada.ca. Acesso em: 2 out. 2020.
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. Vitamin B12 Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. Disponível em: https://ods.od.nih.gov. Acesso em: 4 out. 2020.
STATISTICS CANADA . Area, production and farm value of potatoes. Disponível em: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca. Acesso em: 1 out. 2020.
NCBI. Cobalamin biosynthesis CobW-like protein [Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress)]. Disponível em: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/838142. Acesso em: 2 out. 2020.
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA. Cattle and Calves on Alberta Farms, July 1. Disponível em: https://open.canada.ca/. Acesso em: 3 out. 2020.
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA. Number of cattle, by class and farm type. Disponível em: https://open.canada.ca/. Acesso em: 3 out. 2020.
HIROKAWA, Yasutaka; MAKI, Yuki; TATSUKE, Tsuneyuki. Cyanobacterial production of 1,3-propanediol directly from carbon dioxide using a synthetic metabolic pathway. NCBI, China, v. 1, n. 2, p. 4-60, jan./2016. Disponível em: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26769097/. Acesso em: 2 out. 2020.
STATISTICS CANADA. Cattle and calves, farm and meat production. Disponível em: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca. Acesso em: 29 set. 2020.
STATISTICS CANADA. Cattle statistics, supply and disposition of cattle (x 1,000). Disponível em: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca. Acesso em: 3 out. 2020.
TORRES, A. C. et al. Cobalamin production by Lactobacillus coryniformis: biochemical identification of the synthetized corrinoid and genomic analysis of the biosynthetic cluster. BMC Microbiol, Italy, v. 1, n. 2, p. 4-110, out./2016. Disponível em: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27737643/. Acesso em: 3 out. 2020.
WIERZBA, Aleksandra; WINCENCIUK, Aleksandra; KARCZEWSKI, Maksymilian. Meso-Modified Cobalamins: Synthesis, Structure, and Properties. NCBI, USA, v. 1, n. 29719071, p. 4-37, jun./2018. Disponível em: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29719071/. Acesso em: 4 out. 2020.