Team:XHD-Wuhan-Pro-China

Welcome to iGEM 2021

XHD-WuHan-Pro-China

Our project aims to cope with the problem of alcohol poisoning. Alcohol is known to bring great damage to the organs, especially the liver. Worse, many East Asians carry mutated genes that result in even more accumulation of acetaldehyde, a toxic substance. According to WHO, three million people worldwide die from harmful use of alcohol every year, which represents 5.3 % of all deaths. Therefore, we believe that this is a serious issue and should be resolved as soon as possible.

Our project achieves enhanced degradation of alcohol and acetaldehyde in human small intestines by constructing a probiotic that contains the adh gene for producing ADH, and the ald gene for producing ALDH. Besides, we add the nadE gene for NAD kinase and nox for NADH oxidase. These two enzymes promote the production of NAD+ and balances the NAD+/NADH ratio which is disturbed by the metabolism of ethanol and acetaldehyde to ensure adequate energy supply to the reactions.