Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most severe diseases that took away millions of lives.
In 2019, an estimated 17.9 million people died from CVD, representing 32% of all global deaths.
(WHO official
website).
The living habits nowadays cause the excess intake of cholesterol from the modern diet, inducing the
accumulation of oxidized low-density lipoproteins ( LDL ) in arteries.
The oxidized LDL accumulation impedes blood flow and damages the arteries, which leads to atherosclerosis, the
severe CVD
(Berger and Naseem 2022).
Recently, the daily intake of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) has been proven to reduce CVD efficiently and severe
CVD causes death
(Peter, Joho et al. 2022).
EPA reduces CVDs in two aspects. In arteries, EPA can split heme into biliverdin, free iron, and carbon monoxide
to clean the free radicals and reduce oxidative LDL accumulation. EPA can also relax the surrounding smooth
muscle to avoid severe CVDs by enhancing nitric oxide production
(Sherratt, Libby et al. 2022).
However, the major source of EPA, marine fishes, is the end consumer in the food chain, and the accumulation of heavy metals and microplastics is not rare in marine fishes.
To generate an EPA supplement without potential contaminants, our team applied synthetic biology to produce pure
EPA.
Cost is a core point for running a business. To reduce the cost, we increase the raw material of EPA in E.
coli by expressing ACC complex, and add the chemical cerulenin to inhibit the competing fatty acid
synthesis pathway.
Integrated to the society
To integrate our project into society, we share CVD knowledge with the elderly through campus walking activity
and synthetic biology with teenagers through open lab activity.
We also launched a web game for all ages, which overcomes the urban-rural gap to introduce knowledge about
synthetic biology.
To polish our project, we first discussed with other iGEM teams and gathered feedback from experts and potential
EPA users. To start a business in the future, we held an innovation & entrepreneurship competition to bridge
Taiwan iGEM teams with biotech entrepreneurs and synthetic biologists.
Together, PACOmega is an inclusive project dedicated to raising public awareness of CVD and eliminating the
distance between synthetic biology and the public. In addition, we keep searching for opportunities and
preparing for future entrepreneurship to produce EPA supplements - The Pure Artery Omega, PACOmega.
