Extragalin

About 10 million Alzheimer's Disease patients are diagnosed in China, the world's largest. Currently no sufficient treatment exists, especially in China, due to lack of effective and affordable drugs. This year, team iBowu-China learned about a plant-based substance, Astragalin, with the potential to be an effective cure. Astragalin is a natural flavonoid compound existing in medicinal plants. The traditional extraction doesn't lead to high enough product quantity and limited its large scale usage with economical availability. We study the bio-synthesis pathway of manufacturing Astragalin using engineered E. coli, expressing a series of plant-originated enzymes in the strains to generate Astragalin from a widely available substrate Naringenin. Experimentally we characterized the production of the enzymes, verified the production of Astragalin and attempted to optimize the production conditions for higher yields. We also conducted creative Education and Science Communication activities to raise social awareness of the Alzheimer's Disease and synthetic biology.