Implementation
Background
As environmental stress and cellular stress have been found to induce and be induced by obesity, our team aims to create a test kit to indicate whether supplements can mitigate the environmental-stress-related-phenotypes.
Our product utilizes a similar concept of the viability assay used in cancer drug research on identifying the stress mitigating properties of substances. We hope that this test kit could allow local nutrients to be tested for potential environmental-stress-related-phenotype mitigating properties, ultimately helping to achieve the goal of "local people, solving local problems using synthetic biology".
Product Imagination
According to drug researcher Hsiao-Fen Han, testing of supplements should be taken in professional lab. The testing kit we design, along with out stress controlling and yeast strain BY4741, can serve for the companies. The data of the gal-induction time course results will show the company whether the downstream gene is expressed as intended. After the issued lab receive the nutrients the company used in the diet pills on to the plates, the lab will then follow our protocol with doing survival plates, and by checking the gal-induction time course results, be able to determine whether their nutrients/diet pills can actually prevent obesity. Our lab will also be offering such service to companies in need.
Intended Audience
Our test kit tests whether nutrients such as green tea and brown algae have an effect on reducing obesity in the human body. According to the interview of Chinese Medicine doctor Dr.Ho, there are currently different approaches to tackle obesity. Many pateints approach him and ask for supplements or herbs that help maintain weight. At the same time, there are many other ways patients can get supplements. One of the most popular way is to buy diet pills avaliable in the market. Yet, in many countries, the regulations and requirement for testing evidence for food supplements are lacking. This not only increases the risk of buying ineffective produce for consumer, it also may causes irreversible damages to consumers. Our intended audience for the test kits are the companies who make diet pills and supplements containing nutrients. We hope that by giving the companies our test kit, they will be able to add more experimental proof to the viability of their products. This will not only benefit the producers as they can confirm the function of their product, this can also prevent consumers from being negatively impacted by the supplement they take. After we campaign our testing kit, more people will understand the importance of having supplements tested, hence preferring tested products over untested one. In the long term, this will make the supplement field better for society.
Product Viability
Currently, the world is showing a rise in the popularity of weight loss methods. In this case, many companies have produced weight-loss-centered products, including herbal supplements, tea, and much more, proving that our product can find a sizable market in current society. Most of such products claim to consist mainly or entirely of natural ingredients, the main purpose being to promote their product through the lack of artificial ingredients. In this case, our product will come in handy, as it can either verify or refute the claims of the companies, providing a safer, clearer indication of the true effect of certain products. In addition, an interview with Hsiao-Fen Han, a scientist in the drug research field for over 20 years highlighted the differences between drugs and nutritional supplements. As discussed in the human practice section, Hsiao-Fen Han, how drugs are usually government-monitored whereas supplements such as diet pills don’t have a regulatory body to supervise them. This means that the accuracy of the data that companies provide on their products may be inaccurate, harming the consumer. With this problem in mind, our team decided to try and design a kit where we will be able to give both companies and their consumers accurate data on the product. Governments may also take consideration of adopting such testing kit and require food supplement producers to test accordingly before launching their products. In the survey we done before starting the project, nearly 85% of people are willing to take the product if it was proven to control weight. Therefore, by providing method of testing, this will increase consumer confidence.
Product Safety
Companies should conduct their experiments with our test kits in a P1 laboratory setting or higher. Our kit uses BY4741 yeast strain, which is a member of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Therefore, our yeast strain is classified as a non-pathogenic strain, which fits into the guidelines of organisms that can be used for experimentation in a p1 lab. Furthermore, after experiments, those using the experiments should use alcohol or bleach to kill all of the yeast and not just dispose of it immediately into the waste bin.
Before launching the supplements, producers should run the product in clinical trial. Testing the product’s functionability and make adjustment accordingly before entering elinical trial can save costs for the producers as clinical trial requires 3rd party independent labotary that are recognized by the government. At the same time, having product tested in a lab will also reduce the uncertainties of the testing, hence increase the validity of the test. This is why we suggest of offering the service of supplement testing instead of offering ready-made kit companies can test by themselves.
Moreover, the transportation of the yeast from us to the companies also poses a significant challenge. Since the test kit contains yeast which is a living organism, we must ensure that their journey from our lab to the companies is in an environment that meets the requirements for the survival of the yeast so we actually have a product that is alive and can be used for testing by the companies.
Future
Chinese Medicine Doctor Dr. Ho, who gives patients natural nutrients to reduce obesity and other health issues, highlighted how some natural nutrients worked by changing the bodies hormones. Therefore, if our testing kit can undergoes further testing using higher levels of life, in long term, it may benefit the supplement field. Other future improvements of our test kit includes decreasing the OD600 concentration of the BY4741 yeast strain. A low OD600 means that the yeast strain has sufficient resources to continue in the growth phase. Therefore, the chances of the yeast suddenly dying off when doing the experiment will decrease significantly. We can accomplish a lower OD600 concentration value by diluting the concentration to around 0.2, which is the point between the lag and growth phase. In addition we can push for our yeast to be stored in freezers that are -80 degrees celsius. This way, it ensures our yeast strain will be alive and functional when the companies use our test kits. Furthermore, storing our yeast strain at -80 degrees celsius means that our yeast can be preserved for up to a year, which will further improve our product. In the future, we could raise funds from investors or companies, so we will be able to develop our kit to test different nutrients in diet pills.
