From the beginning until the end of our iGEM journey, we have continuously critically analysed our sustainable development impact. The Sustainable Development Goals were fundamentals of our projects finding, development and future plannings.
Since we are, with our new approach for antibiotic resistance sensing system SPEAR - sensing pathogens and emerging antibiotic resistances - participating in the diagnostics track of iGEM, our special focus lies on the 3rd Sustainable Development Goal: Good health and well-being.
Bacterial infectious diseases are threatening populations all over the world. Antibiotic resistant germs are a major threat to human health worldwide1. While they are present in countries all over the world, a majority of economically less developed countries are exposed to an even higher risk of the spread of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections2. The causes lie, on the one hand, in an ineffective use of antimicrobials. On the other hand, the often high population density and poor sanitation favours the spread of germs. Furthermore, a major problem is the lack of diagnostics facilities3. This is where we want to make an impact.
Aiming a faster, more sensible tool for the diagnostics of antibiotic resistances, we want to facilitate the detection of specific antibiotic resistances. Not only will we reduce the time between detection of the illness and treatment with the correct antibiotic, we also aim to design a test that is cheaper, needs less workforce and is more easily implemented, also for local doctors when diagnostic facilities are missing. Our goal is to design a test that requires little resources and is easily accessible without the need of special laboratory facilities. With this, we want to contribute to an improved combat of antibiotic resistant infections in both more economically and less economically developed countries.
This being said, another focus in our impact on sustainable development lies on the implementation of our tests not only in medicine, but also in the laboratory. Faster, cheaper and easier detection of antibiotic resistances can not only facilitate medical supply, but can also have a major impact on research. The workflow when cultivating bacteria will benefit by easier identification of resistant stems and presence of mRNA, while reducing the amount of resources needed. Additionally, our Golden Gate assembled construct may in the future be simply changed to detect other RNA of interest, enhancing long-term study and progress and assisting with a variety of challenges in sustainable development.