Several studies show that 25% of Spanish soccer players have symptoms related to depression/anxiety, so we decided to personally go and talk to our local team, Osasuna, and get them to tell us a bit more about it. We started by explaining the objective of our project, and after that, we engaged in more personal conversations about the mental health of the Navarre team. Many of them not only stated that their sporting performance had declined profoundly due to depressive symptoms during their professional career, but also that in the sporting arena mental health takes a back seat.
The purpose of having a meeting with a company that can test how the nanoencapsulated serotonin would affect the microbiota of our organism by means of the biological assay of the dynamic digester in vitro, gave us a great opportunity to improve our project, with a view to a therapeutic application. In addition, they explained to us how the digester assays worked and it was a fundamental pillar to understand the physiological process that serotonin plays in our organism.
ANASAPS, Navarra Association for Mental Health, is a non-profit association composed of people with mental health problems, family members and all those interested in collaborating with the promotion of mental health. There we presented our concern for the state of people with mental health problems, and therefore the reason for the realization of our project. From the association, they explained the importance of mental health in today's society and the historical impact it has had in the region of Navarra. Furthermore, they claimed the serious mental illnesses, which suffer a greater marginalization and are not so present in the topics of speech of the society. This fact, which had not been taken into account in the initial approach of the project, had a great impact on our purpose, not only trying to solve the problem of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression, but also many others.
Due to the pillar that the circular economy has in the project, we went to the cheese factory Quesos la Vasco Navarra S.A.. Whey is one of the main by-products of the food industry, and in the past it was one of the main reasons for water pollution due to its high content of organic matter. It therefore has a high content of the amino acid tryptophan, a precursor of serotonin, and could therefore be used as a source of it. At the plant, the team presented the iGEM competition and the project to be carried out. The plant personnel explained all the applications that whey currently has, and supported the project approach as another equally valid solution to the current ones. Additionally, they supported us by providing samples of whey from different animals and stages of production.
After attending the presentation of the researcher and head of the Environmental Molecular Microbiology Laboratory of the National Center for Biotechnology, belonging to the CSIC, Victor de Lorenzo, we had the opportunity to present our idea for the project. We were able to exchange ideas on the optimal biobricks to improve our proposed genetic constructs. In addition, we discussed a possible continuation of the project related to the world of psychobiotics.
Ingredalia is an innovative technology company from Navarra that works obtaining functional ingredients from by-products of the agri-food industry in their environment. Due to the proximity of its line of work with the circular economy part of our project, it was clear that it was a company with which we had to collaborate. In the meeting we had, we were able to explain what our project consists of and what iGEM is. The people in charge of the company were very interested in our project and gave us some advice on how to obtain tryptophan, our raw material, from the by-products that are richest in it.
We had the opportunity to talk at the Pamplona City Hall about the visibility of mental health and the importance of the circular economy, under the brushstrokes of synthetic biology. The mayor Enrique Maya Miranda and Fernando Sesma, councilor of education and medicine graduate, told us about the plans of the Pamplona City Council to promote the improvement of the mental health situation in the Pamplona region and also talked about the Aranzadi plan of circular economy. After the meeting we realized that the city council was committed to the cause and we have to emphasize that it was a pleasure to share the local purposes of our iGEM UPNA project.
We had the opportunity to visit the offices of the grouping of municipalities Mancomunidad de Pamplona and chat with the president of the Mancomunidad. At the meeting we told them who we were and what our project was about, and they told us about the differences between waste and by-products. This helped us to improve the project, since we approached it as a circular economy project based on waste and not on by-products.
One of the team leaders, Sergio, met again with Jokin, the head of the proteomics unit at Navarrabiomed. Enrique Santamaría, principal investigator of the neuroproteomics group at Navarrabiomed, was also consulted. With this meeting, a future continuation of the project was proposed once serotonin was synthesized. For this, it was proposed to use HPLC coupled to a mass spectrometry detector.
After telling them about our project idea, the Navarre biotech company Nucaps committed to nanoencapsulate the serotonin that we would ultimately obtain, as a future improvement of our work. In addition to being able to count on the collaboration of their technology, they showed us how to give a competitive pitch for the Grand Jamboree.
Before the trip to the Grand Jamboree in Paris we wanted to have a last meeting with the iGEM BioGalaxy team, the other iGEM team from our city. In this meeting, both teams presented our projects, shared our difficulties in the last months of work and talked about how we face the last weeks. This meeting was very enriching because we were able to compare the performance between a team of high school students and a team of university students, each with their strengths and difficulties.
In September 2021 we visited the facilities of the CNTA food-technology center in San Adrián. They showed us their line of work, objectives and facilities. We learned a lot about new and innovative strategies in the food market. Among their strategic lines are food quality and safety, objective sensorial, analytical technology, industrial microbiology, etc. We were also able to present our first project ideas and explain more about IGEM. In October we had a videoconference with them in which they talked to us about circular economy, we could learn new concepts and solve doubts related to our project.
Our university, through the chair of synthetic biology, organized a series of talks in which researchers from different parts of our country presented their research on topics related to synthetic biology. Thus, we were able to learn some of the techniques most commonly used in this field from the professionals who also talked about the current state of synthetic biology. In addition, we had the opportunity to talk with them and explain what our project would consist of, which at that time was still in its infancy.
We went to Tarragona to attend the VI Meeting of Biotechnologists of Northern Spain, better known as BioNorth. On Saturday we participated in a full scientific-cultural day where the local scientific talent presented different papers, talks and a round table, each one more interesting than the last! There, we were able to present and receive feedback for our project with experts in different areas, resulting in a very insightful experience. On the other hand, we had the pleasure to take a guided tour of the ancient city of Tarraco and spend some time with the rest of the participants from the rest of Spain. It was very enriching for everyone and helped to unite the team.
Cinfa is a multinational company engaged in the pharmaceutical industry. Its headquarters are located in Olloki, in the outskirts of the city of Pamplona. There we explained the purpose of iGEM and the enthusiasm and reason for participating in the competition. When we presented to the company the problem we were facing and the solution we were proposing, they did not hesitate to help us financially to achieve our final goal, to find a solution based on serotonin for the treatment of mental illnesses.
To discuss the development of serotonin synthesis at the laboratory level, Sergio one of the team leaders meet with Joaquín Fernández Irigoyen, Head of the Navarrabiomed-IdiSNA Proteomics Unit and associate professor at the Public University of Navarra (UPNA). When proposing the different stages that would constitute the experimental procedure, he provided different methods of proteolysis for the extraction of the essential amino acid tryptophan, from the proteins that make up the milk whey.