The number of deaths from cardiovascular diseases in the world is as high as 17.9 million a year, and the elderly are in the high-risk group of cardiovascular diseases. In Chiayi, where the aging population is extremely serious, 19 students from different departments of National Chung Cheng University (CCU) take advantage of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) that can effectively slow down cardiovascular diseases, and used synthetic biology to manufacture a pure EPA, which not only reduces the possibility of people consuming fish oil to obtain EPA resulting in the fishery depletion, but also is friendly to vegetarians. The CCU team went to Paris, France, to participate in the “International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM)”. Moreover, among the 356 teams around the world, CCU team and the team from National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) tied for the silver medal.

According to the statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020, in the past 20 years, among the main causes of death in the world, the number of deaths from heart disease has remained high. By 2019, it has increased to 9 million people around the world, and the number of deaths from other cardiovascular diseases has even reached 17.9 million. The heart disease can be said to be the best killer. In Taiwan, although cancer is the leading cause of death, the total number of deaths from heart disease and several vascular diseases still far exceeds that of cancer. “Data shows that there are more than 20% of the elderly ending their lives every year due to cardiovascular disease.” said Jia-Xian Gong, the team leader of CCU iGEM team. Since she has studied in Chiayi, she notices that the aging population was quite serious. Then, she and the other members start to do something for preventing cardiovascular disease and promoting relevant issues. 

In the past, prevention of cardiovascular disease is better than treatment. Paying attention to the diet and doing exercise will be the first-phase prevention before the getting the illness, but the second-phase prevention after the disease is also very important. Among them, EPA rich in deep-sea fish oil can effectively clean blood vessels and reduce blood lipids. Jia-Xian Gong said that most people consume EPA by directly consuming fish or fish oil, but the large-scale production of fish oil will not only lead to the depletion of the fishery, but also those marine pollutants such as heavy metals and plastic particles will gradually accumulate in the fish body. Those fish with toxic substances will be absorbed by human and vegetarians even cannot obtain EPA from fish oil.

The CCU iGEM team used synthetic biology to produce pure EPA and named it as “PACO mega”. In order to allow Escherichia coli (E. coli) to produce EPA and increase the amount of it, the CCU iGEM team not only transfers the two bacterial gene fragments in E. coli, but also transfers the acc gene and added cerulenin, which is a kind of chemical substance. Jia-Xian Gong said that the acc gene can increase the raw materials for the production of EPA, and E. coli can produce the lipids similar to EPA. They use cerulenin to inhibit the synthesis pathway of other lipids and put all the energy into the production of EPA. The CCU iGEM team’s research results not only verify that it can effectively increase the production of EPA, but also the synthetic EPA is more friendly to vegetarians, which is the effects that fish oil cannot achieve.

In addition to doing scientific research, the CCU team still remembers to promote the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and organizes walking activities in collaboration with the school’s senior center and local resources to encourage the elderly to interact with the community and pay attention to their own health. The team also sets up the flash activities on the World Heart Disease Day and goes to the park to instruct the public about cardiovascular disease. In addition, the CCU team even organizes Open lab activities to allow high school students to practice synthetic biology experiments. Jia-Xian Gong mentioned that synthetic biology is not common to the general public. Thus, it is very important for us to cultivate this technology from the younger generation.

The CCU iGEM team has achieved its 6th year. This time, there are 19 students from 5 colleges, including science, engineering, management, humanities, and social science, joining the team. In the future, the CCU iGEM plans to cooperate with Trade Wind Biotech Corporation (TWBIO). In addition to reducing the difficulty of transgenic gene fragments, they will also use the manufacturer's technology to improve the E. coli designed by the team. They hope the technology can be mature enough to apply for a patent.