Team:UST Beijing/Collaborations
Safety
We contected with team of Tsinghua university called Tsinghua-A. We come to their laboratory and did experiment with them. Also, we set together to discuss our project and show different ideas of each other. We exchanged advises which mill help us doing better in next work.
Experiment plan
In our experiments, we also used Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Rhizopus oryzae, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum and Bifidobacterium breve to ferment the notogensing root powder. All these microorganisms were purchased commericially from a supermarket and considered GRAS. We aim at breaking down the cell wall of notogensing.
How our project works
E.coli strain BL21(DE3) has been transformed with two plasmids. They could express beta-gluscosidase to hydrolyse the saccharides of saponins in notogensing to improve bioavailablity. In addition, BL21(AI) strain has been transformed with one plasmid to test expression efficiency of the beta-gluosidase. Furthermore, we used traditional methods, e.g. weak acid to hydrolyse notoginseng saponins and GRAS strains in solid fermentation, to explore bioavailablity improvement.
About risk
Risks of our experiments include escape of our engineered bacteria. To prevent the accident from happenning, we used strongest commercail disinfectants we can find to treat all experimental materials exposed to bacteria. And we designed a experiment to reconfirm the lackness of genetic stability of plasmid in our bacteria under no antibiotic culture. The result proves that the plasmid will be lost in short time if the bacteria escapes the lab culture conditions.
If we fully develop fermented notoginseng into a real product, there will be some risks for real people. During the process of notoginseng solid fermentation, some other unwanted microorganism may pollute our product, such as A. flavus. It may pose a hidden danger for human health.
Further comments
Our project focus on human health, and it will benefit all the people around the world, regardless of personal wealth. People can use our DIY method to produce their own health product of notoginseng.
