"

From 2013hs.igem.org

Human Practices

The Project's Impact

Our team is aiming to create a semi-quantitative detector for lactose, a sugar molecule which causes intolerance in 9% of Caucasians, and between 70-90% of Asians, South Americans and Africans. It is most commonly found in milk and dairy products, and intolerance has been linked to recent over-consumption of milk and dairy, particularly in Europe and North America.

Individuals who are lactose intolerant have an insufficient lactase enzyme concentration in their digestive tract, so they are unable to hydrolyse lactose into galactose and glucose. As a result these disaccharide lactose molecules pass straight through the small intestine and into the colon. Bacteria in the colon are able to hydrolyse and then metabolise lactose, and their anaerobic respiration of lactose produces CO₂ and CH₄ in the colon. This leads to the bloated feeling and symptoms associated with intolerance. Unabsorbed glucose and galactose monosaccharides in the colon also reduce water potential in the colon, leading to an inflow of water, and hence diarrhea. You can read more about lactose intolerance from the UK Dairy Council.

We hope to go some way to fix this problem by providing a biological lactose detector. This will enable lactose intolerants to better decide what food produce to eat, and help them avoid painful symptoms of intolerance. Furthermore, the semi-quantitative nature of the project will enable people with a range of different tolerance levels to be catered for by the sensor; individuals with higher lactose tolerance are able to eat more lactose-rich food, but individuals with low tolerance are able to avoid it altogether. Our hope is that this detector may be used in laboratory setting by food manufacturers to test and correctly label produce for consumers - this will help to properly inform the public and allow them to make better health choices.

Outreach and Informing People

Our team presented this project at the second annual Anglo-Japanese Science Conference for Students at St Paul's School in March. There were schools from around the UK, several Japanese Academies and a German Gymnasium in attendance. The conference was designed to raise awareness about different scientific projects that school students are doing; we gave a 15 minute presentation on our progress and plans, and took questions from the audience afterwards. For the vast majority of the students this was the first that they had heard of the iGEM competition and many people fielded questions about the project and how they might be able to compete in the future at high school or collegiate level.

The schools in attendance were:

Germany

Otto von Taube Gymnasium

Japan

Gojo Senior High School

Handa Senior High School

Ichinomiya High School

Jishukan High School

Koh High School

Meiwa Senior High School

Okazaki-kita Senior High School

Seisho Senior High School

Toyohashi Higashi Senior High School

Toyota Nishi Senior High School

Yokosuka High School

Yutakagaoka High school

Zuiryo Senior High School

United Kingdom

Hammersmith Academy

King’s School Canterbury

Latymer Upper School

Radley College

Simon Langton Grammar School

St Paul’s School

St Paul’s Girls’ School

Westminster School

William Morris Sixth Form