AladDNA

The Problem

If you compared an old mobile phone from 20 years ago, to a new one, the main differences would be the huge improvement of its capabilities and their amazing miniaturization. This multitask feature, provides us with small devices which manage bigger and bigger amounts of information. So, why not to apply this strategy in biology? The goal of our project is to develop a biosystem that could work as a source of plenty different compounds, depending on the user’s election. It doesn’t matter where you are, or what you need, because AladDNA will provide you with it! Just pick your product and let there be light, literally! This idea is the result of tones of brainstorming hours. Let us introduce you a bit more the problem and explain why we chose this system. Producing materials in all countries involve the creation of huge factories, enormous quantities of raw material and high costs for transporting the entire production; this is a huge problem, specially for non-accessible areas or regions where it is impossible to create a factory, as space stations.

The Idea

So is there any object that produces utilities from raw material? Maybe a kind of Magic lamp? That is what we want to create in Valencia_UPV! Miniaturization of a factory to its minimum expression thanks to Genetic Engineering.

The Solution

In order to create lots of different products from a single media, we have designed a biological circuit that allows plants to change their metabolic pathway thanks to light stimulus. It is a two-steps optogenetically controlled cascade, activated with red or blue light. With this technology we can avoid using chemicals for changing the metabolic pathway and produce nearly anything we want in the cell, what is more, this can be virtually expanded to infinite, allowing the creation of several different compounds just with one machine. The chassis for the experiment are plants, but why plants? They need light to grow, so maybe they aren’t the best organism for optogenetics, aren’t they? In their primary growth steps, light is not needed, and, what is more, seeds are very resistant to unfavorable environments, so this allows us the creation of a gadget that keeps the seeds inside and which can be used in many different environments, from the dessert to the space. Just pressing a button, the gadget can be programmed to stimulate the plant with the correct sequence of light and with the enough intensity and time thanks to LEDs technology. We are trying to produce some small proteins such as interferon alpha, a rotavirus vaccine, a cholera vaccine and lactoferrin, compounds that can be useful in underdeveloped countries, but keep in mind that the range of possibilities is enormous.