About Our Team

We are the TCU_Taiwan team representing Tzu-Chi University. This year, our team is comprised of twelve students from various departments and mentored by Professors Ji-Hshiung Chen, Yung-Hao Ching and Guang-Huey Lin.

This year, we have endured many hardships to complete our project. In the face of adversity, as one team, we have confronted these challenges together. And in the process, we have grown stronger and developed into one large family. We enjoy the iGEM competition and look forward to sharing our achievements to the committee and the world.

About Our Project

"Ouch! It hurts!" In this moment, a cut has penetrated our skin. As the wound appears on the skin, we became vulnerable to bacterial infection. Bacterial infections could slow down the wound recovery. In severe complications, if the infection is not properly treated, it could lead to severe consequences or even devastating amputation. Currently, antibiotics are the treatment standard to fight this complication. However due to extensive administration of antibiotics, drug-resistant bacteria have appeared, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylocccus aureus (MRSA). The problem of MRSA affects the world. In Taiwan, from 2005 to 2014, there are over 50% bacterial infection is cause by MRSA. Drug-resistant organisms pose significant problems in any patient treatment facility and impact our daily lives. Therefore, we want to test alternative antimicrobial agents for bacterial infection.

To ameliorate this problem, we can apply antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) during the wound healing process. We developing a medical dressing which can both inhibit MRSA infections and also facilitate would healing process. AMPs, are stable peptide that have extensive ability in bactericidal effects. Besides, the peptides also have ability to help skin recovered. The objective of this project is to apply AMPs to dressings to develop a potential anti-infective medical dressing.

Contact us
tcutaiwan@gmail.com
No.701, Sec. 3, Zhongyang Rd. Hualien 97004, Taiwan