Results

Results:

A comprehensive analysis of the results shows that, though we have achieved partial success in our goal, we have some questionable turnouts and need much more improvement.

Our current success comes from our expression experiment on September 9th (see notebook and Engineering success for details). The Western Blot results show that there are proteins with histidine tags present in groups where IPTG (expression inducer) and non in the control group(18). Paired with the decrease in bacterial OD values in the corresponding groups, we can confirm that we had produced functional lactoferrin protein. The groups with added iron ions displayed reduced inhibition towards bacteria growth, seeming to prove our hypothesis.

Problems arose when we attempted to recreate the experiment. Later experiments either produced strange results with visible bands in control groups during western blot or no bands at all. We have come up with several possible explanations for these abnormalities, noted in our notebook, and to be presented in our final video.

In pursuant to the laws of honesty and sincerity in scientific research, we cannot confidently claim that we have achieved success, only partial positive results among a lot of negative ones. However, this will not halt our steps in improving and trying until we see a clearer sky, as scientists should.

 Future plans:

We have not yet given up on the dream of prokaryotic expression.

We plan do further our research into previous scientists’ work, and figure out what our problems are on a theoretical level. Then, we will take measures such as

1)     Changing bacterial strains to those more adept at facing lactoferrin (lactobacillus etc.)

2)     Adding tags onto our protein to solve solubility issues(seen as a possible way in papers)

3)     Inhibiting CRISPR-Cas systems to prevent damage or immunity in bacteria.

 

 

 

Future plans

1.Experiment

Prior to October, members of our experimental group conducted a series of experiments on human-derived lactoferrin isomers (LTF) using methods such as controlled studies. Recently, we envisioned broadening our project topics to ensure that our designs and products can actually be effectively utilized in life. As a result, we have newly designed some genes that can substantially solve many real-life problems and will try to put them to the test in the coming January.

For example, the CRISPER system. Bacteria come with a Crisper Cast System, which destroys viral DNA but may also cause damage to our intelligence. Therefore, we designed a CRISPER system, which can also be said to destroy the bacteria's original CRISPER system, to solve this problem. The overall experiment is expected to be repeated twice in October and a project to sequence the intelligence is underway. (See Engineering for more details)

2.Lecture

For the knowledge popularization, we expect to launch a total of 5 lectures online and offline to introduce the relevant knowledge in detail, in order to achieve the effect of promoting the popularization of science.

Activity time: October-November 23rd

Venue: Multi-functional classrooms in schools, Tencent Meeting

Target Audience: School students

 

No.	Date/Time	Activity Subject
1	10.16 16:00-16:30	What exactly are lactoferrin isomers?
2	10.19 17:00-17:30	What are immunoglobulins?
3	10.24 15:30-16:00	What are whey proteins?
4	10.30 16:00-16:30	Cancer Awareness Campaign (i)
5	10.31 16:00-16:30	Cancer Awareness Campaign (ii)

 

3.Online Science Popularization

（1）Official Accounts

In order to expand our publicity for the popularization of knowledge, in addition to the online and offline lectures, we expect to organize and edit the contents of the lectures into public tweets and send them out as original science content.

The content includes but is not limited to: introduction of proteins such as lactoferrin, whey protein, and immunoglobulin, knowledge of cancer and anti-cancer methods, and popularization of biogenetic terminology related to our project topics.

（2）Videos

Interesting science videos are more intuitive than science articles; people can learn more vividly in science videos. Therefore, we plan to complete the production of two popular science videos: What is Lactoferrin and How Lactoferrin work.