SDGs

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being:

Clearly, our project is dedicated to addressing a global health concern, specifically focusing on a primary contributor to worldwide mortality. Our goal is to develop a product with the potential to reduce both the prevalence of Cardiovascular diseases and the associated mortality rates. The ultimate outcome of our efforts is a probiotic platform designed to generate lumbrokinase, a substance aimed at dissolving fibrin within blood clots.

SDG 4: Quality Education:

Our innovative method for extracting Lumbrokinase not only enhances efficiency but also significantly reduces the number of earthworms that need to be sacrificed. This has the added benefit of helping to preserve biodiversity and maintain healthy earthworm populations in the soil. Earthworms serve a crucial ecological role, particularly in soil health and fertility. By conserving earthworm populations, we indirectly support human well-being, as soil quality is a key factor in agriculture. Thus, our approach offers a more sustainable and ethically responsible way to obtain Lumbrokinase while also contributing to ecological balance.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

In our research, one focus area involves developing a more ethical and efficient technique for the extraction of Lumbrokinase from earthworms. Utilizing IPTG induction to isolate Lumbrokinase RNA, our approach allows for a more concentrated yield. The current methods for Lumbrokinase extraction typically involve sacrificing a large number of earthworms. However, our innovative procedure reduces the number of earthworms killed during the process by more than 50%.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The new way to extract lumbrokinase and decrease the amount of earthworms being killed.

SDG 17: Partnership for the gaols

First, we partnered with experts from different fields. First off, we work with the owner of Earthworm Farm and understand that the traditional way of getting lumbrokinase is through direct extraction from worm juice, it's not only cruel but also ineffective, therefore we decide to change it.

Second, we worked with Dr. Lin from Chung Gung Hospital and understood that the main reason for CVD among Taiwanese citizens is the high-fat diet. Many elders forget to take their pills also helps worsen the case of CVD.

Thirdly, in order to turn theory into application, we decided to interview the Vice President of Medicine Vaccine Biologics Corporation- Dr. Lien. During the time of COVID, he led Taiwanese scientists and doctors to develop COVID vaccines. Dr. Lien mentioned that if we wish to turn Lumbrokinase into a medical drug we are going to have to go through a series of In vivo experiments. That’s when we noticed that our project faces huge challenges in our future development, but is also full of potential.

Last but not least, We decided to interview the CEO of BIOKING HEALTH TECHNOLOGY Mr. Lou. Lumbrokinase is one of the products under his company. During our interview, we understand that although lumbrokinase has a broad range of audiences, it's still in an awkward spot between a medicine and a supplement. This caused much confusion among the consumers. Therefore, if we are able to test the plausibility of our probiotic platform we can not only solve CVD but also help with the confusion from the consumers.

During all these interviews, these experts helped us on our project - address the issue of CVD and traditional lumbrokinase production methods.