The Unviersity of Guelph's iGEM team won a silver medal in the overgrad category at the iGEM 2023 Grand Jamboree [1]at the Paris Expo this month.

Title: Project BloomBiota: Combatting vitamin B12 Deficiency with probiotic-expressed gastric intrinsic factor

Project BloomBiota aimed to create a probiotic containing enriched B12 and human gastric intrinsic factor (hGIF) to combat vitamin B12 deficiency, which disproportionately affects women, vegetarians, and the elderly. Through one pill containing the probiotic strain of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917, an individual receives a B12 supplement and increased absorption. BloomBiota is novel because it aims to express hGIF in the bacterial periplasm instead of the cytoplasm, which increases the chances for proper folding, resulting in a functional protein. Ultimately, the project's goal was not achieved. However, several new parts were contributed to the registry and an impressive and affordable model of a probiotic pill-packing machine was created. When attempting to transform E. coli Nissle 1917 with a BAC containing the B12 cluster and the plasmid containing hGIF, it would be advisable to use CRISPR to remove the pre-existing plasmids, allowing facilitated uptake of the large, engineered BAC.

Congratulations to the winners!!!