On September 15th, the tenth-grade class gathered together in the Zhentao Building Lecture Hall for their weekly assembly. This week, the assembly included a talk given by five members of Pro-Casei.

The lecturers first introduced Pro-Casei, explaining that it was an IGEM team focusing on making Lactobacillus Casei more useful through genetic engineering. They briefly talked about how studying this probiotic is very useful in medical research due to its health benefits and huge potential in the medical field.

The presenters then explained the problem their team was focused on tackling. Essentially, Pro-Casei's goal is to import foreign DNA into L. Casei to unlock its potential. However, the efficiency of this process was hindered by the Restriction Endonuclease Enzyme. The team also discussed their solution to this obstacle, which involved using high temperatures to denature the R/M system and other complex processes. Crucially, this method utilized CRISPR Cas-9.

Overall, this presentation was a great summary of Pro-Casei’s efforts these past few months, and it also helped better introduce the IGEM competition to students.

(Written by Miranda Wu Pictures by Katherine Xu Supervised by Hazel Gu Reviewed by Qian Zuo)