Question 1: Medical applications using bioengineering (cellular engineering & SynBio) for a more timely blood clotting regulation system

The problem: people who undergo valve replacements have higher risks of blood clotting so they need to take warfarin (the long-term anticoagulant). But this increases the risk of thrombosis. Also, a lot of elderly people (the ones most at risk) live alone so if they forget to take medication (warfarin takes effect slowly so daily intake is needed) then they are very at risk.

The solution (in 3 parts):

  1. The sensing bacteria: detection of serum biomarkers for stroke leads to the activation of an expression cassette (the mechanism could be like RCA + CRISPR (Nature Comm. 2023.07) or it could be aptamers if the biomarker is a nucleic acid); the expression cassette synthesizes a signaling molecule.
  2. The anti-coagulant-producing bacteria: bio-synthetically produces heparin (pretty sure this is doable because I’ve seen an article in Nature).
  3. The feedback mechanism bacteria: heparin-inducible repressor protein to prevent excessive production.

Evaluation: need to bypass immunological defenses; advised to use probiotics (e.g. Nissle); biomarker specificity and sensitivity of detection systems.

Question 2: ensuring safety and security, containment of GMOs, promoting constructive uses, and equity of access to medical resources.

Question 3:

  1. Extensive clinical trials to make sure no adverse immune responses OR adverse side effects OR misdiagnosis OR system malfunctions (i.e. excessive production) occur
  2. Use pharmacokinetics models to predict drug concentration fluctuations and determine the advised dosage and period of use
  3. Use pharmacogenetics to tailor production (i.e. strength of expression cassettes) based on each patient [we can make prototypes with different promoters and terminators and ori and stuff???]
  4. Public education campaigns to make people understand & accept GMOs better
  5. Patenting the system & striking deals with the government to provide services at lower prices
  6. Light-inducible suicide switch to prevent release beyond containment

Question 4: 1, 2, and 3 satisfy safety and security; 5 satisfies promoting constructive uses and equity of access; 6 satisfies containment.