iGEM High School Gold Medal
In Hong Kong, colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks as the 3rd most common cancer, making up 14.7% of new cancer cases, and the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths, accounting for 15.4% of all cancer deaths in 2022.
We developed ColoTrace, a user-friendly, non-invasive miRNA-based detection kit for CRC diagnosis, designed to be easily accessible and usable by patients at home.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) – a reliable biomarker in detecting early CRC as some miRNAs are specifically overexpressed in CRC patients' fecal samples compared to healthy individuals reported in various research.
To detect miRNAs overexpressed in CRC using our ColoTrace detection kit, we designed toehold switches – an engineered RNA device to specifically bind and respond to CRC miRNAs.
Upon binding to a specific miRNA target, the toehold switch will be activated to unwind its hairpin structure, enabling ribosome attachment and synthesis of eGFP reporter protein.
A noticeable increase in green fluorescence after adding a patient’s fecal sample to our ColoTrace kit indicates the presence of overexpressed CRC miRNAs, suggesting the patient may have CRC.