CaroteneCraft
Synthetic Biology for
Vision Protection
"Vision impairment is preventable."
Globally, at least 2.2 billion people
live with vision impairment.
Shockingly, 1 billion of these cases
could have been prevented.
current issues
The high proportion of vision impairment, especially in Asia, underscores the urgent need for accessible, nutrient-based, and preventive solutions to support vision health in everyday life. β-carotene plays a vital role in this context, as it is a precursor to vitamin A — a key nutrient essential for maintaining healthy eyesight. However, many adolescents today avoid eating β-carotene-rich vegetables such as carrots due to their distinct taste and texture, leading to insufficient intake. This dietary gap contributes to vitamin A deficiency, which is a major risk factor for night blindness and other vision problems.
Our solution: Bio-crafted β-carotene,
built for vision.
We harness microbial biosynthesis to produce β-carotene in a faster, more consistent, and environmentally friendly manner—offering a promising alternative to expand access to vitamin A, especially for populations with low dietary intake. The idea of POCO youth personal care, stationery and snacks was created to help.
De novo synthesis of β-carotene
We successfully introduced a synthetic β-carotene biosynthetic pathway into Saccharomyces cerevisiae with CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to enable the de novo synthesis of β-carotene. The β-carotene titer produced by S. cerevisiae in shake-flask fermentation reached 129.1 mg/L.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
-Well-defined genetics
-Easy to culture
-Proven safety in both food and pharmaceutical applications
Compartmentalization strategy
We successfully developed and optimized a spatial metabolic engineering toolkit tolocalize enzymes to lipid droplets - natural reservoirs for lipophilic compounds. Byfusing this LD-targeting toolkit with key genes (carB and carRP), we achieved precisesubcellular localization, significantly enhancing pathway efficiency and boosting β-carotene production to 318.4 mg/L in shake flasks.
Scale-Up Fermentation & Real-Time Colorimetric Device
We successfully scaled up β-carotene production to 1.8g/L in 5L bioreactors using an optimized fed-batch fermentation strategy. To enable real-time yield estimation, we developed a colorimetric monitoring device that predicts β-carotene levels based on culture color intensity. This non-destructive, low-cost tool allows efficient process tracking and can be applied to other pigment-producing systems for automated fermentation control.
10 days