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Picture a world swallowed by fog......
You can’t see anything clearly.
This is how a cataract patient sees the world......
Global Challenge
As the foremost cause of global blindness, cataracts account for approximately 33.4% of all blindness cases and 18.4% of moderate to severe visual impairment worldwide. According to World Health Organization (WHO), around 94 million people are affected by cataract-induced moderate to severe vision loss or blindness. Recent epidemiological studies indicate that the global years lived with disability (YLD) due to cataracts reached 6.55 million in 2021, marking a 91.8% increase from 1990 (3.42 million).
This is not just a medical issue; it's a global health equity challenge.
What Causes cataract?
The lens of the eye is a unique structure. It must remain perfectly transparent throughout life to focus light onto the retina. At its core, cataract is the clouding of the eye's natural lens due to a complex process driven primarily by oxidative stress—over-production of molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as the superoxide anion (O2) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). These harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) damage the lens's crystalline proteins, causing them to misfold and scatter light. Once denatured, these damaged, misfolded proteins begin to aggregate, forming large, disordered, insoluble protein complexes.
Today's cataract treatments don't offer a cure; they only manage symptoms or require complex surgery. This leaves a critical gap in accessible, preventive care. 
Instead of waiting to treat advanced disease, Nanjing-BioX focuses on early intervention. By targeting the initial biological mechanisms that cause cataracts, our project aims to create a preventive therapy that protects vision globally.
Our Project
Our iGEM 2025 project aims to tackle cataract formation at its source. We are leveraging synthetic biology to engineer a novel, stable, and highly active variant of Manganese Superoxide Dismutase (Mn-SOD).
Mn-SOD neutralizes ROS directly in the mitochondria—the epicenter of oxidative damage in the lens. Our goal is to develop this antioxidant powerhouse into a formulation for simple, non-invasive eye drops, creating a cost-effective and accessible preventive therapy. Our vision is to develop a cost-effective, accessible, and proactive strategy to slow or prevent cataract formation, bringing the promise of clear sight to millions and alleviating the global burden of this disease.
As an iGEM team, our mission extends beyond the lab bench. We believe responsible science requires dialogue with the community it aims to serve. Our Human Practices work is integrated from the start, guiding our project design through consultations with ophthalmologists, cataract patients, and diverse groups of all ages to ensure our solution is responsible and needed.
Explore Our Project to see how we are turning this vision into reality.！