In today’s society, medications for some are a necessity to maintain life. Manufacturing prices are sky-rocketing as you read this poster.  Utilizing synthetic biology to design a cost-effective method to synthesize drugs using bacteria like <i>E. coli</i> is one possible solution to this major medical problem.  pMJD001 has been successfully produced by placing K1065103 (salicylic acid synthase) and K1499000 (acetyltransferase) in sequence in a destination plasmid, pSB1A3. Efforts have focused on purifying high concentrations of the plasmid construct to mass produce acetylsalicylic acid (ASA).  Purification from the Qiagen mini-prep kit and NEB Monarch kit have yielded differing results with the NEB Monarch kit showing greater promise.  Also, growth conditions with metabolites that the bacteria might be coming into contact with during its natural production of ASA are being explored.   Growth conditions are a crucial step in determining the minimum inhibitory concentration and maximum growth concentration. Growth conditions were quantified measuring the OD-600 of cell cultures grown up to 20 hours. Results indicate cells containing K1499000 grew better in the presence of Acetic Anhydride than Acetic Acid possibly indicating that acetic anhydride is a better acetyl group source for the acetyltransferase. Ongoing experiments include growth with combinations of salicylic acid/NaOH with acetic anhydride; salicylic acid/sodium bicarbonate with acetic anhydride; chorismate; acetylsalicyclic acid; and chorismate and ASA. Biological systems are a relatively inexpensive approach to producing ASA derivatives while also being safer to handle in the manufacturing process. This will reduce the overall cost while increasing the efficiency and safety of production.<br/>

Maximizing output from an aspirin producing bacteria

255th National Meeting (2018)

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