Will you help us to develop a tool to detect colorectal cancer earlier and more effective?

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancers in the western world. To detect this type of cancer, there are several nationwide screening programs in the world, also in the Netherlands. However, these screenings have a high user threshold, as participants need to send their stool samples by mail. Furthermore, the test is only done every two years. This gives early stage tumors the time to develop into later stage cancer before it is detected.

The world needs a simpler early-warning detection mechanism for colorectal cancer. We, a team of eleven motivated students from Wageningen University, therefore came up with "Colourectal". We aim to develop a type of probiotic bacteria that can sense colorectal cancer at an early stage, after which it warns the user by coloring the stool. When coloration is present, the user will be locally and continuously checked on tumor formation in the colon.

With this project, we will attend the international student contest iGEM, in which hundreds of student teams try to solve a societal problem with the use of synthetic biology. In the upcoming months we will work hard to get to our end goal: the final "Grand Jamboree" in Paris. During this finale, all teams will come together to compete with each other and have a chance to win this contest. And we want to color the stage WUR-green in our victory!

To develop this detection mechanism, Wageningen University & Research kindly gave permission to use their laboratories. However, we need money to buy materials for our experiments, do collaborations and to attend the iGEM endgame. For this, we need €40.000 to finance our whole project. With your help we can make big steps in our battle against colorectal cancer! Will you support us?

*Presents will be sent to donors in the Netherlands. International donators will be contacted to discuss the shipping fee.

**Presents will be sent after the project is finished.