PCCC Team Wins First Place in 2024 sySTEMic Challenge

Passaic County Community College took First Place in the 2024 sySTEMic Challenge held at Rutgers University-Newark  earlier this year. Nine community colleges and universities completed to develop a solution to this year’s Challenge issue of global concern: Food Insecurity.

The PCCC team –  Cristy Sarmiento, Pricelda Martinez, Samuel Vasquez, Fransheska, Rodriguez, and Stephanie Martinez – proposed a solution based on microorganisms and fermentation technology.

Their presentation, “Fermentation Farms: The Future of Food,” focused on economical and environmentally sound techniques for producing sufficient quantities of nutrient-rich foods to feed populations where farming conditions are difficult.

Studying La Guajira, a region in Colombia, the students discovered that the land is arid, food is scarce, and the number of children who die from malnutrition there outpaces the national rate.  Identifying specific nutritional deficiencies in the children of La Guajira, the PCCC team created a plan to use microorganisms to create vitamin-enriched food through a new process called Precision Fermentation.

The PCCC Team used charts and graphs to supplement their presentation comparing fermentation processes. Traditional fermentation begins with vegetables and grains that are fermented with microbes. Precision fermentation employs a technology similar to that of  brewing beer or fermenting wine. The product of precision fermentation is one specific nutrient, an advantage when assisting a population deficient is certain nutrients.

In precision fermentation, the DNA sequence of, for example, hen egg protein, is inserted into a microbe, such as yeast, to create a genetically engineered microbe. As the microbe grows, it ferments to produce egg protein.

The team reported a result showing the bioidentical output of a single precision fermentation tank equals the amount of protein in 300,000 hen eggs, a significant advantage for feeding large populations.

In their conclusion, the team noted that as a new technology, precision fermentation can be more costly than the traditional method, but the advantages are that is it environmentally friendly and sustainable, animal-free, requires less water and land, and can enable preparation of tailored meals prepared for specific dietary needs. The PCCC Team’s proposal also created a start-up model for collaborating with meal kitchens in Colombia that serve the poor.

“They did a fantastic job,” said Dr. Kala Mayur, a PCCC biology professor and advisor to the team. “We are very proud of them.”

This victory last February, is the second one in just four years for PCCC. The College also won first place in the 2021 sySTEMic Challenge with a project focused on clean drinking water.

In addition to creating a promising and winning proposal, the PCCC students reflected on the other benefits they gained by collaborating on a worthy project, issuing this group statement which was published March 10 in Visions, PCCC’s student newspaper:

“The invaluable lesson we’ve gleaned from this experience is the transformative power of determination, perseverance, and unity. As we reflect on our journey, we recognize the crucial role played by qualities such as leadership, organization, collaboration, adaptability, and motivation in achieving our goals.” Congratulations to PCCC’s 2024 First Place sySTEMic Team.