HUMAN PRACTICES
AttributionsCheck out our attributions page.
Project DescriptionCheck out our description page.
Contribution
• The system of synthesizing poly fatty acids(PHFA)has been redesigned by adding many
new parts, which induced a dynamic regulating system making it more effective.
• Part Contribution: Our team has contributed to iGEM Registry by adding new parts. We have
completed the experimental characterization of composite parts (BBa_K4194012, BBa_K4194015, BBa_K4194018)
and added their data to the corresponding BioBricks.
• Contribution to food safety: We are committed to transforming the social pain points of
irregular and unsafe production in the meat market, and developing safe, reliable, and environmentally
friendly cellular meat products under visual operating conditions and a sterile environment.
• Contribution to Engineering Ethics: We offer a more engineering-ethical way of producing
meat. Any process must be responsible for the environment.
• Compared with the meat raised by traditional animal husbandry, the production of cultured
meat has less pollution to the environment and consumes fewer resources, which can minimize risks and
maximize benefits.
Engineering SuccessFirstly, we screened an acyltransferase (WS2) with a wide substrate spectrum, whose catalytic activity was less affected by different substrates. So, it could achieve a better polymerization effect of hydroxyl fatty acids. Secondly, we found a transporter (FadL) that can increase the intracellular concentration of hydroxyl fatty acids, and with this transporter, the product yield increased. And in order to further improve the toxic effect of intermediate product accumulation on cells and change the low transport efficiency between different cells in the production process of two cells, we also designed a gene circuit with dynamic regulation function to achieve the whole cell synthesis of polyhydroxy fatty acids. We characterized the results with red and green fluorescent proteins, and analyzed the operational efficiency by observing the changes of fluorescence. Check out our engineering page.
Collaboration
• We collaborated with team BUCT to organize educational popularization in the form of
online and offline cooperation.Check out our
collaboration page.
• We organized 12 teams to teach college students science online, and we got a lot of
inspiration and feedback in the process.Check out
our
collaboration page.
• We collaborated Shanghai_Tech throughout our project. In design and practice, great
progress was made because of our joint efforts. Check out our
collaboration page.
Human Practices
• We contacted and consulted with stakeholders and ethical regulators throughout the food
production supply chain in order to contribute our unique solution of creating safe, reliable, and
environmentally friendly cultured meat production for the world.
• Through our conversations with scientists, an engineer ethicist, and investors, we are
able to get a holistic view before embarking on forming a solution.Check out
our Human Practices framework here!
Proposed ImplementationWe put our cultured meat in the laboratory into the meat market after a series of tests and improvements, so as to reduce the pressure of livestock meat for others to use. Through extensive planning, we developed a concrete plan to design, build and implement our project. Check out our implementation here!
Integrated Human Practices
• Education——we are popularizing synthetic biology to the public through scientific
activities, so
that more people can start to understand synthetic biology and accept related products.
• Interview——we interviewed a professor from Jiangnan University in order to solve the
technical difficulties and we interviewed a professor who teaches engineering ethics to ensure the ethical
feasibility of our project product.
• Meeting up——We hosted and participate in multi-team science events to help us to find
suitable
partners faster while learning more about each other's projects.
• Cloud platform——We created a cloud platform to facilitate better communication and
dissemination of project information to each other.
• Entrepreneurial Project——Our team participated in a series of entrepreneurial events
and conducted an industrialization evaluation of the project with venture capitalists to better promote the
continuous improvement of the project.
Find out more
here!
Modelling
• We targeted the auxiliary design of studying the whole-cell synthesis of polyhydroxy
fatty acids and used ordinary differential models(ODE) to build the models of gene expression simulation
predictions.
• In order to predict the optimal cell culture scheme, we quantified the culture
regulatory factors such as a specific co-culture system and formula, inoculum, and microsphere size and find
the most appropriate parameters in the microsphere-cell system. Click here to
see our models!
Proof of ConceptThe feasibility of the breeding meat production line was verified through modeling and experiments. First of all, in order to realize the metabolic pathway of building unnatural synthetic PHFA in E. coli, we screened out the substrate broad acyltransferase (WS2) and CoA ligase (FadD) with high catalytic efficiency, and the nuclear magnetic hydrogen spectrogram and GPC detection results showed that we had produced PHFA with a certain degree of polymerization. So we successfully solved the problem of polymerization of hydroxyl fatty acids on the metabolic path of synthetic PHFA. Then we designed a gene oscillation circuit to improve the phenomenon of intermediates harming cells, and we used the ordinary differential model to build the models of gene expression simulation predictions. Secondly, porous microspheres were prepared by a double emulsion evaporation method. Then, to predict the optimal co-culture scheme of microspheres and cells, we took the microsphere cell growth as the dependent variable which to find the relationship between change, trend, and optimization value as the goal. Finally, we seeded the cells into the microsphere culture and confirmed that the muscle stem cells could complete the process of growth, proliferation, and differentiation with the support of the microsphere. Check out our POC here!
PartnershipThe collaboration with Shanghai_Tech runs through our project, and the common goal that we both work towards is not only the vision of space but also the future expectations of food production. Check out the videos here!
Education and OutreachWe have held a number of popular science activities and surveys for a wide range of ages and occupations.Check out our education page.
Education
We have carried out different types of educational activities for different regions and age groups. First,
we going to Hunan to carry out health science popularization for people who don't know about cultured meat
and we also make popular science manuals to help them learn. Besides, we cooperate with ShanghaiTech and
Peking iGEM teams, we brought a lecture on metabolism to the high school students. We illustrate the
principle, significance, and realization mode of dynamic regulation against the background of the
biosynthesis of PHFA. Finally, we hosted an online synthetic biology science popularization activity on
August 13th and August 14th. Our audience is mainly undergraduates, and people from all walks of life also
participate in our activities. We have invited 11 iGEM teams to give speeches, divided into five topics:
synthetic biology and life, hair loss prevention, gene editing and production, healthcare, energy
utilization, and environmental protection. As a result, We have completed the science popularization of
synthetic biology and cultured meat based on these three approaches, hoping to educate people about what
cultured meat is. In addition, through our questionnaire feedback in time, we have obtained the result that
many people's awareness and acceptance of synthetic biology and cultured meat have been highly improved.
Find out more
here!
Human Practices
Aiming at achieving food safety, food hygiene, and standard food production, we plan to cultivate
cultured meat by synthetic biology, which can minimize environmental pollution and virus transmission
caused by traditional animal husbandry. And our project not only will cost reduction and reduce
technology barriers but also may help the development of human diet health, as well as space exploration
and interstellar colonization. In order to more comprehensively compare the advantages and disadvantages
between traditional animal husbandry and cell cultured meat and to further improve our design, we
interviewed several professors from a first-class university. At the same time, after the first batch of
questionnaires was distributed, a series of lectures and popular science activities on cultured meat and
synthetic biology was carried out. After that, a second questionnaire was issued to collect feedback
after publicity and improve our experimental design. We hope to make our design more thorough through
this discovery-investigation-reflection loop.
Find out more
here!
Supporting Entrepreneurship
We are committed to using synthetic biology to explore an automatic and efficient cultured meat
production line. In that case, we participated in the EPIC-China(The iGEM community's official
non-profit entrepreneurship support group).
Our team conducted online lectures, exchanged ideas, and wrote Business Plan during the early stages
of the venture creation lab and mentoring program to assess the entrepreneurs' basic entrepreneurial
knowledge and literacy, comprehend the Chinese synthetic biology entrepreneurial market and confirm
their direction. At the same time, we met entrepreneurs to learn about their entrepreneurial
experience and comprehend the cutting-edge information of the trade. In addition, entrepreneurial
projects were polished through the evaluation of entrepreneurial mentors with one-on-one counseling.
As a result, we successfully made our debut during the roadshow and presented the novel idea of
cultured meat in the 9th CCiC. The experts in this field gave us some advice.
Find out more
here!
Best WikiOur wiki shows our ideas and processes for developing projects. We are committed to using synthetic biology to explore an automatic and efficient cultured meat production line. On the wiki, you can see the introduction of our team members, instructors, and partnership, the idea of designing the experiment, and the whole process of how we implemented it. These include the gene circuit with the independent dynamic regulation capability and the model of gene expression simulation predictions that we designed. Besides, we have carried out different types of educational activities for different regions and age groups and distributed questionnaires. Meanwhile, we interviewed several professors from a first-class university to improve our project, you can see all of these in our wiki. In the Awards section, we listed the standards of gold, silver, and bronze awards and compared our corresponding content with them, so that you can see what we have done.