HUMAN PRACTICES
Integrated Human Practice
BUCT-China, throughout our whole journey, endeavored to be a people's project. From brainstorming to implementation, we involved our stakeholders. Our vision was to make our stakeholders understand the design of the project, know their desire and close the loop between both.
BUCT-China strives to be a project that serves the people throughout our journey. Based on the most basic issues affecting people's livelihood-food, inspired by the food hygiene, industrial irregularities in traditional animal husbandry, overexploitation of resources and environmental pollution, we began the research and development journey of cultured meat. Creatively proposed the idea of using autonomous dynamic regulation to regulate the whole cell synthesis of the scaffold material PHFA and the use of microsphere culture cells instead of 3D printing technology, so as to achieve low-cost and efficient industrial production. From brainstorming to implementation, we involve target customers, industry experts and relevant investors in the development and improvement of our projects. Our vision is to let our stakeholders understand the design of the project, participate in the design of the project, tailor a perfect solution to the relevant problems, and realize the closed loop between project development and social research.
In order to achieve the closed loop between project research and social research, we have made the following ideas for HP's work: inspired by the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, swine fever, avian influenza and other diseases caused by the current traditional livestock breeding, the overexploitation of ecological resources and the obstacles to sustainable development caused by excessive carbon emissions, and the social phenomena of animal ethics caused by the slaughter of animals, we began the research and development journey of cell culture artificial meat. In view of the existing research problems of high cost of industrial production of cell culture artificial meat and high technical barriers, we propose to adjust the production of scaffold material PHFA with an autonomous dynamic regulation system and replace 3D printing with microsphere cultured cells. At the same time, after the preliminary design, we consult the literature in a timely manner and investigate the target customers, technicians, corporate investors and other relevant groups of people to obtain feedback from relevant stakeholders and further supplement our design. In this journey, in order to make our projects truly beneficial to society and serving the people, we constantly achieve the enrichment of the project through research-feedback-improvement, and implement it according to the path shown in the following figure.
40% of foodborne illnesses caused by food insecurity occur in children under 5 years of age, causing 125000 child deaths each year.
--WHO
In many low and middle-income countries, food insecurity-related illnesses have increased the burden on health care systems, with nearly $95 billion in lost productivity caused by illness, disability, and even death caused by unsafe food insecurity, seriously hampering economic development in these countries.
FAO and WHO say that food insecurity is a huge danger, and ensuring that everyone has access to safe, nutritious and adequate food contributes to food security, human health, economic prosperity and sustainable development. According to some research structures, the current global food trade volume is 1.6 trillion US dollars, accounting for about 10% of the world's total annual trade. Safe food can provide the nutrition needed by the human body, maintain good health, and safe food production can help promote rural economic development and escape poverty.
Together, FAO and WHO are assisting countries in preventing, managing and responding to risks in the food supply chain, improving the safety of food production and imports, while improving practices in the food and agriculture sectors and reducing the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance in the food chain and in the natural environment.[1]
In order to solve this social problem and change the irregularities in the safety of meat food and industrial production worldwide, our journey began. The BUCT-China team is committed to developing safe, reliable and eco-friendly cultured meat products, with food safety, food hygiene, improvement of resource overexploitation and excessive carbon emissions, animal ethics as the values of the project, creatively proposing the concept of improving the corresponding problems brought about by the supply of meat in traditional animal husbandry with cultured meat The extracted muscle cells simulate the growth environment in vivo on a suitable scaffold to prepare meat with a three-dimensional structure, reduce the amount of antibiotics used, and adjust the proportion of fat, protein and other substances in meat to meet the diverse meat needs of consumers, thereby achieving the improvement of food safety and the improvement of dietary health. In order to better achieve our goals, we maintain close contact and communication with scientists, engineering ethicists, investors, consumers and many other stakeholders throughout the process to determine that our work is responsible and beneficial to the world, and through the feedback obtained, guide the improvement and advancement of our projects A closed-loop system is established between project research and development and social research.
This interview provides valuable advice and advice on both the experiment and the advancement of the project.
1.As far as adult stem cells are concerned; they are still not yet overcome by researchers. Using muscle stem cells as the ideal seed, the spontaneous muscle-forming differentiation ability of initially isolated muscle stem cells after in vitro value addition is very strong, and after a period of culture, the spontaneous differentiation ability will become significantly weaker. Then to solve this problem, first, we have to find the difference between various physicochemical properties in vivo and in vitro, such as environment, cellular level, protein synthesis, metabolomics, gene expression, etc. In order to find the key issues, we can explore them through some comparative studies.
2.Approach to simulation of in vitro microenvironment (elasticity, stiffness, chemical substances): A three-dimensional in vitro simulated environment is constructed using a cellular scaffold to explore key influencing factors and components. The variables are first identified, and then evaluation indicators are specified. In the course of the experiment, we only need to address cell differentiation. Then we can ignore other cellular functions, and just make sure that the cells still maintain the differentiation function after a period of time to indicate the success of the experiment.
3.The ingredients of artificial meat and real meat must actually differ, if we consider the nutrients required by the human body, such as the content of certain proteins or amino acids. Artificial meat is ultimately food, so the downstream evaluation indicators can be based on the content of individual nutrients in the product to assess.
To further confirm that our project is in line with engineering ethics, we approached Prof. Shuhang Ren through the Engineering Ethics course, who evaluated our project from an engineering ethics perspective and pointed out where we could focus our efforts – ensuring maximum benefits while minimizing risks. Through the communication with Prof. Ren, we further determined the value and feasibility of the project. for a completely new product, the starting stage is very difficult. But in theory, artificial meat is substantially safer compared to cultured meat, the culture process can be kept completely clean, free of microbial and viral infections, and can alleviate the problem of antibiotic abuse. Artificial meat is prone to concerns: whether genetically modified means and gene editing are utilized in the cultivation process. The safety of the composition of the culture medium is also crucial. The edibility of cytokines and certain small molecules also needs to be considered again. Subsequent to the industrialization process, food safety regulations should be strictly observed.
In terms of risk minimization, for our laboratory culture of meat, we can largely solve the safety of meat food, because under extremely strict and clean laboratory conditions, cultured meat can avoid viruses, Microbial infections so that it greatly avoids food safety and food hygiene problems such as avian influenza, which are caused by irregular animal breeding and meat processing. And it can also effectively alleviate the problem of antibiotic abuse, which is conducive to promoting food safety and the food production standardization process. In terms of maximizing benefits, our team innovatively uses microspheres as scaffolds for cell growth adhesion, on the one hand, it can be a simpler technical operation conducive to expanding production, on the other hand, it can also greatly reduce the cost of artificial meat, which is conducive to reducing the price of cultured meat, for further realization Food-safe and standardized low-cost production provides an actionable solution.
Moving from laboratory to industrial production is an indispensable step for any sustainable development project. Thus, we contacted Mr. Liu Xidong from Mengniu Dairy. Mr. Liu has been engaged in food production and fermentation for decades and has rich experience.
Mr. Liu patiently answered our questions and provided valuable advice for our project to move towards industrial production. He told us that the oxidative deterioration of lipids can be slowed down by adding certain exogenous substances; cultured meat technology involves many aspects, and the animals raised can be screened by many species to eliminate some genetic disease risks, but the products produced by cell fermentation also need to look at the national standards about cells, the strains need to be identified, and there are requirements for preservation; the end products also need to be identified, and compared to ordinary meat More stringent in terms of safety standards. In terms of cooperation with the aerospace sector, mainly companies provide financial support or do some aerospace-related experiments, for example, Mengniu's UEC products are developed by taking strains aboard aircraft to develop new strains, so as to develop probiotics with better acid resistance. And, the engineered bacteria can be tested by spaceflight to improve the vitality and tolerance. We can try to improve the content of food nutrition, concentrate the nutrients according to the standard of aerospace food, and reach the fine index to make it the best food for health and safety. In terms of scaling up industrial production, expanding from the experimental stage to the production stage, small trials in R&D test benches, medium trials with certain equipment, and large trials are without upper limit depending on factors such as hardware facilities, production needs and fermentation conditions. Fermentation in the pharmaceutical industry, beer, milk, etc. is liquid and does not require scaffolds. As the production of cultured meat requires scaffolds, the scale may be limited to a certain extent, and breakthroughs and innovations will be made with the development of technology. In addition, since industrialized products need automatic cleaning, it is necessary to ensure that the flow, temperature and conductivity meet the requirements.
At the same time, Mr. Liu Xidong also made certain suggestions for us to solve the problem of food hygiene and safety: we can do some research on the extraction of cells from high quality animals that have been certified as harmless; the impact on the outside world needs to be studied in the laboratory, such as the question of whether the environment should be airtight or open; the testing and detection of the final product needs to ensure that it meets the standards of conventional food. He mentioned that cultured meat is a good choice for future food intake, but the selection of cells and the production process may be questioned. There are not only food safety requirements, but also some ethical requirements; the biological aspects may be risky. Primary cell selection needs to be considered to prevent it from carrying diseases with greater impact. In terms of industrial production, he suggested that we could start by simplifying the process and moving the nutrient content of the product toward concentration and ease of absorption.This has definitely made our project more mature and complete.
Interview content: The problems we should consider from the laboratory to the industrial production, how to evaluate the commercial value of the whole project from the perspective of investors, and the relevant suggestions on business model and building brand effect.
1.The current cultured meat market vacancy is large, we should be good at seizing the opportunity to seize the market in advance.
2.In the process of commercialization, the importance of quality experience sense, the model of business. We need to amplify our own advantages and penetrate the market through more advanced scientific achievements. Finally, industrialization and amplification of production.
3.In terms of the entrepreneurial team: attract relevant business talents to join the team, the division of labor should be clear, and attract more famous scholars in related fields to participate in the project as much as possible to increase the credibility of the product and impress the collaborators. The team can illustrate the feasibility of the project through the samples that have been successfully used as a showcase, and show investors through data that the returns are substantial.
4.Consider from the consumer's point of view, the reason why they will try something new is most likely driven by curiosity. Therefore, giving new gimmicks and ideas to artificial meat will have an important role in the first step of the product into the market. The most important thing is that, ultimately, all marketing tools must still speak with quality. Higher cost performance, rich nutritional content and close to the real meat taste, etc. can make the product in a similar competitor to show its superiority.
5.Marketing tools are particularly important to open the market for subsequent products. Starting with a small group of people, consumers with special needs as the object, then expand the influence, continue to improve the technology, to create the brand effect. As the audience continues to expand, change the product marketing strategy, focus on helping food safety issues, the main focus of healthier and safer meat products marketing.
Feasibility, industrial production, and commercialization of our project. Based on these, we have improved our project in several ways and largely achieved our expectations.
In order to understand the Lfundamental desire of our project's direct beneficiaries, the general consumers, we use questionnaires to understand their thoughts and further guide our work. The questionnaire plays a key role in helping us to understand the real thoughts of the consumers, and it also guides our human practice.
Target population: 896 people of different ages, genders and educational levels.
Survey Method: Throughout the human practice campaign, we designed a total of 3 online questionnaires according to the different stages of the campaign. Before answering the questions, respondents could choose whether they wanted a brief description about the cultured meat or not.
First, we collected specific audience characteristics. According to our survey, we found that nearly 75% of the audience had a bachelor's degree or higher, and had a basic foundation in biology, which also targeted our future science popularization activities.
Figure: Education level of respondents
In the specific research, through the method of cross-tabulation analysis, we came up with a positive correlation between the level of education and the acceptance of cultured meat, which further confirmed the direction of the team's subsequent public education. We started from the group with higher education level and higher acceptance of new things, and laid the foundation for the wide promotion of cultured meat at the public level.
At the same time, we counted the acceptance of cultured meat by the respondents before and after conducting public education, and compared the before and after, so as to test the scientific and effective nature of our hp activities.
Figure: Willingness to consume cultured meat(Before)
Figure: Willingness to consume cultured meat(After)
We also collected the factors that influenced the survey respondents to try cultured meat, and we concluded that food safety, taste and texture, and price were the main factors that influenced people to make a choice.
Figure:Factors influencing the choice of cultured meat as a daily meat intake route
Ninety-two percent of the survey respondents felt that the safety of the food influenced their choice, 87% chose price, 83% chose taste and texture, and 76% chose nutritional value, and 62% felt that public popularity also had an impact.
The questionnaire survey was conducted, giving us valuable guidance for both our hp work and experimental projects.
Inevitably, of course, we received a lot of comments about our project from people who had concerns or objections, and these comments were equally important to us. We understand that cultured culture meat is still a new product and that the principles behind it, the process, etc. are relatively unknown. We have been able to understand the reasons for concerns or objections, collect these ideas, and communicate with experts to further improve our project and enrich our human practice.
With the essential goal of achieving food safety, food hygiene and standardization of food production, we plan to grow muscle cells through synthetic biology to achieve the goal of cultured meat production, and through this new approach, minimize environmental pollution, overuse of resources and the spread of viruses in animal farming and meat processing in traditional livestock farming. At the same time, our projects can not only help industrial production reduce costs and reduce technical barriers, but also contribute to the development of human dietary health, as well as space exploration and interstellar colonization.
Inspired by social problems and shortcomings in industrial production technology, we began our journey of cultured meat research. To further refine our design, we interviewed professors from Jiangnan University and Beijing University of Chemical Technology to provide more feedback on our project and promote the improvement of the design plan and project values. In the course of these professors' exchanges, we delved deeper into issues related to muscle cell proliferation and differentiation, food safety, and engineering ethics in minimizing risks and maximizing benefits.
We also conducted a series of scientific activities through social media in the hope of receiving feedback from other stakeholders on our project, as well as to stimulate public interest in synthetic biology and cultured meat through this publicity approach. In the process, we collected their opinions and opinions through questionnaires, after receiving feedback, improved the experimental protocol. We set up a resource-sharing platform, and promoted the sharing of information. Based on the principle of mutual assistance, we have also established a deep cooperative relationship with Shanghai_Tech University and completed multiple project communication through online cooperation.
Finally, in order to achieve the implementation and implementation of our project as soon as possible, our team also participated in the epic-China activities and completed the business plan writing and related commercialization evaluation under the guidance of the teacher. In the process of early research and development, anticipate the relevant problems encountered in the follow-up promotion and entrepreneurship in advance, and improve the plan and find solutions in a timely manner. We hope that through this closed loop of discovery-investigation-reflection-implementation-improvement, we can make our designs more perfect.