The transformation of lab results requires to a large extent the efforts and support of the entrepreneurial part. Since the founding of the team, iGEM members have been constantly thinking about the issues associated with this and trying to create multiple ways to accomplish the transition from experiment to practical application. It is a very obvious fact that the successful implementation of the results is not a single issue. There are so many factors involved in order to achieve our goals, including public acceptance, social impact, total economic benefit, broad outreach, etc. After realizing that digging deeper would require more angles of interviewing and exploration, we began to gather information and seek more information about the production and application of the microalgae products.
After a period of collecting and searching, our attention was focused on Fujian Shenliu Group - a company specializing in the production of spirulina products. As a unit of Spirulina project in the UN South-South Cooperation Network Demonstration Base and a national health food GMP certified enterprise, Shenliu Group has a complete and clear industrial chain of Spirulina product processing, and has built a corporate industrial production tourist attraction, constantly popularizing relevant Spirulina knowledge to the public, and equipped with advanced instruments to be in the forefront of the times. We contacted Mr. Xie Jinjian, the CEO of the group, through online communication and proposed to exchange many ideas about the microalgae industry. Eventually, Mr. Xie Jinjian said he could come to visit the corporate development factory and welcomed our visit.
In fact, we have had the experience of working with the Shen Liu Group. (See 2021 CHINA-FAFU team human practice page). This year, we have continued and expanded our research on Phaeodactylum tricornutum Unlike before, we have focused on improving the living environment and eliminating water pollution. We aim to modify Phaeodactylum tricornutum through genetic engineering technology, and after several iterations of engineering, we expect to achieve the increase of carbon fixation, lipid accumulation and high economic value byproducts such as fucoxanthin in Phaeodactylum tricornutum . At the same time, the ability of microalgae to absorb nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals and other elements in the water body can be improved to alleviate water pollution and eutrophication. We told Mr. Jinjian Xie about the research direction and expected him to make a fair evaluation for our project. After understanding the needs, he indicated that there was good research potential. For this reason, he invited us into the exhibition hall of experimental instruments and introduced the advanced front-end R&D instruments that our company currently has, such as KDN-2C nitrogen fixation instrument and atomic fluorescence spectrometer and so on. As a group with an international perspective and a focus on research field expansion, Shen Liu has an advanced production system and is happy to continue developing the front-end chain. "Having more advanced experimental instruments improves the development efficiency and technology application rate at the R&D end, creates a high quality, productive and efficient processing and manufacturing environment, and creates more corporate value and economic benefits." He said this.
After telling Mr. Xie Jinjian about the progress of our project development, he gave us full recognition. Although the main industry the group is engaged in lies in health care products, he showed great interest after hearing our introduction of the upcoming use of algae to improve eutrophication in fresh and sea water bodies and reduce the cost of biomass production. At present, achieving the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is still one of the primary goals of business development, and our project has stimulated the enthusiasm and vision of the company to move closer towards these two areas and thus innovate. He suggested that to develop microalgae, on the one hand, the establishment of a teaching-integrated internship base could be used to achieve resource sharing and a win-win situation. On the other hand, the relevant corporate culture can come into the campus to improve the quality of talent training and achieve a win-win situation for students, schools and enterprises. At the same time, he expressed his willingness to reach a cooperative relationship with us to jointly promote the prosperous development of microalgae industry.
This way to share the latest results of the lab with related companies , and at the same time to involve more people in the project, so that more suggestions related to the development of the project can be made, is the result we always expect. After an in-depth discussion with the company manager, he gave us full approval and also suggested ideas for future cooperation . Thus, it seems that our project is supported by both front-end development and production applications, and the result is more promising than we had previously thought. The project has every opportunity to be produced and applied. Moreover, the idea of biological wastewater treatment is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals , which shows a very promising prospect - in the future, microalgae treatment of wastewater will become the mainstream treatment method, while increasing the efficiency of treatment, creating more possibilities for environmental restoration and improving human living standards.
Overall, the meeting with the CEO was very successful and smooth. Mr. Jinjian Xie's affirmation is certainly a great encouragement for us to develop our project , and at the same time, the cooperation model he proposed is very worthy of application and promotion. However, he also made some suggestions for our project: For example, the use of algae to remove wastewater ends with the material being rendered harmless in order to eliminate all threats that could cause harm to the environment.However, in general, the content of our laboratory has been recognized by the company , which has promoted the process of the project entering the public view The subsequent research will continue to develop in this direction.
