Human Practices¶
Our team organized multiple human practices to improve public knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, patchouli, Patchouli alcohol, etc.
Survey¶
To better understand the public’s views on our project, our team launched a questionnaire on July 26th, 2022. By the morning of July 27, 2022, that is, 24 hours, we have collected a total of 493 questionnaires. The content of the questionnaire is mainly to explore the public’s views on traditional Chinese medicine, patchouli, patchoulol, and synthetic biology. At the same time, after a brief description of the project, we also asked everyone’s views on our project. The following are some summaries and inspirations from this questionnaire:
The public affirmed our project in the direction of social value and social contribution.
We learned that many people still don’t know the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine, patchouli, Patchouli alcohol, etc., so we must carry out science popularization activities in the future.
The masses put forward suggestions: in the form of publicity, we should not stick to offline methods, but also carry out online publicity through publicity on video websites and publishing copies on official accounts. In the future, we also plan to adopt your opinions, publicize on the Internet, and better display our project and look forward to hearing more opinions on the content of the project through this network.
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Interview with Experts¶
Considering that the light-induced promoter is used in our project, and the professor’s research field is about the regulation of photosynthesis, we asked the professor to give us some suggestions for improving the knowledge of photobiology used in our project.
Initially, the professor says, you need to learn to screen when doing experiments. Photobiology is a very cutting-edge branch of life science. There have been previous achievements in this field. When we make use of it, we should screen the suitable conditions for our experiments according to the actual situation. For example, the light-induced promoter of HCF173 used in this experiment should be screened before use to screen out the light-induced promoter with the best-carrying effect with our target gene to ensure that its activity matches each other with the gene.
In addition, promoter optimization should be carried out in combination with the actual situation. For example, the light we are using to activate now in our experiments, white light, means that daily light can activate the promoter. However, in the actual production, because white light is too easy to appear, it is impossible to achieve a real light environment. To solve this problem, the professor suggested that the light we used to induce could be selected from specific bands of light, such as those rare in nature, so as to avoid the interference of light in nature and make the experiment more accurate.
What is more, the promoter’s light requirements need to be feasible. If we have a light promoter that has very high light intensity requirements, and you have to meet these ultra-high requirements to start, then most of the time you can’t produce. And if very strong light is required, it will greatly increase the cost of our production.
Considering the problems that arise when moving from the laboratory to mass production, we also discussed the whole synthetic biology industry with the professor. The professor pointed out that the laboratory environment is very different from the actual production environment. For example, in this project, we have a light-induced promoter, and in the lab, the volume that we synthesize is actually very small, maybe a thin layer in yeast. However, in mass production, it is still very difficult to ensure that each yeast light promoter can feel the light in the face of the large volume of the factory. For these problems, the professor pointed out a clear way for us: we should first form a theoretical basis in the laboratory, and when we find problems in large-scale production, we should timely feedback, optimize and solve them in the laboratory, and then put them into large-scale production for trial. And so on and so on until the desired effect is achieved.
Finally, we asked professors how they could connect the projects they were working on to society and make a real contribution. First of all, the professor affirmed our research project on patchouli and patchoulol, which are very distinctive ingredients derived from Lingnan’s traditional Chinese medicine. It is a contribution to society to bring characteristic plants into play. As for the role of patchoulol, the professor pointed out the following points: one is that patchoulol can be directly used as a component in medicine, and the other is that patchoulol can be used as a chassis for other products, providing a prerequisite for other drugs.
According to the suggestions made by the professor during the interview, we plan to make the following improvements in the future: First, for the optical promoter itself, reduce its requirements on light and increase the practicability of the product. Second, if in the future will be put into large-scale production, the problems encountered in the production should be timely improved in the laboratory.
Propaganda Speech¶
In order to bring our project closer to the masses, our team held public talks to introduce ourselves and our results. Adhering to the principle of making synthetic biology enjoyable, we selected three speakers from our team to describe our team’s struggles and research results along the way. After returning to campus in September, we also held another club presentation to show new students our latest progress and basic information. At the club festival of our school, we publicized our project in the biology club, so that all the high school freshmen and part of the high school seniors who participated in the activity knew about our project and activity, and learned something from it. In all the lectures we held, we received a lot of compliments and suggestions, so we would adjust our presentation each time and do it better next time to give everyone a better understanding of the project.
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Report¶
Considering the particularity of the research objects of our project (patchouli and patchouli alcohol), the team decided to interview some practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine working in the frontline in the community clinic, and further discuss the current situation of the use of patchouli and patchouli alcohol and the social value of our project.
First, we asked doctors what kind of concoctions they typically prescribe to patients, such as sliced or ground medicine. Doctors say there are only one or two medicines that usually contain patchouli or patchoulol in hospitals, such as Huoxiang Zhengqi capsule and Huoxiang Zhengqi liquid.
Then, we briefly introduced our project and discussed the impact of the increased production of patchoulol on doctors’ consultations and even society as a whole. Doctors say that if the production of patchoulol can be increased and more patchoulol becomes more available, the price of patchoulol will fall accordingly. Among them, pharmacists in the pharmacy told us that the price of Chinese patent medicine has been soaring. If the price of patchoulol can be reduced, doctors will have fewer concerns when prescribing medicine to patients, and it will also be able to ensure that some poor people have access to medicine, which is of great significance to society.
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Teams HP Experience Exchange¶
We also had a video conference with SYSU-CHINA team. We presented and shared our story of patchoulol and research method with SYSU-CHINA team. After introducing our project, they explained to us their topic and the conception of “phase separation” and “ribosome imprinting”. And then we were invited to their laboratory. They gave many suggestions on our ODE equation. SYSU-CHINA team also presented their research content about salidroside. We provide them with some help on the experiment. The communication with SYSU-CHINA team gave us extraordinary inspiration for our project.
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