Overview

As time goes on, we increasingly see that scientific research can be a driving force in the development of society. From the latest technologies that make our daily work easier to solutions that save lives in the laboratory, science is everywhere. It is therefore crucial for us scientists to address existing problems and avoid creating new ones. We must act responsibly beyond our borders to protect our environment.

Therefore, in creating our project, we followed the 17 UN Sustainable Global Development Goals, which aim to ensure a better future for everyone (UN. 2021. Sustainable Development Goals Report, 3-4, 18, 28). These goals serve as a balance, as the development of society must go hand in hand with the protection of the planet and the needs of our society.

Considering the value of our project in sustainability, team leader Wang Xu (picture 1) (picture 3, far right) spoke to other students at Shenzhen XINSTITUTE about our efforts in sustainability.

We hope that the synthetic biology approach can contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development of nature. And, we encourage people who also have environmental ideas to join us and think of more ways to protect the environment. In discussions with students from various disciplines, we have found many ways to achieve our sustainability goals. For our project, the students suggested that we could restore more natural scents from nature, or from some animals, and hold several exhibitions such as scent museums to encourage more public participation. We have incorporated their suggestions into the team's subsequent plans, and we will synthesize more scents in the future.

Further, we had a talk with the manager of Olaughlin, Lee (pictures of the meeting are above). We learned that there are many rare raw materials in the fragrance industry, and that the reserves of these raw materials are very limited in the world, or even if plants can be grown to extract them, their production is very small. However, it is possible to achieve sustainable production of the corresponding raw materials through synthetic biology by using engineered bacteria for the synthesis of the corresponding raw materials.

Olaughlin is also currently doing fragrance production through synthetic biology. Their main product is grapefruit ketone. The previous starting material for this product was Valenciennes, which is a kind of terpene in citrus extracted from citrus oil. The smell of this substance, similar to the smell produced when peeling grapefruit, is used in large quantities in some very good beverages. However, the upstream raw materials for this product are very limited. By means of synthetic biology, they have achieved a cost reduction. Therefore, Mr. Li suggested that we can also choose some rare single fragrance raw materials for synthesis, such as Bulgarian rose. Synthetic biology is a promising and sustainable approach for the fragrance industry, not only for commercial reasons, but also for the environment. We have this fragrance material on our schedule and expect to try to synthesize it in the future.

We achieved the following main goals (the numbers correspond to the numbers in the UN Sustainable Development Goals report):

1. Goal 12: Sustainable consumption and production

Our project uses synthetic biology to avoid irreversible damage to the environment and climate in the process of obtaining fragrances naturally, and uses synthetic methods that can achieve sustainability in production and thus in consumption.

2. Goal 13: Climate change

Synthesis of various natural spices through synthetic biology avoids the destruction of vegetation and the climate change that results from that destruction. This includes reducing the destruction of native vegetation caused by extracting spices from native vegetation, and reducing the destruction of vegetation caused by cutting down vegetation to create spice plantations.

3. Goal 14、15: Sustainable development of Marine and terrestrial animals, plants and ecosystems

Natural spices are not only plant spices, but also animal spices, such as ambergris and musk. The production of these fragrances by means of synthetic biology is not only the protection of plants and animals, but also a strong contribution to the sustainability of the ecosystem.

Further, through the combination of synthetic biology and VR devices or 4D/5D movies, we also hope to make people feel the beauty of nature and awaken their awareness of protecting plants and animals.

Ps:SDGs target picture is from the UN Department of Economic and Social AffairsSustainable Development official note

We believe that these sustainable development goals are complementary. Synthetic biology of incense production can not only avoid the premature depletion of many fragrance materials in the short term and achieve sustainable production of important raw materials, but also make people feel the beauty of the natural world through the production of fragrance in the long term, thus raising people's awareness of environmental protection.

We have also shared the above related environmental thinking in the many education and communication sessions we have held to encourage more people to join in. The improvements mentioned above we are also continuing to promote, and we hope our work will contribute more to the cause of sustainability in the future.