In order to increase public awareness of synthetic biology and understand public attitudes towards medium-chain fatty acids and their products, we have conducted extensive Integrated Human Practices. We conducted a questionnaire survey to gain as much public awareness as possible; at the same time, in order to understand the products currently on the market containing medium-chain fatty acids, we conducted a dedicated offline survey; in order to better understand the characteristics of medium-chain fatty acids, including We have consulted experts in biology, nutrition and other fields on the improvement of experimental procedures, the environmental protection of the experimental process, the development direction of products, etc. In addition, we also designed a semi-structured interview outline. Conduct interviews with the public for better product positioning and marketing; carry out public welfare running activities, calling on everyone to pay attention to the earth, synthetic biology, and medium-chain fatty acids.
In order to understand the awareness level of the general public regarding our topic and the expectation from the potential consumers on our end products, we launched our questionnaire online and called for as many as possible to complete this survey for our further education and implementation’s sake. Generally, we have received 352 valid completed questionnaire online.
Figure 1. Result analysis of Q6 and Q7
Q6 was asking if the respondent knows synthetic biology or not and Q7 was only asking the respondents who chose “Yes” in Q6 how well they know about synthetic biology.
According to the collected data from Q6, it is obvious that the number of people who do not know about synthetic biology is 75.57% much more than the number of people who chose “Yes”, which indicates that the public lack of understanding of synthetic biology.
What’s more, in Q7 which was answered by 86 respondents who claimed they understand synthetic biology, 63.95% of samples have shallow understanding, 31.4% of samples have middle understanding and only 4.65% of samples have professional understanding.
To conclude, the popularization of synthetic biology is necessary.
Figure 2. Result analysis of Q9 and Q10
Q9 was asking if the respondent understands the differences and Q10 was only asking the respondents who chose “Yes” in Q9 how they get to obtain these information.
According to the collected data from Q9, we can find out that 44.89% of respondents claimed they understand the differences among saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids, but 55.11% of respondents chose “No”.
Additionally, in Q10, the 44.89% in Q9, gained the information of fatty acids mostly through online articles and the second highest channel they used is the academic textbooks.
There is an explicit tendency that the online educational articles can be an effective way for us to pursue our education purpose of public. We estimate to post 12 educational articles about several aspects of our project, like synthetic biology and fatty acids on our official social media accounts, we hope it could make a good impact on the public education.
Figure 3. Result analysis of Q11 and Q12
Q11 was asking if the respondent cares the health concept of food and Q12 was only asking the respondents who chose “Yes” in Q11 to specify the detailed aspects of food health.
According to the collected data from Q11, we can find out that 84.66% of respondents care about the health of food and 15.34% of people might not mind. According to our further cross-analysis with the question about the ages of respondents, those people who do not mind if food is healthy or not are mainly (67.37% ) young people aged between 10-20. What’s more, the ages of people who care the health of food are concentrated in the range of 30-60 with approximate percentage of 77.89%.
With our further question of healthy ideas for 298 samples in Q12, we can find out that the 272 people tend to buy healthier food, 227 people tend to control the content of oil and salt and 136 people are willing to pay more for organic food and ingredient. It shows a promising market for us since our project aims to increase the production of medium chain triglycerides which could be applied in health food industry even for diet food. Based on the 2022 price of ingredient, we aim to decrease the price of health oil by decreasing the cost of production (carbon resource such as refined glycerol and crude glycerol), which makes our product become attractive to the customers.
Figure 4. Result analysis of Q22 and Q23
Q22 was asking the respondents where they purchase their cooking oil and Q23 was asking them what kinds of reasons they will select the new cooking oil product.
According to the collected data from Q22, it is not difficult to see that within the 352 samples, 270 of them tend to buy cooking oil from supermarkets and 186 of them choose to purchase through online stores. To further investigate the reason why people tend to purchase offline, we cross-analyze the data and we find out that the people aged 40-60 are the main groups who purchase cooking oil offline, probably because they have not gotten used to using the internet for shopping due to the complexity and lacking access. Of course, we still cannot ignore the big portion of those buyers who get used to shopping online. Therefore, regarding our future business plan on the sale channel, we will not only launch the products offline but also make our online shop as convenient as possible.
In Q23, it indicates that people will purchase new products mainly for friends’ recommendations, discounts, and the attractive concept of the product. Thus, the price and advertising can be significant determinants and we need to make more efforts in the promotion.
Figure 5. Result analysis of Q24 and Q25
Q24 was asking the respondents how well they know about FSMP (Foods for Special Medical Purpose) and Q25 was only asking those who chose “Not at all” in Q24 if they are willing to try FSMP given the chance.
According to the collected data from Q24, we can find out that most people have no idea about FSMP.
In Q25, 203 of 237 respondents who chose “Not at all” in Q24 are willing to learn about these special medical products given the chance, which means that there are a lot of opportunities to conduct our education and promotion events for the general public.
Figure 6. Result analysis of Q27, Q28 and Q29
Q26 was asking the respondents if they are willing to try our new cooking oil which is healthy and can reduce the smoke during cooking. After that, Q27 was only asking those who chose “NO” in Q26 to specify the reason; Q28 was only asking those who chose “Very likely” or “Try a little” in Q26 to specify the reason as well; Q29 was only asking those who chose “It depends on the price” to specify the expected price range.
According to the collected data from Q26, people will still have concerns even though they might wanna try, they prefer to try a small volume at first. Therefore, we can launch different packages by different weights of products when we step into the market. What’s more, we can also provide sample sack, which helps us to capture market shares quickly.
There are still small are not willing to purchase our products. According to further investigation, they mainly worry about safety (54.05% in Q27) and they are not quite willing to try things they are not familiar with (51.35% in Q27). Thus, we need to find a way to persuade them to buy our products byincreasing the popularization of the understanding of our production method, our concept and our product’s advantages so that we can eliminate the knowledge gap, the strange feeling ,and the concern among our potential customers. As we can see from Q28, there are also still some who wanna try new things.
In Q29, The psychological expected prices range between 16¥-30¥, which is achievable in the future by the industrial production of our constructed MCFAs E. Coli Cell Factory.
In addition to quantitative studies such as questionnaires, qualitative studies were also conducted so that an interpretive understanding of customer behavior and meaning construction was obtained and the reasons behind the questionnaires embodied in many of the questions were obtained. Therefore, after collecting the completed questionnaire, there were 13 people who left their contact inside the last question box to express their willingness to accept additional interviews, and then we made calls one by one.
The precondition of these telephone interviews was that our final product was cooking oil. In the telephone interview, in addition to asking the interviewees basic questions (whether they can cook, and what they know about biology/synthetic biology), we also asked the interviewees whether they had concerns about the cooking oil they were buying, whether they would specify a certain cooking oil to buy, and what troubles they had when using cooking oil. After the interviews, we found that many of them started to have an interest in our products especially when we introduced the benefits of MCFAs which is the core element in our product but still had “stereotypes” about biosynthesis technology. Therefore, post-education is very important to make the public look at synthetic MCFAs objectively. During the interviews, we also found that most interviewees’ knowledge in biology stays at the level of secondary education, and therefore we can modify our education plans to meet the need.
Since we decided our final product is cooking oil and other diet food, so we went to RT-market to investigate other congeneric products including oils and diet coffees, and after that, we also dig into them a little more.
Figure 7. Field Trip in RT-market
For bulletproof coffee, one of the hottest diet products, they do not directly talk loud about the function of their products. Instead, they will mention some concepts before they introduce the function of their products. For example, the advertisement of a brand called Ideal Fuel Coffee, their advertisement included the real experience of consumers and the comments of nutritionists. What’s more, they also added another part to provide some professional advice such as what’s the timing to drink coffee, and how many bottles they recommend.
Palm oil also has excellent advertisements. We find a palm oil brand called Viva. In their advertisements, they introduced the function of their cooking oil to attract potential consumers at the very beginning. Then they introduced the ingredients of their products to eliminate people’s concerns about safety problems. After that, they started to describe their product in detail with lots of academic theories as support.
To sum up, we learned a lot from these successes in their advertisements and product design. In the poster or label that we use to introduce our product, we may choose a progressive style. And in the advertisement, we will get into the feature and the function of our product at first directly, like “ it is organic MCT cooking oil, it supports mental energy and stamina and it is suitable to be added into the coffee.” Then we can gradually make a detailed introduction of the ingredients. To be more compelling, the comments from the doctors can also be considered in the advertisement.
We conducted a total of four expert consultations in the Pre-, mid-, and late-stage. The purpose of the pre-project consultation was to find answers to our questions about the project. The purpose of the two mid-project consultations was to acquire new possible products based on our technology. The post-project consultation is to reconfirm that our research is on the right track and to make final revisions based on expert feedback.
First, the first consultation was conducted in order to clarify basic information about today's technology for synthesizing medium-chain fatty acids and determine the direction of the subsequent research and research proposal. Therefore, we managed to contact Dr. Wang Zhe (Ph.D. Nanjing Agricultural University).
Figure 8. Screenshots of the online interview recording with Dr. Wangzhe
In this consultation with Dr. Wang Zhe, we learned that currently, the main source of medium-chain fatty acids is natural extraction. Synthetic synthesis of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) through synthetic biology techniques is becoming more common and is more environmentally friendly and less expensive than natural extraction. The implications for China are currently enormous, as there are relatively few tropical regions in China and few crop areas where MCFAs can be produced. Although the current yield of MCFAs synthesis technology through the reverse fatty acid β-oxidation pathway is relatively small, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the future, and therefore has a good prospect for development. The applications of MCFAs are very promising, including specialty foods, feed for livestock, raw materials for the production of lubricants, detergents and cosmetics, and specialty medical foods. Moreover, medium-chain fatty acids are harmless to humans and animals in terms of food and have a high safety factor. Given the current level and speed of technological development, the technology for synthesizing medium-chain fatty acids through the reverse fatty acid β-oxidation pathway could be ready for mass production and commercialization within the next decade. More and more companies are conducting research on the equipment used for mass production, and the cost is decreasing. Overall, this technology has a promising future, with a wide range of applications, low risk, and decreasing costs.
During two mid-project consultations with Dr. Wang Guilong and Ms. Lilian Wu, respectively, we gained further information and ideas about the properties of MCFAs and the positioning of the product.
In order to better understand the synthesis process of macrolide compounds, we interviewed Dr. Wang Guilong (Ph.D. Chinese Academy of Sciences), who is an expert in chemical synthesis.
Figure 9. Screenshot of our online interview with Dr. Wang Guilong
In addition to the general introduction of some basic chemical synthesis methods, Dr. Wang Guilong pointed out that medium-chain fatty acids have a special role in human metabolism. At present, there is no case of direct addition in mainland China, but in countries such as Europe, America, and Japan, it has been directly applied to food, including food for people with special needs. However, due to the obvious peculiar smell of medium-chain fatty acids, it may not be easily accepted by the crowd. Therefore, Dr. Wang suggested that we use additives to add to other foods with a relatively strong taste, which is more acceptable to people. Dr. Wang believes that our project has certain social benefits. Because the current medium-chain fatty acids are mainly extracted from coconut oil and palm oil, the production of tropical crops in China is relatively small. We think that synthetic biology methods can break China's restrictions in this regard well, and provide more convenient and easy access for related downstream industries such as medium-chain triglycerides and so on. Dr. Wang encouraged us to continue, because the raw material of our experiment is crude glycerol, which is low-cost and easy to obtain, and the conversion rate can continue to increase with the development of technology.
Figure 10. Screenshot of our online interview with Ms. Lilian Wu
Since we decided on our final product as die food and cooking oil, we managed to contact Ms. Lilian Wu. Lilian is a nutritionist registered under Hong Kong Nutrition Society and also a member of the Chinese Nutrition Society, a senior Public Nutritionist in China, certificated by Food Manufacturing HACCP in the United Kingdom and she received a master’s degree in Nutrition Science and Food Science & Technology in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Lilian gave us a detailed introduction of the advantages of MCFAs and related products that address current customer pain points based on these advantages. She also points out that in terms of safety, medium-chain fatty acids, unlike long-chain fatty acids, are less likely to produce cholesterol during digestion and absorption. MCFAs are helpful in reducing the risk of both atherosclerosis and heart disease. Moreover, MCFAs are less likely to be deposited as fat, thus facilitating "weight management" and "sports nutrition". MCFA metabolic pathway is different from long-chain fat, which is significant for patients with poor gastrointestinal function and is therefore widely used in enteral nutrition preparations. Therefore, MCFAs can be used as food for patients suffering from fat malabsorption, AIDS, cancer, and diabetic patients, for the treatment of prostate enlargement, cholesterol reduction, and prevention of hyperlipidemia, and as special food for patients after surgery, infections, and skin burns. In addition, Lilian also specifically emphasized that we can pay attention to Bulletproof Coffee which contains medium-chain fatty acids. With the addition of medium-chain fatty acids, Bulletproof Coffee may be more popular among coffee lovers and fitness people. So after this interview, we carried out our field research to investigate bulletproof coffee and cooking oil.
Dr. Wang Guilong and Ms. Lilian Wu pointed out a number of novel and promising applications for MCFAs.We aimed to produce medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) by reversing the fatty acid β-oxidation cycle and this technology has broad application prospects in the fields of petrochemicals, daily chemicals and food and health products.
Finally, after basically completing the experiments and market research, we met with the experts again in order to validate our experiments, product positioning and the direction of future plans. We received a lot of positive feedback during this discussion, and answers from Dr. Wen were basically consistent with our research.
Figure 11. Screenshot of our online interview with Dr. Wen
During this consultation with Dr. Wen, we gained a deeper understanding of the feasibility and potential challenges of synthetic MCFAs technology and realized that this technology has certain advantages over the premise and logic of other technologies currently available to the academic community, but there is still room for improvement. With the continuous advancement of technology, the time and effort required for the experimental process are correspondingly reduced. In addition, we have learned about the practical differences between laboratory extraction and product landing in mass production. With the current degree and speed of technological development, it can be reasonably speculated that the technology of artificial synthesis of MCFAs through the reverse fatty acid β-oxidation pathway using E. coli as a cell factory based on this experimental condition, logic and the basic concept is likely to be put into mass production within a certain period of time in the future, and the corresponding market is huge and has an extraordinary impact on the country and the world, which is more environmentally friendly and healthier. However, there are still many potential risks in the development and market entry of synthetic biology-based MCFAs, such as the low level of consumer acceptance of synthetic technology and the low acceptance of related products. The professor also provided many feasible solutions and improvements in this interview, which will help to improve the subsequent experiments and future planning.
On the evening of August 11th, our Plan β team held a night run event of "Running for Health! Running for Love!". The distance of this night run is 3 kilometers. All the funds for this night run come from the income of our two previous charity sales. For every 500 meters run by the participants, this project will donate 2 yuan to the Municipal Charity Federation. Therefore, participants can not only make money to exercise, but also do charity work. During the whole night run, although it was night, the weather was still very hot and the temperature was still very high. Our night running participants were not dissuaded by the weather. They still ran enthusiastically in the hot weather and contributed to the public welfare.
During the event, we also had conversations with the participants, and their feedback about our project and our goal is quite positive and supportive. We realized that nowadays people never stop seeking a healthier life and our project might contribute to this common goal.
Figure 12. Night Run event
During the project, we recorded team diaries and Vlogs every day to ensure all progress on paper and traceable.
For the team diary, we will record our experiments, took notes and kept some important photos. After that, we will typeset and beautify these words and photos, and finally form an article and post it on our WeChat Official Account.
Not only do we have team daily logs, we also had Vlogs. During the experiments, we shot a lot of video clips and then we will edit these clips to produce a complete video which we will post on our social media accounts.
In the process of writing the team dairies and shooting Vlogs, the members of our Plan β team worked together. We can not only review our progress but also promote our project to the public as a kind of public supervision and interaction.
Figure 13. Screenshot of out team dairy (left) and team vlog (right)
