Team:NKU CHINA/Integrated and Gold
Integrated and Gold
Market Research
The experimental project we were doing was the intelligent metabolic approach-Population Quality Control system. When we determined the experimental project, we did a lot of market researches through online and offline.
| Material | Price | Application | Problems |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfactin | $240/10mg |
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| γ-PGA | $435/kg |
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| Glutamic acid | $20-30/kg | Glutamic acid is the world's largest producer of amino acids and can be used in industrial production, food processing, medicine, scientific research, etc. | As an important intermediate metabolite in cells, glutamate can be converted into surfactin and γ-PGA by its own metabolism |
Analysis of our research results, we found that the current production technology of glutamate was so mature that the price was very cheap. Novozymes and other biotech companies chose to produce polymers to form new materials that ultimately increased their added value. At the same time, glutamate was also a very important substance in cells. What’s more, the use of surfactants was very extensive. As a reason of the current production technology could not form large-scale industrial production, no wonder that the price was high; γ-PGA could be industrialized, but the current production cost is very high, resulting in its price was also very high.
Based on our findings, we finally chose to use intracellular glutamate to synthesize surfactin and γ-PGA to verify the feasibility of our project.
Questionnaire Analysis
In the analysis process,we tried to find the relationship between the two questions "Do you understand the use of surfactin and gamma-polyglutamic acid?" and "Do you think that the intelligent metabolic pathway we are studying meets the needs of current production and research?". Therefore, we performed the cross-over analysis. The analysis results show that the majority of people who understand the use of both products believe that our intelligent metabolic pathways meet current needs, but need to be improved; while people who do not understand our products have listened to our explanations and believe that this intelligent metabolic pathway is in line with current needs very significantly,which also reflected that our publicity is very effective.
The Result of the Investigation
- Do you think our method can meet the needs of current development and production?
- 22.55%: Very consistent, optimistic about the results
- 66.63%: Yes, but need constant improvement
- 7.84%: Does not fit well, need innovative design
- 0.98%: No consistent, new experimental routes need to be designed
The Result of the Investigation
- Do you konw about the production and application of these two kinds of things?
- 46.08%: Do not know much about it
- 28.43%: Knowing little about it
- 21.57%: Knowing
- 3.92%: Knowing it well
We compared the answers of the same questions pre- and post- presentation. In fact, More people have realized that our intelligent metabolic approach is feasible, at least in terms of ideas that are very consistent with current needs.
In addition, many people expressed concerns about biosafety and the use of antibiotic, which will be showed in the pages of Human Practice and Safety.
The Result of the Investigation
- What's your attitude towards the use of antibiotics?
- 47.06%: Expressing concern because antibiotics are overused at present
- 39.22%: It is necessary to use reasonably under normal supervision
- 12.75%: Expressing optimism and it can be used normally
- 0.98%: Must stop using it as it may produce super bacteria
The questionnaire is issued in Chinese statistics, for the convenience of reading, all of them are translated into English.
Communication Improvement
Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology
In order to improve the experimental techniques and ideas, we went to Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology to exchange and study on August 21th, 2018. First of all, we communicated with our teachers about the background of our experimental project, the innovation of intelligent metabolic pathway, the effect of tetracycline and so on, and listened carefully to the suggestions given by them.
Here are the inspirations and suggestions we got from the exchange:
Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology
—Focus on experimental design and operation
- How to reflect an effective feedback mechanism?
- How to reflect the innovation point and function line of the project?
- What is the relationship between glutamate concentration and cell survival?
- Changes in product yield after project completion.
Then we followed the staff to understand the development of the Institute, related research projects, fermentation production and scientific research status, the operation of synthetic biological instruments. Through this communication, we better improved our project ideas and experimental techniques.
Tianjin International Joint Academy Biomedicine
In order to better understand the prospects and significance of the project, we went to Tianjin International Joint Academy Biomedicine for exchange and study. We communicated with the teachers in the field of medicine and production, we discussed the influencing factors in scientific research and production, fermentation, the current production of surfactin and poly-γ-glutamate and so on. The teachers put forward many valuable questions to us and provided a lot of helps in the transformation of the project results.
Here are the inspirations and suggestions we got from the exchange:
Tianjin International Joint Academy Biomedicine
—Focus on the significance and prospects of the project
- Stability of the plasmid.
- Is there any other influencing factor other than glutamic acid?
- What are the advantages of our experiment? What breakthroughs are there compared to existing research methods?
- Is the combination of scientific research and actual production?
We also visited the fermentation workshop to understand the specific production process. Finally, we introduced our project to them, this new intelligent metabolic pathway in production and research to give them a lot of thoughts and inspiration to the current research and production.
Transformation of Results
The Novozymes Company
On September 27th, we went to the Novozymes to improve our experiments and transform our results into fermentation production. We were eager to contribute to society by applying our project to actual fermentation production. We introduced our projects to many professors and producers, and had an exchange composed of experimental prospects, project achievements, experimental problems and the potential to conduct fermentation. They put forward a lot of suggestions, which are very important for us to improve the experiments.
Here are the inspirations and suggestions we got from the exchange:
The Novozymes Company
—Transformation of results
- The intelligent metabolic approach we are studying is very meaningful and the product we chose to validate that our route could work were also very marketable.
- The production technologies of amino acids are very mature, so their prices are very cheap. Novozymes and other biotechnology companies choose to produce polymers to form new materials that ultimately increase their added value.
- Did our project focus on this new intelligent metabolic line or industrial production of γ-PGA?
- We could first transform at the genetic level and then combine our model to filter out the excellent strains which can better improve the yield of products and solve many products and solve many problems in fermentation.
- How to achieve high density production and save costs?
Furthermore, they showed great interest in our project. After our efforts, they were finally willing to make an attempt to transform our experimental research into fermentation production. We visited the fermentation workshop to discuss the specific details of the fermentation production and the precautions as long as we finished exchange.
Unbelievable, they actually agreed with our request. We went farther than we can do. What’s a wonderful experience! Our project took a big step forward, which greatly inspired our fighting spirit. While our competition was about to end, we would also explore the subsequent fermentation production together, and our project would never stop!
Long live our project!