Team:SUIS Shanghai/Human Practices
Integrated Human Practices
Institute of Hydrobiology, China Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University
After our long period of initial research and literature review, we felt we were ready to finalize our design and proceed with our wet lab work. To ensure we had the right conceptual understanding and the advantage of expert advice, we searched for many institutes and people who could offer us valuable insight. Eventually we were delighted to hear that Dr. Hu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Hydrobiology, in Wuhan was more than willing to discuss our project and provide guidance to us. Dialogue was opened over email and In early June we agreed to board a train and take an two day visit to the city of Wuhan to visit his lab. Before the trip to Wuhan, our plan focused heavily on how to exploit the naturally occurring symbiotic relationships between microalgae and bacteria to begin the process of designing a “synthetic ecology” with the objective function of enhancing the microalgae to produce more of a high value product, such as Omega-3 oil DHA.
We also took the opportunity to meet with the Wuhan University iGEM team to gain advice on parts design and advice any specific considerations we may have overlooked. Both meetings were invaluable to us in shaping our final project and the advice we received allowed us to alter our project in a meaningful way by complimenting our original primary research.
Euglena Meeting
In order to evaluate the impact of our research aims on the microalgae industry, we arranged a visit to the Shanghai branch of the Japanese microalgae development and marketing firm Euglena™.in late June. Euglena is a Japanese company that researches, develops, produces, and markets microalgae worldwide with a focus on the particular species euglena. This discussion allowed us to develop understanding about the obstacles facing the research and development of microalgae for commercial biotechnology applications. We also used this opportunity to learn more about marketing strategies within the microalgae industry, the range of applications of relating to this area of research. We also wanted to learn of any potential problems that may exist with respects to growing this business within China as part of the the wider Asian market as well as expansion into the wider global market. Our hopes from this meeting we so that we could gain more appreciation about both the opportunities that exist, and of the complexity surrounding, the development of a viable “green economy”, and how microalgae research likes ours can play a role in this endeavor.
After a productive discussion with the head of the marketing department of Euglena, we understood that although nutrition has long been a primary focus of biomass production, increasing biomass production can be used in many different application. This idea is specified when we were introduced with their 5F model, in which it explains that biomass can be applied to food, fiber, feed, fertilizer, and fuel, following a sequence to commercialize from high-value product to low-value product. With such strategy applying one product into multiple usage, lots of cost will be saved.
Figure 1 - the 5F model of microalgae biomass. As quantity of product increases commercialization also increases, however, value of product is decreased. Using the whole biomass to produce products from the whole cell is an attractive proposition for business and also can have a greater societal impact.
Besides productivity, another problem we are facing is the perception from the consumer. A research conducted by the School of Forest Resources and Conservation from Florida University shows that 54.4% of the respondent to be “not at all knowledgeable”about the topic while 31.6% of the respondent expressed “negative”or “highly negative” towards the topic. With the general population being unaware of the product itself, our team decided to design an education outreach program that improve the public awareness of the topic. Our education program aims to provide a basic introduction to the public about what is biomass and how does biomass work, and to shape a perception that our product is reliable.
Meeting with Dr. Kuldell
In order to further explore the challenges facing second level science education with respects to preparing students for careers in STEM, our team, inspired by the our own experiences with the excellent BioBuilder™ curriculum, scheduled an online meeting via Skype with Dr. Natalie Kuldell.
Dr. Kuldell is a professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where, among other things, she develops discovery-based curricula with an aim to bring highschool students into the heart of synthetic biology. As a co-developer of the BioBuilder curriculum, she is an outstanding person to talk to about both the positive effect of teaching engineering and design in biology, and the potential barriers facing educators to its implementation.
As bioengineering and synthetic biology play an ever increasing role in our present and future lives, our team believes education within this field is essential for students like ourselves if we are to be able to comprehend, make decisions about, and even contribute to synthetic biology which will no doubt shape the forthcoming world. During the meeting Dr. Kuldell provided us a basic view of the status quo of bioengineering education in the U.S. We learned that currently not many schools are having related biodesign courses, but she believes that more and more schools will begin to adopt STEM based biology courses/classes by 2020. Additionally, she mentioned that her vision is for the education of synthetic biology to follow a principle of inquiry-based teaching rather than memorization-based. She also described some of her experiences and feedback from teachers who have taken part in BioBuilder training over the years and how she found that most teachers also “love to learn” and “appreciate and feel that there is a new approach to teaching life science”. We agreed with her summation that many people may leave biology because “there are so many things to memorize... that it can become overwhelming” but that if you can teach concepts like genes and operon through engineering and if you can use them as tools, it maybe “helps organize the information in a way that is personally engaging”.
Therefore, following Dr. Kuldell’s valuable suggestions, our team continued in our quest to design a survey to learn about Engineering & Design in International Secondary School classroom instruction. It also gave us motivation to begin thinking about an educational outreach program designed to help more educators access the material and eventually improve the prevalence and quality of utilizing engineering and design skills in biology curriculum. Thus we embarked on a mission aimed to help one of the iGEM foundation’s main dedications - “the advancement of synthetic biology education” right where we believe it matters the most, in High Schools, with teachers and students just like us.
IGEM | WANYUAN | SUIS
Website: wanyuan.suis.com.cn
Mail Box: suisigem@outlook.com
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