Overview
Our Human Practices activities had a direct impact on the design and execution of our project. We began with a questionnaire in Beijing to assess cat health and hairball issues, which revealed the widespread need for safer, more effective remedies. Building on this, we interviewed stakeholders, including cat rescue organizations, veterinary clinics, a legal expert, and our school's TNR club. Each of these engagements informed critical design choices: selecting E. coli Nissle 1917 as our chassis, using capsules for painless delivery, and incorporating color signals and the Retro-Cascorder module for timely diagnosis. These events demonstrate how Human Practices continuously guided and shaped our project to better meet real-world needs.
Through these activities, we also ensured our project would be responsible and good for the world. Feedback from cat rescue groups emphasized affordability and accessibility, leading us to design for long-lasting probiotic effects. Veterinarians highlighted behavioral and safety concerns, inspiring us to consider taste, smell, and capsule size in future implementation. Our legal interview raised issues of data privacy and regulation, motivating us to plan consent forms and patent applications. By combining community surveys, expert consultations, and stakeholder interviews, we created a project that is socially responsible, ethical, and aligned with both animal welfare and public trust. Overall, the iterative process in our Human Practices guided our decisions and helped us ensure that our work in synthetic biology is not only technically feasible but also thoughtful, responsive, and beneficial to the world.
Questionnaire
A survey questionnaire constitutes a convenient and effective method within the social sciences for data collection, efficiently facilitating the acquisition of relevant information. To enhance the comprehensiveness of our project, we decided to implement questionnaires at the beginning of our Human Practice initiative.
In the initial phase of questionnaire development, we meticulously complied with the reflection cycle we established. This reflection cycle is composed of three core principles:
Reflective: Clarifying our objectives to ensure that our human practice activities remain aligned with the overall goals of the project.
Responsible: Emphasizing reliability and care, ensuring that our activities adhere to fundamental requirements of safety, authenticity, and dependability, while taking responsibility for our project, the community, and the field of synthetic biology.
Responsive: Actively addressing and resolving issues based on the feedback obtained from the questionnaires.
Taking these elements into account, we precisely defined the objectives of distributing the questionnaires. Our primary aims were to assess the enteric health status of cats, especially the percentage of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) presented. Additionally, we aimed to evaluate the usage of hairball-remedy products. Considering our location in Beijing and recognizing our limitations as high school students in terms of technical expertise and resources, we confined the scope of our questionnaire participants to Beijing residents. To capture a comprehensive understanding of diverse experiences, the distribution of questionnaires was random, and both Chinese and English versions were prepared (see Appendix: Questionnaire_PDF).
Upon thorough consideration, we proceeded to formulate the questionnaire items. Excluding the initial question regarding participants' ages, the questionnaire is divided into three sections. The first section involves questions 1-11, which inquire about the basic information of cat petting, including the number of cats kept, cats' fur licking behavior, the occurrence of hairballs, etc. In our second section (questions 12-13), we examined the public understanding of diseases presented in cats. As we provided multiple-choice questions, we were also determined to discover the frequency of illness of the participants' cats. In our third section (questions 16-23), we assessed the usage of different hairball remedy products.
Our fourth section aimed to examine the shedding situation of pet cats. We set a scale bar with a total score of 10 (Figure 1). By using this method, participants were able to indicate the rating that most accurately corresponds to their cats' hair loss. With a mean score of 5.89, the result of this question indicated that the hair loss of cats is relatively prevalent, hence suggesting the potential risk of forming hairballs in the cats' gut as they lick their dislodged hair.
Figure 1. Cat's Hair Shedding Situation Question
Analysis of our sixth question revealed that the majority (43.57%) of the pet cats will lick their fur by themselves. Nevertheless, there are approximately one-fifth (20.6%) of the cat owners paid little attention to hair licking situations (Figure 2). This suggests that there may be an additional proportion of cats who also lick their fur by themselves, but whose behaviors are under-reported or overlooked by their owners. Collectively, these findings indicate the necessity of hairball remedy products due to the large proportion of self-grooming cats.
Figure 2. Distribution of Grooming Methods in Domestic Cats
Regarding the occurrence of hairball formation, 62.24% of cat owners indicated that their cats had encountered the situation of hairball gagging (Figure 3). This proportion exceeds half, indicating that hairball formation is a relatively common phenomenon among cats. For cats that have hairball issues, their owners should pay more attention to their health conditions and provide special hairball food or supplements like hairball remedy.
Figure 3. Distribution of Cats Experienced Hairball Gagging
A significant portion of participants (68.42%) use hairball remedy pastes, highlighting the popularity of these products in the current market. However, many hairball pastes contain sweeteners to attract cats, which increases not only the risks of diabetes, but also obscures the symptoms of other cats' diseases. Therefore, the prevalence of hairball remedy pastes highlights the need for safer and more effective alternatives. Additionally, the answer to question 15 indicates a strong need for a probiotic hairball remedy product that is well-liked by cats (94.74%), effective (87.72%), and has minimal side effects (80.7%). With that in mind, we selected E.coli Nissle 1917 as the final chassis since it is proven to possess anti-inflammatory characteristics. This way, our engineered bacteria are able to reduce potential adverse effects on the feline intestinal microbe and ensure product safety.
Although a portion of participants (66.66%) spend less than 50 yuan on hairball remedies, there is still a portion of customers (12.28%) who spend over 100 yuan per month on degrading feline hairballs that we cannot neglect. To fulfill the demand for cheaper alternatives for all customers, we aim to prolong the effective time of our probiotic platform when designing, so that our product requires less frequent intake, and lower the average spend for hairball remedy products for customers.
Stakeholders Overview & Analysis
For the upstream side of production, we plan to conduct ongoing interviews with stakeholders to collect feedback on the safety and compliance of our probiotic platform. In this part, we identified the cat associations, the bioethics committee, and the China National Medical Products Administration as our stakeholders (Figure 4). Among them, cat associations showed the greatest interest. We communicated with them to learn about the challenges they face when treating inflamed feral cats. Through the conversation, we gained a clearer understanding of the environmental triggers of IBD and the side effects of existing treatments.
On the downstream side, pharmaceutical companies and research institutions are important stakeholders to consider at this stage (Figure 4). Although they are not the final consumers of our probiotic platform, they will still play a crucial role in our production line. Since we plan to deliver our platform in capsules, these institutions can provide industrial support with advanced equipment and expertise. Their technical guidance will be crucial for transforming our design into a safe and useful product.
For the end users, we focused on cat owners, veterinary hospitals, and pharmacies (Figure 4). We aimed to communicate with them to acquire valuable suggestions that can help us modify our project. Specifically, we prioritized cat owners and veterinarians. By doing so, we received valuable feedback from owners about the difficulties involved when feeding hairball remedies to cats. At the same time, we asked veterinarians about the challenges of treating IBD in cats. Their feedback guided us in adjusting our design and helped us better understand how our probiotic platform could meet real needs.
Figure 4. The composition of identified stakeholders
Interviews with different stakeholders
Interview with a member of Cats Rescue Organization
We interviewed Ms. Gong, a staff member at a cat rescue organization (Figure 5). Her insights gave us valuable guidance on how our work could address real challenges faced in feline health (see Appendix: Interview record#1 _PDF).
Figure 5. A BNDS-China member and Ms. Gong
From our interview, we learned the following key points:
Despite its confirmed correlation with intestinal disorder, overaccumulation of hairballs in the feline intestine is not the sole reason for IBD. According to Ms. Gong, dietary issues, such as irregular eating habits and food contamination, can also be a major factor in causing IBD, especially for stray cats without a stable living environment. Therefore, we could integrate lectures on nutritionally balanced diets for felines with our project promotion during cross-talks and presentations.
In the current market, hairball pastes and cat grasses are the most popular products. However, Ms. Gong pointed out that some hairball pastes contain flavor enhancers that may lead to picky eating if used long-term. For cat grass, its efficacy varies by individual, and overconsumption may cause vomiting. Neither product is natural to a cat's diet; thus, a natural, non-invasive treatment is needed. Based on this information, we decided to make a probiotic treatment and chose E. coli Nissle 1917 as our final chassis. It is a naturally occurring probiotic in the cat intestine and has been proven to possess anti-inflammatory characteristics. This way, our engineered bacteria minimize disturbance to the preexisting microbiome.
In addition, cats must be able to use hairball pastes or cat grass regularly to secure their efficiency, yet regular access for stray cats is hard to guarantee. Ms. Gong suggested we consider what might be a long-term solution. She also stressed that the majority of medical-related abandonment of house cats is due to financial constraints. With the high price of hairball-control products and the large stray cat population caused by uncontrolled reproduction, rescue groups urgently need cheaper alternatives for large-scale rescue efforts. Both individual owners and rescue groups need affordable products for cat hairball control. Therefore, we designed our platform with long-lasting working efficacy, particularly through probiotic colonization. One intake would be sufficient for weeks of active treatment, without needing to continuously buy the product or spend large amounts of time administering it to the pet. This concurs with the market need for remedies that aren't costly and require less frequent intakes.
Ms. Gong recommended we seek professional advice from a veterinarian and conduct fieldwork on the symptoms of IBD. In addition, she explained that the delayed diagnosis of chronic intestinal diseases is the major problem in animals. This is because 1) Pets cannot communicate their health directly as humans can, and 2) It's hard for people to identify the early-stage symptoms, which are usually not obvious. After careful consideration of this insight, we designed a color signal output in our platform for early diagnosis and visualization. There is still a lot to be done in pet health research. In addition, we integrated a data storage module to record the transcriptional activities in the intestine, which can be analyzed by experts and provide information in detail on the causes of the disease.
Interview with the Leader of the TNR Cat Rescue Club at Beijing National School
Our high school is a cat-friendly campus, and we have several spots for stray cats to live and eat on campus. To better take care of the cats, students initiated a campus-wide rescue club: Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) club. We recognized the cat rescue club as a potential stakeholder, so we interviewed Everly Feng, the leader of the TNR group, to acquire information about those stray cats and listen to their concerns (Figure 6) (see Appendix: Interview record#2_PDF).
Figure 6. A BNDS-China member interacting with Everly Feng during the interview
From our interview, we learned the following key points:
Campus stray cats tend to groom themselves more than house cats because they live in dirtier environments. This makes hairball problems even more serious. Many of these cats also suffer from hidden inflammation, which shows the need for our probiotic platform as a possible treatment.
The capsules should be packaged individually, with clear dosage and clean wrapping to ensure safety. Since our stakeholders ranged from different ages and experience levels, the design should remain simple and accessible with clear instructions for use.
Affordability is one of the most important factors for student clubs to use our platform. The capsules should be cost-effective, as TNR clubs often operate on limited budgets. Therefore, we could include a student discount or an application for a school scholarship in our future business plan, increasing the economic feasibility of Meowtrack for student organizations.
Interview with the head of Yutang Veterinary Clinic
For our product, veterinary clinics' demand is of high interest and is located downstream. Inspired by Ms. Gong from the cat rescue organization, we realized the crucial role veterinarians play in treating feline intestinal diseases. They have expertise in cat health, and could help provide advice on how our probiotic platform can support current treatment for cat IBD. We interviewed Mr. Wang, an expert in Veterinary Medicine, also the head of Yutang Veterinary Clinic, to gain an understanding of what our probiotic platform would need to fit practical needs in a clinical setting (Figure 7) (see Appendix: Interview record#3_PDF).
Figure 7. A BNDS-China member is interviewing Mr. Wang.
From our interview, we learned the following key points:
Currently, the most effective and immediate diagnosis for IBD is urinalysis. This involves bladder puncturing, which is invasive and brings pain for cats. Thus, we plan to deliver our probiotic platform in the form of capsules, minimizing the pain they could cause. However, Mr. Wang reminded us that procedures and environments during capsule manufacture can affect the efficacy of our Meowtrack platform. Additional suggestions on manufacturing are necessary to ensure the best-quality product. He recommends that we seek advice from drug manufacturing companies or factories.
We acknowledge the difficulties in accepting synthetic biology therapy for treating cats' disease. For non-expert customers, the primary factor impeding the utilization of newer technologies is safety concerns or an unwillingness to let their pets suffer uncertain consequences. According to Mr. Wang, veterinarians may also be unsure about prescribing bioengineered therapy. To address their concerns, education on synthetic biology in animal health is necessary for both the general public and veterinarians. We decided to perform educational activities to help people gain a better understanding of synthetic biology.
Mr. Wang stressed that feline behavioral science is an important factor affecting cats' acceptance of our product. Cats are highly sensitive to taste, smell, and capsule size, so finding the best way to design the MeowTrack capsule requires an understanding of cat behaviors. Insights from behavioral research can also guide administration methods to reduce anxiety and resistance, thereby increasing the owners' acceptance of our product. As a result, we need to consider cats' behavioral factors in the future implementation of our project.
Additionally, most new medicines are not widely available domestically. They are mainly in research or clinical trial phases and are inaccessible to the vast patient populations. Mr. Wang reminded us that if we strive to have our probiotic platform approved as a market product, we need legal advice to understand the registration process for veterinary drugs in China. This led us to interview a legal expert.
Interview with a legal expert
Inspired by our interview with the head of Yutang Veterinary Clinic, we understood the need for professional legal advice on regulations surrounding synthetic biology products. This will help our product align with regulations in market settings. With those queries in mind, we interviewed Ms. Yang, an expert in law and a political science and law teacher at Beijing National Day School (Figure 8) (see Appendix: Interview record#4_PDF).
Figure 8. A BNDS-China member interviewing Ms. Yang
From our interview, we learned the following key points:
As a human-designed novel genetic circuit, our probiotic platform is considered highly patentable. China's National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) uses patentability standards similar to most of the world: Novelty, Inventive Step (Non-Obviousness), and Industrial Applicability. Therefore, as a newly designed genetic platform, our product is the perfect fit for the first two standards, which differ from a natural discovery. We need to address the industrial applicability of our products, so understanding regulations for drug manufacturing is essential for our patent application.
The data storage module in our platform records transcription events, providing data for clinical research and veterinary diagnoses. Therefore, data privacy for feline health conditions should be considered. China's Personal Information Protection Law is increasingly applied to animal data connected to an identifiable owner. Recording cats' intestinal events data requires legal consent from their owner. To address this concern, we will design a consent form with a clear explanation of what data is being collected, how it will be used, how it will be stored and protected, and with whom it might be shared. We may also make two versions of MeowTrack, one with and one without the recording module, so owners can choose based on their preferences.
Conclusion
In conclusion, our probiotic platform is designed and refined based on valuable information we gathered from our interviews with various stakeholders (Figure 9). Ms. Gong from the cat rescue organization provided us with important information on current market demands. From this, we chose probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 as the final chassis to limit side effects and secure long-lasting working efficacy. Our original design revolved around an IBD detection and treatment AND gate. However, Ms. Gong told us that timely diagnosis might also be a problem, so we added color report and retro-cascorder modules to increase the efficiency in cat IBD diagnoses. Understanding problems in current treatment methods from a professional veterinarian, we decided to use capsules to deliver our probiotic platform, minimizing pain for the cats. Additionally, we recognized the importance of conducting education for medical workers of synthetic biology into practices, and putting feline behavioral science into consideration. Information from our school's cat rescue club helped us understand that cost-effectiveness and clear instructions are important from the user perspective. We plan to distribute our capsules into small packages and provide students operation manual, making our products convenient for a campus setting. Finally, we inquired with legal expert Ms. Yang, who helped us realize the urgency in applying patent and designing user consent forms, aiding in the implementation of our products in the real market. These valuable insights from our stakeholders help us design and develop our product to benefit society.
Figure 9. The summary of interviews with stakeholders. Created with biorender.com.
Market Survey
We randomly surveyed 15 hairball remedy products available to identify unoccupied market segments (Table 1). To achieve that, we analyzed competing products to determine our strengths and weaknesses. The analysis specifically examined competitor pricing (both membership and normal), sales volumes on Taobao, and the composition of both active ingredients and additives. We identified the presence of phagostimulants in traditional hairball remedies, which may cause addiction or picky eating. This gives our platform a unique advantage over most existing products.
Table 1. Overview of hairball remedy products.
We quantified consumer satisfaction using a rating system based on price, sales, and recent positive reviews (Table 2). By doing so, we preliminarily figured out the leading products in the hairball remedy market, which assisted us in clarifying the difference between our platform and the leading products. To better visualize the information we gathered, we established a bubble diagram (Figure 10). With the satisfaction rating on the x-axis, price on the y-axis, the diagram can reflect the most cost-effective product in our data pool. Additionally, since the size of each bubble corresponds to sales volume, the bubble chart effectively highlights the most popular products—those with the largest bubbles—providing an immediate visual clue to market leaders and consumer preferences at a glance.
Table 2. Variables affecting the satisfaction rating
Figure 10. Market research bubble diagram
Based on the provided bubble chart analysis of the hairball remedy products market, Product 8 appears to be positioned as a mid-to-low-priced (CNY79) product with a moderate satisfaction rating. This indicates that Product 8 takes up a fairly strong market share, likely due to its competitive pricing and acceptable performance, and implies that Product 8 is a popular choice among budget-conscious consumers. As the probiotic platform requires less frequency of intake and has a relatively low price, our product also has the potential to acquire a relatively high satisfaction rating.
Conclusion
Based on the provided bubble chart analysis of the hairball remedy products market, Product 8 appears to be positioned as a mid-to-low-priced product with a moderate satisfaction rating. This indicates that Product 8 takes up a fairly strong market share, likely due to its competitive pricing and acceptable performance, and implies that Product 8 is a popular choice among budget-conscious consumers. As the probiotic platform requires less frequency of intake and has a relatively low price, our product also has the potential to acquire a relatively high satisfaction rating.