"Technology alone is not enough. It's technology married with liberal arts,
married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing."
—— Steve Jobs, Co - founder of Apple
Outline
In designing the project related to Cecropin B for the treatment of bacterial infections in pets,
we have always taken "science-driven, life care, and public health protection"
as our core values.
From a scientific perspective, we adhere to breaking the bottleneck of traditional antibiotics through
innovative
technologies and use the unique mechanism of action of natural antimicrobial peptides
to solve the global problem of bacterial resistance. From social and moral perspectives,
we not only pay attention to pet health to respond to people's emotional needs for
companion animals but also attach importance to the concept of "One Health";
we avoid the risk of cross-species transmission of drug-resistant bacteria from the
source and protect the health of humans, especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly
and children. From an environmental perspective, due to the rapid metabolism and no accumulation
of Cecropin B in pets, it can reduce the ecological burden caused by traditional antibiotics
entering the environment along with pet excrement.
Stakeholder Priority Mapping
Centering on the pet antibacterial dressing project, four core stakeholder groups (pet owners, pet doctors, synthetic biology researchers, and government regulations) are categorized into different priorities based on "the degree of connection with the project's core goals + the value contribution to product implementation". It clarifies the key roles of each group in the full chain of the project's "demand source (owners) - professional endorsement (doctors) - technical support (researchers) - compliance bottom line (regulations)", providing a core basis for project resource allocation and targeted interaction.
Figure 1 Priority and Connection Map
Stakeholder-Project Deep Connection
Differentiated connection paths are designed for stakeholders of different priorities in line with the project's phased goals: For pet owners, two-way feedback between "user pain points and product design" is achieved through survey-based popularization and demand collection; for pet doctors, a cooperation mechanism of "clinical suggestions and product iteration" is built via professional communication and training; in collaboration with synthetic biology researchers, core technical bottlenecks of dressings are broken through by means of technical sharing and R&D cooperation; with reference to government regulations, compliance standards are anchored from the early R&D stage to ensure the legality of product marketization. Finally, a closed loop of symbiosis and mutual promotion between each group and the project is formed.
iHP S³-Cycle
The three cycles of the pet antibacterial dressing project form an interdependently driven, continuously operating closed loop with the core logic of "social demands → project optimization → value feedback": social input provides direction and support for project optimization, project optimization transforms social demands into implementable technological outcomes, and finally, social impact realizes value output—while new demands generated during the impact process feed back into social input, driving cycle iteration.
Figure 2 iHP S³-Cycle
Self-Optimization
Specifically, the social input cycle to the project serves as the foundation of the entire system. Through the chain of "Pet Medical Policy → Pet Owners' Demand Feedback → Pet Wound Cases → Synthetic Biology Technology", it provides four core supports for the project: "compliance framework, demand targets, research materials, and technical tools": Policies define the safety standards and compliance boundaries for dressing R&D, preventing deviation from industry norms; Pet owners' feedback on "convenient home care" directly locks in the R&D focus of "easy operation and adaptability to active pets" for the dressing; A large number of real pet wound cases (e.g., wounds of different locations and infection degrees) provide practical scenario-based basis for targeted optimization of the dressing; Synthetic biology technologies (such as gene editing and engineered bacteria construction) solve the technical bottleneck of efficient antimicrobial peptide preparation, enabling the production of core ingredients.
Social Input
Based on this, the project self-optimization cycle conducts targeted iterations around "solving social pain points". Its process—"Antimicrobial Peptide Screening → Dressing Formula Optimization → Animal Experiment Verification → Production Process Upgrade"—is closely linked: First, antimicrobial peptides with stronger effects against common pathogenic bacteria in pets are screened from natural organisms to ensure the effectiveness of core ingredients; Then, combined with pet owners' demand for "convenient use", the dressing's ingredient ratio and film-forming properties are optimized (e.g., improving adhesion to prevent falling off due to pet scratching); Subsequently, animal experiments are conducted to verify the dressing's antibacterial effect and skin safety, eliminating risks such as allergies and irritation; Finally, based on experimental results and large-scale production needs, processes are upgraded to reduce costs and increase production capacity, ensuring that technological outcomes can be launched into the market.
Social Impact
The project's social impact cycle is the value realization of the previous two cycles and, at the same time, the starting point of the next cycle. It follows the path of "Pet Care Popularization → Community & Industry Collaboration → Better Pet Wound Care Solutions → Improve Pet Health Level": Popularizing knowledge on "scientific pet wound treatment" through campus lectures and community activities to correct traditional care misunderstandings; Collaborating with pet hospitals and community pet organizations to promote optimized dressing solutions, making safe and efficient care tools accessible to more users; Ultimately, solving the pain point of pet wound infection with "convenient, safe, and efficient" dressings, reducing the frequency of pet medical visits and their suffering, and improving overall health levels—during this process, users will also feedback new demands (e.g., mini-sized dressings for small pets), which become part of the next round of social input, driving the continuous operation of the cycle.
MILESTONES
Timeline
Human Practices in action: Problem-solving journey
The team’s project inspiration
stems from three core values: From a scientific perspective,
antimicrobial peptides can replace traditional antibiotics,
helping address the global issue of bacterial resistance;
from a social and moral perspective,
a survey of 100 pet owners revealed that pets provide emotional comfort but incur high
treatment costs, driving us to develop affordable products guided by
"technology for all"; from an environmental perspective,
antimicrobial peptides are biodegradable, aligning with green concepts. Based on this,
we established the core goal of "protecting pet health through synthetic biology."
Demand Trade-off and Compromise
Through pet hospital surveys, owner interviews,
and enterprise consultations, we set "excellent efficacy, controllable cost,
and easy use" as the primary design principles. For product form,
although the spray had a shorter R&D cycle, dressings better met clinical needs—so
we abandoned the "spray + freeze-dried powder" dual-form and focused on dressings.
Technically, due to the poor performance of single Cecropin B, we switched to the
"Cecropin B + 742" combination; despite increased experimental complexity,
it significantly improved antibacterial efficacy and safety.
Goal Adjustment and Achievement
The core goal of "developing pet antibacterial agents" remained unchanged,
but the path was optimized multiple times: shifting from broad antimicrobial
peptide research to focusing on pet wound treatment,
streamlining from dual formulations to a single dressing,
and upgrading from a single peptide to a dual-peptide synergistic system.
After the CCiC Conference, we added the goal of biosafety compliance,
ultimately achieving the comprehensive goal of "technological innovation + social
adaptation + safety compliance."
Comparison with Alternative Solutions
Our technical path has significant advantages over traditional solutions:
Compared to chemical antibiotics, it is less likely to induce resistance
and more environmentally friendly; compared to existing pet antibacterial dressings,
the EDPNG protection mechanism and anionic antioxidant peptide design
solve the poor stability issue of natural antimicrobial peptides;
compared to non-biotechnologies like physical antibacterial materials,
synthetic biology enables precise regulation of antibacterial activity
and biocompatibility; compared to other bio-based solutions, extremophile library
mining and double-plasmid transformation technology improve peptide acquisition
efficiency and mass production potential.
Responsible
Potential Risk Prevention and Control
The project faces two types of potential risks: First,
misuse of antimicrobial peptide sequences to enhance the resistance of harmful microorganisms,
threatening ecological safety; second, non-biodegradable dressing materials causing medical pollution.
In response, we encrypted gene sequences and restricted the use of expression vectors (technically),
collaborated with enterprises to screen biodegradable substrates (material-wise),
and evaluated the environmental release risks of GMOs with reference to iGEM safety
guidelines to avoid technology misuse at the source.
Safety Responsibility Inside and Outside the Lab
We adhered to iGEM safety requirements: Inside the lab,
we strictly followed biosafety level protocols, managed extremophile libraries
and gene editing in separate areas, and conducted regular safety training; outside the lab,
we learned biosafety regulations for pet medicine through the CCiC Conference to ensure compliant R&D.
For data disclosure, we adhered to "honesty and transparency + risk control,"
protecting core technical parameters to balance academic integrity and technology abuse
prevention—practicing iGEM’s "safety and accountability" values.
Core Affected Communities
Three groups benefit directly: Pet owners gain affordable and effective treatment solutions,
alleviating the "high medical cost" burden; veterinarians at 13 surveyed hospitals obtain new
diagnostic tools to improve wound treatment efficiency; synthetic biology peers can reference the
"extremophile peptide mining + peptide optimization" technical path. Additionally,
pet rescue organizations can reduce costs with low-cost dressings, and agricultural enterprises
like Jiangsu Siweibo can explore cross-sector applications of the antibacterial technology.
Response to Potentially Affected Communities
The project’s success may impact two groups: Traditional pet
antibacterial drug manufacturers may face short-term profit fluctuations due to
our affordable products—we plan to replace direct competition with technology
licensing cooperation; small pet clinics in remote areas may be marginalized due
to equipment and technical barriers—we collaborated with public welfare organizations
to design a "technology popularization program" to simplify processes and lower thresholds,
avoiding a "technological divide."
Responsive
Key Consulting Resources and Communities
To ensure reasonable value prioritization,
we built a "three-dimensional consulting network": Technically,
we relied on Dr. Jiang Ling’s extremophile resources and Professor
Xu Zheng’s guidance on peptide optimization to implement scientific values;
in industry practice, we partnered with Guoyuan Bio and Sipu Enterprise to
ensure the technology meets industrial needs;
in social ethics, we calibrated our direction through the iGEM Human
Practices Committee and pet medical community. For biosafety,
we consulted CCiC experts and regulatory authorities, confirming that
compliance takes priority over R&D speed.
Feedback Acquisition Mechanism
We established a "multi-scenario feedback mechanism"
to evaluate the program: Technically, we verified
feasibility through lab data iteration and enterprise expert
demonstrations (e.g., discussing dressing design with Expert Yin Xin from Sipu);
commercially, we identified "affordability and convenience" as
core demands via 100 owner questionnaires and 13 hospital surveys; ethically,
we participated in Tongji University’s humanistic care seminar to collect
suggestions on "animal medical technology," achieving comprehensive multi-dimensional
evaluation.
Design and Demand Closed Loop
We adapted to demands through the "research-design-verification-optimization" cycle: After pet hospital
surveys, we transformed the "dressing demand" into product design; collaborated with Sipu to solve
dressing technical pain points using "anionic antioxidant peptides"; added double-plasmid transformation
technology to improve feasibility after communicating with South China University of Technology; and
consulted packaging solutions at the CIIF exhibition to complete the full-chain adaptation from demand
to product. This cycle ran through the project—for example, based on owners' "cost sensitivity"
feedback, we reduced costs in technical optimization and supply chain design to achieve precise matching
between demands and solutions.
Support of Human Practices for Decision-Making
Human Practices supported all key decisions: For ethical decisions, we incorporated "animal welfare"
into product standards based on owner feedback; for technical decisions, we added the EDPNG protection
mechanism to ensure dressing stability as suggested by enterprise experts; for safety decisions, we
established a regulatory compliance system based on biosafety discussions at the CCiC Conference; for
communication strategies, we optimized them by learning from collaboration experiences shared by iGEM
Ambassadors. Without empirical evidence from these Human Practices activities, our decisions would
easily deviate and fail to align with iGEM values.
What More Do We Need to Do?
Government
We plan to first study local pet medical insurance policies, sort out our product's trial data and cost comparisons, and draft a preliminary application report with guidance from relevant associations. We will then try to communicate with grassroots medical security departments to learn about access procedures, laying basic groundwork for potential insurance inclusion.
Pet-Friendly Enterprises
We will start by contacting local small and medium-sized pet hospitals and regional supply platforms. For hospitals, we can provide a small quantity of trial dressings and simple guides; for platforms, we will introduce product advantages and seek small-scale consignment opportunities to test market feedback.
Updates and Summary
Our IHP efforts have been a "problem-solving and iterative" process: through interactions with diverse stakeholders (experts, owners, hospitals, enterprises), we identified pain points like antibiotic resistance in pet treatment and high costs, and targeted these to optimize technology (e.g., switching to dressings, adding peptide 742) and adjust goals (e.g., adding biosafety compliance).
