"Innovation is not just about technology; it's about understanding people's needs and creating value for society."

— Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

This philosophy profoundly guides the direction of our TasAnchor project. Technological innovation must be rooted in real-world needs to truly achieve the leap from laboratory to industrial application.

Through in-depth stakeholder analysis, we recognized that the industrialization of engineered bacteria technology is not merely a technical challenge but a systematic endeavor. From the practical needs of wastewater treatment plants to environmental regulatory policy requirements, from technical support from research institutes to public environmental awareness, every link affects the implementation of technology. This prompted us to re-examine our project design and integrate multiple stakeholder concerns into our technical improvements.

To address core issues such as "the contradiction between engineered bacteria efficiency and stability," "the gap between technological innovation and industrial application," and "the balance between environmental benefits and economic costs," we conducted human practices activities throughout the project. Through continuous dialogue with various parties, we constantly optimized our technical solutions, driving TasAnchor from concept to application, truly serving water environment management.

Initial Design Framework

By June 2024, the preliminary design framework of the TasAnchor project had basically taken shape. We planned to construct three core modules:

• Adhesion Module: Enhance adhesion to filter media by modifying E. coli's CsgA protein
• Functional Testing Module: Verify the detection, enrichment, and urease mineralization degradation capabilities of the whole-cell immobilization platform using heavy metal and organic wastewater
• Biosafety Module: Continue using the density-dependent suicide system from 2023 SCU-China to ensure environmental safety of engineered bacteria

While this design was theoretically feasible, many technical details still needed refinement for practical application.

June 25 - First Iteration

We conducted in-depth exchanges with six advisors from the College of Life Sciences at Sichuan University. Professor Nianhui Zhang specializes in microbial metabolic engineering, Professor Chuanfang Wu has achievements in protein structure and function as well as molecular biology, while Professors Yang Cao, Zhibin Liu, Ke Liu, and Jian Zhao provided valuable insights from perspectives of synthetic biology and protein engineering.

Issues Identified:

• Application scenarios were too broad, attempting to simultaneously solve heavy metal and organic pollution without targeted technical validation. This "one-size-fits-all" design approach often struggles to balance performance across all aspects in practical applications, weakening the technology's core competitiveness.
• While E. coli is a model organism in synthetic biology with mature genetic manipulation tools, its survival capacity in actual wastewater environments is limited. Complex water quality conditions, pH fluctuations, and temperature changes could all affect its activity and functional expression.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Focus on a single application scenario, particularly biological enhancement of existing membrane separation technologies. This could leverage existing engineering infrastructure, lower technical application barriers, and accelerate industrialization.
• Change the chassis organism from E. coli to Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis has stronger environmental adaptability, can form stress-resistant spores, and has more stable biofilm formation capability, making it more suitable for actual wastewater treatment environments.

Our Improvements:

• Clearly focused application scenarios on heavy metal wastewater treatment, particularly addressing the prominent cadmium pollution problem in Sichuan.
• After literature research and feasibility analysis, we decided to select B. subtilis as the new chassis organism. Its GRAS safety certification, strong secretion capability, and environmental adaptability laid the foundation for industrial application.
• Began systematic investigation of B. subtilis biofilm-related proteins, particularly focusing on TasA protein. TasA is the main structural protein of B. subtilis biofilm, with self-assembly ability and good material adhesion properties.

July 13 - Second Iteration

After project adjustment, we again exchanged with Professor Chuanfang Wu, and Professors Min Liu and Ying Chen from the School of Architecture and Environment at Sichuan University. Professor Min Liu focuses on wastewater treatment and resource recovery, Professor Ying Chen has rich experience in biological wastewater treatment, and they raised key questions from an engineering application perspective.

Issues Identified:

• Although focused on heavy metal treatment, key parameters such as specific metal valence states, concentration ranges, and wastewater sources remained unclear, requiring targeted treatment strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
• After biofilm enriches heavy metals, if they cannot be effectively recovered or disposed of, the metals remain in the system, merely transferring from liquid to solid phase. Once biofilm detaches or is replaced, it could cause more serious secondary pollution.
• While engineered bacteria perform well under laboratory conditions, complex operating conditions in actual wastewater treatment plants could lead to decreased activity or even inactivation.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Proposed the innovative concept of "mobile carriers": using movable filter media units that can be removed entirely for centralized treatment when saturated. This converts low-concentration pollutants into high-concentration resources, facilitating subsequent recovery and utilization.
• Suggested adopting a modular verification strategy: first verify each functional module separately (signal sensing, biofilm formation, heavy metal adsorption, etc.), then conduct system integration testing to clarify performance indicators for each link.

Our Improvements:

• Initially planned the technical route of heavy metal ion "detection-enrichment-elution." Literature review revealed that specific acidic conditions could effectively elute heavy metals from biofilms, enabling regeneration and reuse of engineered bacteria while solving secondary pollution issues.
• Strengthened the platform's modular design concept, decoupling adhesion and functional modules. This allows rapid adaptation to different pollutant treatment needs through simple gene replacement (such as replacing metal-binding proteins with organic degradation enzymes).

July 14 - Third Iteration

Professor Haiyan Wang is an expert in molecular modification of industrial microbial enzymes, and her deep accumulation in gene editing provided key technical support for the project.

Issues Identified:

• B. subtilis has multiple laboratory strains (168, W168, 3610, etc.) with significant differences in biofilm formation ability. Blind selection could affect subsequent experimental results; experimental data is needed to support strain selection.
• Gene knockout strategy requires careful design. Besides TasA, multiple biofilm-related genes affect biofilm formation, requiring determination of knockout priorities and combination schemes.
• While pH01 plasmid is an excellent vector for B. subtilis expression, its large backbone limits foreign gene insertion capacity. The originally planned urease system gene fragment was too large, potentially affecting plasmid stability and transformation efficiency.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Conduct preliminary experiments to compare biofilm formation ability, growth rate, and genetic stability of strain 168 and wild-type strains under standard conditions, selecting the most suitable starting strain.
• Provide the mature joe8999 plasmid system for gene knockout. This system, based on homologous recombination, has been widely used in B. subtilis with high success rates for efficient target gene knockout.
• Given plasmid capacity limitations, simplify functional design, abandon the urease mineralization pathway, and focus on establishing a stable "enrichment-elution" system. Consider functional expansion after platform maturation.

Our Improvements:

• Developed a systematic strain screening protocol: compare biofilm formation abilities of different strains and ultimately select the best-performing strain as chassis.
• Adjusted technical route, completely abandoning urease mineralization in favor of developing a pH-regulated elution system. This not only simplified gene circuit design but also improved the feasibility and economics of heavy metal recovery.

Summary

Through three in-depth academic exchanges, the TasAnchor project completed the critical transformation from concept to feasible solution. We not only clarified the technical route but more importantly established a "problem-oriented, iterative optimization" R&D mindset. This continuous improvement process made us deeply understand that true innovation is not working in isolation but finding the best combination of technology and needs through constant exchange and collision. Each discussion brought our design closer to practical application, and each suggestion propelled the project steadily toward industrialization goals.

August 11 - Exchange with Professor Lina Pang from Sichuan University

Issues Identified:

• Project introduction logic chain was unclear; the necessity between technical modules and solving industry pain points was not fully demonstrated.
• Innovation points were too scattered, including strain modification, system integration, and biological filter optimization, lacking a focused core innovation that made it difficult to assess market competitiveness.

Opinions and Suggestions:

Systematically organize design logic, starting from industry pain points to clarify that "poor engineered bacteria adhesion" is the core problem, and focus on core innovation by positioning "solving carrier adhesion from a microbial perspective" as the core innovation point. This differentiates from mainstream "material modification" approaches and offers unique technical advantages.

Our Improvements:

• Supplemented extensive background materials including biological filter working principles, quantitative data on microbial loss, and limitations of existing solutions, constructing a complete technical needs demonstration system.
• Clarified a three-layer innovation architecture: the bottom layer is TasA protein modification for strong adhesion, the middle layer is a modular platform supporting functional expansion, and the top layer is system solutions oriented toward industrial needs.

August 13 - Exchange with Professor Yunjun Yan from Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Issues Identified:

• After knocking out endogenous TasA gene, how to accurately evaluate the expression effect of exogenous fusion proteins? Expression level differences between endogenous TasA and exogenous expression systems could affect experimental result interpretation, requiring quantitative data support.
• Quantitative evaluation methods for adhesion performance were unclear. While simple washing methods are intuitive, they lack precise quantitative means to evaluate effectiveness differences between adhesion strategies.
• Concerns about SpyTag/SpyCatcher system stability. Whether this non-covalent connection can maintain sufficient binding strength in complex wastewater treatment environments is a crucial consideration for scheme selection.
• While EPS (extracellular polysaccharides) have heavy metal adsorption capability, their presence might interfere with accurate measurement of TasA fusion protein adhesion effects and could affect subsequent elution recovery efficiency. Balancing EPS retention versus knockout became a key issue.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Conduct qPCR quantitative analysis to systematically compare expression levels of endogenous TasA and exogenous fusion proteins. If endogenous promoter expression is significantly higher, consider inserting fusion protein genes downstream of the endogenous promoter to utilize the cell's own transcriptional regulatory mechanisms for efficient expression.
• Professor Yan proposed a staining-washing-counting based adhesion evaluation scheme. This method marks adhered bacteria through staining, performs colony counting after standardized washing, achieving both qualitative observation and quantitative analysis with simple operation and reliable data.
• Emphasized the decisive role of covalent connections in improving adhesion durability. In comparison, non-covalent interaction systems have inherent disadvantages in long-term stability, which is particularly critical for practical applications.

Our Improvements:

• Regarding the EPS issue, after thorough discussion we decided not to knock out the EPS gene cluster. Three main considerations: First, EPS plays an important role in biofilm structural stability; knockout might affect overall adhesion performance of engineered bacteria on carriers. Second, in actual wastewater treatment, EPS's metal chelation might synergize with TasA-metal binding proteins. Third, our elution system is based on pH regulation; literature research shows that metals bound by EPS can also be effectively released under acidic conditions. Therefore, retaining EPS might bring the platform closer to practical application needs.
• Established a standardized adhesion performance evaluation system using congo red staining to mark bacteria adhered to carrier surfaces, removing weakly adhered strains under standardized washing conditions, then obtaining quantitative data through CFU counting.
• Optimized technical route prioritization, making direct fusion of TasA with mussel foot protein Mfp5 the core approach. Meanwhile, repositioned the Spy system as an extended solution demonstrating platform modularity potential rather than the main technical path.

August 25 - Exchange with Teacher Daping Li from Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Issues Identified:

• The scheme of B. subtilis surface display of metallothionein for cadmium ion adsorption, while feasible, overlooks the complexity of multivalent heavy metals in wastewater.
• Genetically engineered bacteria costs are relatively high, while existing heavy metal treatment technologies (chemical precipitation, ion exchange) have simpler principles, significant effects, and lower costs. Highlighting unique advantages of engineered bacteria technology becomes a key challenge.
• Huge gap exists between laboratory design and engineering application; lacking hardware system design and pilot validation makes it difficult to assess actual application potential.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Construct laboratory-scale pilot system including complete modules like influent system, reactor body, and effluent collection to verify technical feasibility under conditions close to actual operation.
• Emphasize platform technology's universality and expandability, not limited to heavy metal treatment but adaptable to different pollutant treatment needs through modular design.

Our Improvements:

• Referencing Teacher Li's laboratory pilot system, added hardware design module attempting to simulate real biological filter operating conditions.
• Clearly selected polystyrene spherical filter media as test carrier due to its large specific surface area and low cost, making it a mainstream choice for biological filters.
• Developed phased implementation plan from shake flask experiments to pilot validation.

Summary

Through in-depth exchanges with three experts, the project achieved substantial improvement in technical routes, mechanism research, and engineering applications. Teacher Li helped us establish a technical validation system from laboratory to pilot scale, Professor Pang clarified our core innovation points and industrialization path, while Professor Yan optimized system design from a synthetic biology perspective. Each discussion drove the project toward more mature and practical directions.

After preliminary design optimization and refinement, the TasAnchor project had taken initial shape. However, there's still a long way from laboratory to industrial application. To explore implementation pathways, we visited environmental protection enterprises, dialogued with government departments, and connected with overseas experts to deeply understand opportunities and challenges faced by engineered bacteria technology in practical applications.

August 26 - Exchange with Chengdu Meifute Environmental Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1996, Chengdu Meifute started by introducing American engineered bacteria technology for landscape water treatment and has now become a comprehensive environmental enterprise engaged in specialty membrane R&D and production, industrial wastewater treatment, and modular wastewater treatment plant construction. The company has accumulated multiple national first-set projects in industrial wastewater. Three core technical experts—Wenqi Li, Hongbo Liang, and Ruiping Qiao—provided valuable industrialization suggestions during offline academic exchange.

Issues Identified:

• Vague positioning of actual application scenarios directly affects technical routes and equipment selection.
• Lack of comparative data between wild-type and modified strains, unable to quantify performance improvements from genetic modification—a key indicator for industrialization assessment.
• Insufficient understanding of industrial application complexity; actual operating parameters like backwash processes, retention time, and load shocks weren't incorporated into design considerations.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Clearly position for tertiary advanced treatment, as pollutant concentrations are lower in this segment, more suitable for biological enhancement technology, with relatively flexible regulatory requirements.
• Start with small-scale black and odorous water body treatment, such as campus landscape lakes and community pools. These scenarios have controllable risks and quick results, facilitating accumulation of application experience and demonstration effects.

Our Improvements:

• Designed parallel comparison experiments between wild-type strain 168 and TasA-modified strain to quantify modification effects across multiple dimensions including biofilm formation speed and heavy metal adsorption capacity.
• Clearly positioned application scenarios in the tertiary treatment section of biological filters.
• Developed a phased implementation route of "laboratory-pilot-demonstration project," with the first demonstration site planned for Mingyuan Lake at Sichuan University's Jiang'an campus.

August 28 - Field Investigation at Sichuan Qinghe Technology Co., Ltd.

Sichuan Qinghe Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise focused on water environment management. Their "Natural Recovery" philosophy and four major technical systems have achieved significant results in projects like Chengdu's South River and Longquan Lake. Three teachers—Yan, Xiang Xia, and Tiezheng Niu —not only demonstrated a complete "R&D-pilot-intermediate pilot-application" system under laboratory conditions but also shared years of engineering practice experience.

Issues Identified:

• Insufficient understanding of biosafety regulations for engineered bacteria practical applications; no precedent exists domestically for genetically modified engineered bacteria directly applied to open water bodies, posing huge policy risks.
• Lack of industrial production awareness; scaling from laboratory shake flask cultivation to cubic meter-level fermenter production involves numerous technical challenges in process scale-up.
• One-sided understanding of microbial activity monitoring methods; actual engineering relies more on indirect indicators (COD, temperature, pH) rather than direct biological detection.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Biosafety is a red line issue: "Once engineered bacteria leak, public opinion attacks could directly collapse the company," requiring multiple safety measures design and rigorous testing.
• Referencing their intermediate pilot platform experience, design modular pilot system including key units like 5L fermenter, pipeline cultivation device, and centrifugal concentration equipment.

Our Improvements:

• Strengthened biosafety design with more comprehensive safety testing protocol: simulating different leakage scenarios under laboratory conditions, testing suicide switch trigger efficiency and response time, recording engineered bacteria survival rates and function retention under various conditions.
• Established multi-level monitoring system for industrial application: real-time online monitoring (pH, DO, ORP), daily water quality detection (COD, ammonia nitrogen), and periodic biological detection (community structure, functional gene abundance).

September 6 - Online Exchange with Mr. Lv from Seattle Municipal Government, USA

Mr. Zheng Lv has worked in Seattle's municipal drainage system for years with deep understanding of US wastewater treatment policies, regulations, technical standards, and regulatory systems. This trans-Pacific dialogue allowed us to examine the project's application prospects from an international perspective.

Issues Identified:

• Overly optimistic about international policies for engineered bacteria applications; in reality, the US is equally extremely cautious about environmental release of genetically modified organisms.
• Insufficient understanding of engineering system redundancy design; single safety measures are far from adequate for practical applications.

Opinions and Suggestions:

• Emphasized importance of multiple-layer protection systems: "Everything must have multiple layers of protection"—a fundamental principle of engineering applications.
• While US regulations vary by state, approval for genetic engineering is universally strict. Suggested fully verifying safety and effectiveness in controlled environments first.

Our Improvements:

Drawing from US experience, designed three-level industrial protection system: physical isolation (membrane separation), biosafety (suicide switch), and emergency treatment (UV disinfection) to ensure foolproof safety.

September 2 - Exchange with Teacher Dingyu Zhang from Sichuan Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment

Teacher Zhang has long engaged in water environment quality supervision with comprehensive understanding of Sichuan's water pollution prevention policies, water quality assessment systems, and pollution control status. His guidance helped us better understand policy orientation and market demands.

Issues Identified:

• Unclear about departmental division in water quality supervision; mistakenly thought ecological environment departments were responsible for wastewater treatment plant operations when they only handle water quality supervision and assessment.
• Hadn't noticed the new water ecology assessment policy to be implemented in 2025; new biological indicators and flood season pollution intensity indicators might bring new market opportunities.

Opinions and Suggestions:

The 2025 water ecology assessment will incorporate biodiversity indicators; biological enhancement technology might play a significant role in maintaining water ecosystem stability.

Our Improvements:

• Expanded platform application scope; besides heavy metals, later attempted to add functional module design for nitrogen and phosphorus treatment in agricultural non-point source pollution.
• Established information communication mechanism with environmental departments to timely understand policy trends and technical needs, ensuring R&D direction aligns with policy orientation.

Summary

Through in-depth exchanges with industry, government departments, and international experts, we gained clearer understanding of TasAnchor project's implementation pathway. These dialogues made us realize that technological innovation is just the first step; more importantly, finding suitable application scenarios in complex real-world environments.

The most important insight: Successful environmental technology must not only solve technical problems but also balance economic benefits, comply with regulatory requirements, and gain social recognition. We will continue adhering to the strategy of "small steps, rapid iteration," starting with small-scale demonstrations and continuously improving technology through practice, ultimately achieving the leap from laboratory to industrial application. As Teacher Qiao said during exchange: "The more innovative, the potentially further from application," but we believe that with the right direction and solid steps, TasAnchor will ultimately demonstrate its unique value in water environment management.

While synthetic biology offers broad application prospects in environmental management, its potential biosafety risks cannot be ignored. Once released into open environments, engineered bacteria could trigger unpredictable ecological consequences. As a responsible research team, we deeply understand that technological innovation must be built on rigorous safety assessment and risk prevention foundations.

Biosafety Risk Prediction

Through in-depth exchanges with experts in environmental microbiology, wastewater treatment, and synthetic biology, we identified main biosafety risks TasAnchor project might face in practical applications:

1. Engineered Bacteria Leakage and Environmental Spread Risk

Professor Chuanfang Wu from Sichuan University clearly pointed out on July 13: "Complex operating conditions in actual wastewater treatment plants (toxic substance shocks, nutrient fluctuations, microbial competition, etc.) might lead to decreased engineered bacteria activity or even inactivation." The flip side of this issue is that even with biosafety mechanisms designed, engineered bacteria might still escape through unexpected pathways in complex real environments. Experts from Sichuan Qinghe Technology emphasized during the August 28 field investigation: "Once engineered bacteria leak, public opinion attacks could directly collapse the company"—biosafety is a red line issue.

Specific risks include:

• Physical leakage: Biological filter backwashing, equipment failure, or operational errors could lead to direct discharge of water containing engineered bacteria
• Carrier detachment: Although TasA protein modification enhances adhesion, biofilm detachment might still occur under high flow impact
• Environmental adaptation: B. subtilis's ability to form spores might enable long-term survival in open environments

2. Horizontal Gene Transfer Risk

Foreign genes carried by engineered bacteria might transfer to other environmental microorganisms through plasmid transfer, transduction, or transformation, causing "gene pollution." Although our selected B. subtilis is a GRAS-certified safe strain, foreign gene spread could still alter genetic diversity of local microbial communities.

3. Ecological Niche Competition and Community Imbalance Risk

Teacher Daping Li from Chengdu Institute of Biology, CAS reminded us that engineered bacteria's advantages in specific functions might lead to overgrowth in certain ecological niches, crowding out indigenous microorganisms' living space. Particularly in artificial ecosystems like biological filters, long-term use of single-function engineered bacteria might reduce microbial diversity and weaken system interference resistance.

4. Suicide Switch Failure Risk

Although we designed a density-dependent suicide switch system, its reliability in practical applications still requires long-term verification:

• Mutational escape: Under long-term selection pressure, some strains might undergo genetic mutations rendering the suicide switch ineffective
• Environmental interference: Under complex water quality conditions, stability and transmission efficiency of signaling molecules might be affected
• Metabolic burden: Multiple gene circuits might increase cellular metabolic burden, causing growth disadvantages and creating selection pressure promoting gene loss

Biosafety Prevention Strategies

Based on the above risk predictions, we formulated multi-level, comprehensive biosafety prevention strategies:

1. Technical Level Biosafety Design

• Multiple biosafety systems: Referencing the "multiple-layer system" concept proposed by Mr. Lv from Seattle municipal government, we established a three-level protection system:
  • First level: Density-dependent suicide switch (automatically initiates cell death in low-density environments)
  • Second level: Physical isolation (hardware measures like reactor sealing and membrane separation)
  • Third level: Emergency sterilization (UV disinfection and other physical inactivation methods as final defense)
• Closed intermediate pilot system: Referencing Teacher Daping Li's laboratory pilot system experience, we added hardware design modules including complete modules like influent system, reactor body, and effluent collection, ensuring closed testing under conditions close to actual operation in laboratory settings.

2. Management Level Risk Control

• Phased risk assessment: Following the progressive validation path of "laboratory-pilot-intermediate pilot-demonstration application-industrial trial," each stage requires passing strict biosafety assessment before proceeding to the next.
• Long-term monitoring system: Establishing multi-level monitoring system: real-time online monitoring (pH, DO, ORP), daily water quality detection (COD, ammonia nitrogen), periodic biological detection (community structure, functional gene abundance) to promptly discover abnormal situations.
• Application scenario limitation: Clearly positioning application scenarios in tertiary treatment sections of biological filters, avoiding use in primary and secondary treatment with complex water quality and high risks. First demonstration site selected for closed, controllable small water bodies like Mingyuan Lake at Sichuan University's Jiang'an campus rather than open rivers.

3. Future Plans

• Suicide switch robustness testing: Simulating different leakage scenarios under laboratory conditions, testing suicide switch trigger efficiency and response time, recording engineered bacteria survival rates and function retention under various conditions (different pH, temperature, nutrition).
• Ecological impact assessment experiments: Simulating real water body environments in microcosm systems, long-term observation of engineered bacteria's effects on indigenous microbial community structure and function to assess ecological risks.
• Genetic stability verification: Through continuous passage experiments, monitoring foreign gene genetic stability to assess probability of mutational escape.

August-September: iGEMers Collaboration on "Ethics of Synthetic Biology in Water Environment"

Recognizing that biosafety is not just a technical issue for individual projects but an ethical challenge the entire synthetic biology field must face together, we engaged in deep collaboration with domestic iGEM teams including SUSTech-OCEAN, XJTLU-China, and ZJU-China to co-author the "Ethics of Synthetic Biology in Water Environment" handbook.

The handbook focuses on synthetic biology applications in water environment management, with each chapter sourced from teams' project practices and deep reflections this year. Our team was responsible for writing the "Environmental Protection and Synthetic Biology Initiative—From a Wastewater Treatment Perspective" section.

Summary

Through systematic risk prediction and multi-level prevention strategy design, we deeply recognize that biosafety is not an accessory to technological innovation but the lifeline determining whether TasAnchor can move from laboratory to practical application. We gradually established a "responsible innovation" R&D philosophy—seeking dynamic balance between technological breakthroughs and risk prevention, advancing application transformation with reverence for nature.

We acknowledge that current biosafety designs still require long-term verification, and that improvement of regulatory systems, establishment of public trust, and coordination of international standards all require continuous effort.

However, this vigilance toward the unknown and commitment to responsibility form the cornerstone of synthetic biology's maturation. We believe that by adhering to the cautious path of "small steps, rapid iteration" and maintaining historical responsibility toward this blue planet and future generations, synthetic biology will ultimately find a sustainable balance between innovation and safety, providing truly responsible solutions for water environment management.

The value of synthetic biology lies not only in laboratory technical breakthroughs but also in whether it can truly serve society and benefit the public. This section records how we transformed laboratory research achievements into social value and built bridges of understanding and trust between different groups.

Connecting the Public: Building an All-Age Science Communication System

As an emerging interdisciplinary field, synthetic biology's social acceptance directly affects technology application prospects. Our public questionnaire survey showed that while most respondents support biological technology for wastewater treatment, there's a widespread "semi-understanding" cognitive paradox regarding engineered bacteria biosafety mechanisms. This prompted us to build an all-age science communication system covering toddlers, middle school students, university students, and special groups.

1. For Toddlers and Communities: Sowing Seeds of Scientific Enlightenment

We designed science popularization activities suitable for toddlers' cognitive development stages, using community parent-child interaction formats and anthropomorphic stories like "Wastewater Cleaning Magicians" to help children establish initial awareness of the microbial world. Activities employed fun experiments (hand-building plastic bottles that filter wastewater), transforming abstract biological concepts into tangible, experiential concrete knowledge, cultivating children's curiosity and exploration desire for natural sciences, laying emotional foundations for future scientific literacy.

2. For High School Students: From Interest Stimulation to Innovation Enlightenment

In 2024, we were invited to participate in Chengdu Shude High School's "Science and Technology Strengthens the Nation • The Future Has Me" themed science and technology festival, conducting in-depth science popularization through interactive booth formats. Activities adopted a three-in-one model of "theoretical explanation + case analysis + hands-on practice": first systematically introducing synthetic biology's DBTL (Design-Build-Test-Learn) cycle concept through carefully designed brochures, then using SCU-China's 2024 VersaTobacco project as a case study to explain in accessible terms how genetic engineering technology modifies plant chassis. Most innovative was the heat-shrink film handicraft segment—students drew biological symbols like DNA double helices, plasmid vectors, and iGEM logos on heat-shrink film, creating creative pendants after heat-shrinking. This approach combining scientific elements with artistic creation transformed abstract concepts into collectible physical carriers, significantly improving knowledge retention.

3. For University Students: Building Peer Academic Exchange Platform

For university student groups, we participated in organizing the university-level "Microbial Design and Application Competition" academic competition, providing a platform for technology exchange and project incubation for synthetic biology enthusiasts in universities. Unlike enlightenment-style science popularization for middle school students, university-level communication emphasizes professionalism and cutting-edge nature, covering professional fields like gene editing technology, metabolic engineering, and biological computing, encouraging participants to transform theoretical knowledge into practical application solutions.

4. Focusing on Special Groups: Responsible Practice of Scientific Inclusion

Recognizing that science communication should be inclusive, we initiated a Braille children's science book writing project. This project transforms basic synthetic biology concepts into cute and interesting Braille stories featuring characters from the classic Chinese animation "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," with accompanying audio explanations, ensuring visually impaired groups can equally access cutting-edge scientific knowledge. This is not only practicing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities principle of "barrier-free information access" but also reflects researchers' deep understanding of "scientific inclusion"—the fruits of technological progress should benefit everyone, including those in disadvantaged positions for information access.

See Education

Connecting iGEMers: Inheritance and Innovation in the Global Community

The core value of the iGEM competition lies not only in technical competition but also in knowledge sharing and collaborative innovation among global young scientists. As a continuous participating team from China, we've always regarded experience inheritance and community contribution as important missions.

1. CCiC Conference: Intellectual Collision of Chinese iGEM Teams

In August 2024, we participated in the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC), the largest and most influential synthetic biology academic event in China. At the conference, we not only showcased TasAnchor project's design philosophy and technical route but more importantly engaged in deep exchanges with iGEM teams from multiple universities. We received valuable feedback from other teams while sharing our experience in wastewater treatment and engineered bacteria immobilization with peers.

2. Cross-Educational Level Experience Inheritance: Collaboration with YNNU-China

On July 26, we conducted in-depth exchange with the YNNU-China team via Zoom platform. As the only graduate student team in China participating in iGEM for the first time, YNNU-China faced many questions in the Foundational Advance track. Given SCU-China's excellent achievement of Best Project nomination in this track in 2024, we systematically shared practical experience in key areas including project management, time planning, documentation writing, and human practices design.

This exchange achieved bidirectional benefits: the YNNU-China team established overall understanding of the iGEM competition system, while we gained insights from the graduate team's rigorous research thinking and systematic research methods.

Connecting the World: Embedding Technological Innovation into the Global Sustainable Development Framework

The value of synthetic biology should not be limited to single application scenarios but should deeply integrate with the global sustainable development agenda. For this purpose, we collaborated with NUDT-China and BIT-China to co-author the "Synthetic Biology and Sustainable Development Goals Synergistic Development Handbook."

The handbook writing process itself was a profound learning and reflection: it prompted us to jump out of single project perspectives and re-examine the social value of technological innovation from the macro level of global governance. We recognized that synthetic biology should not be isolated technical breakthroughs but part of systematic solutions to global challenges. This further strengthened our understanding of "responsible innovation": technology development must consider not only efficiency and cost but also evaluate long-term impacts on ecosystems, social equity, and intergenerational justice.

Summary

TasAnchor's significance lies not only in solving the technical challenge of engineered bacteria immobilization but also in becoming a link connecting science and society: it allows Braille book readers to feel the warmth of genetic engineering, lets middle school students draw their vision of the future on heat-shrink film, brings together young scientists from different countries and educational levels around a common mission, and transforms sustainable development goals from grand narratives into actionable technical roadmaps. These efforts remind us that when we try to transform the world with biological power, we first need to transform the relationship between science and the public—only technological innovation built on foundations of understanding, trust, and shared responsibility can truly go far and steady.

Throughout our human practices activities, in-depth dialogue with industry, academia, and regulatory departments has made us clearly aware of TasAnchor project's current limitations. This recognition is a necessary prerequisite for driving the project toward maturity.

The distance from laboratory to engineering application

is the most realistic challenge. Although we've verified core technology feasibility under laboratory conditions, there's still considerable distance to true engineering application. How to scale from milliliter-level cultivation to cubic meter-level fermenter production, how to maintain stable system operation in complex and variable actual wastewater environments, how to achieve long-term functional retention of engineered bacteria—these process scale-up and engineering issues all require systematic pilot and intermediate pilot verification, far exceeding what a student team can complete in limited time.

Uncertainty of economic competitiveness

constrains technology industrialization prospects. Compared to mature chemical precipitation and physical adsorption methods, engineered bacteria technology still lacks obvious cost advantages. We lack quantitative data proving economic benefits in specific scenarios. This economic ambiguity makes enterprises cautious in technology selection, reminding us of the need to supplement detailed economic feasibility analysis in subsequent research.

Lack of long-term biosafety verification

is the issue requiring most cautious treatment. Although we designed density-dependent suicide switches and completed laboratory testing, we lack long-term ecological impact assessment data. Engineered bacteria persistence in natural environments, effects on indigenous microbial communities, horizontal gene transfer risks—these key issues all require more systematic, longer-cycle safety verification.

Policy and regulatory uncertainty

constitutes a major obstacle to advancing applications. Environmental release of genetically engineered bacteria faces extremely strict approval requirements both domestically and internationally, with considerable uncertainty in approval processes, regulatory standards, and responsibility delineation. Even with mature technology, how to obtain regulatory approval, establish credible safety monitoring systems, and address public concerns are all issues requiring long-term exploration.

Recognizing these limitations, we've formulated a more pragmatic development strategy: the phased path of "laboratory verification-pilot system-demonstration project-industrial trial." We position TasAnchor as a long-term technological exploration, with current stage goals of completing core technology principle verification, accumulating key data, and establishing methodological foundations, rather than rushing commercial application.

This attitude of "doing what should be done and not doing what shouldn't" embodies the spirit of responsible innovation. Only through fully recognizing limitations, steadily solving problems, and gradually verifying safety and effectiveness can synthetic biology technology truly contribute sustainable solutions to water environment management. TasAnchor's value lies not only in technological innovation itself but also in providing a complete exploratory case for subsequent research—including successful experiences and challenges that need continued tackling.