Human Practice Overview
What if the story of gout could be rewritten, not only by treating the pain but by rethinking its beginnings in the gut? This idea led us to design an engineered probiotic that absorbs xanthine precursors before they turn into uric acid. From the first sketch of our design, Human Practices shaped every step: surveys revealed what people truly worried about, patients’ voices reminded us of the daily struggles behind the science, and experts—from doctors to companies—challenged us with questions of safety, dosage, and real-world use. These conversations were not just background; they actively redirected our project, pushing us to add safeguards, refine our rationale, and imagine how our work could connect to preventive healthcare in the future. We carefully recorded this journey so that other teams can follow or improve upon it. To us, Human Practices is less about outreach and more about building a living dialogue that keeps science responsible, creative, and deeply connected to society.
Companies & Hospitals
To ensure that our project evolved in close connection with real-world needs, we conducted a series of interviews across both industry and clinical settings. In the early months, visits to Bright Dairy & Food Co., Ltd. and InnoGeco Biotechnology enabled us to learn about the current probiotic market, practical strain preservation, and scale-up technologies, as well as the challenges of industrial production. Later, at Baoteng Biopharmaceutical, we explored how live biotherapeutics are advancing original innovation, how AI is driving precision medicine, and how cross-sector collaboration is shaping the future of preventive healthcare. Complementing these industry insights, our interviews with physicians from Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and other clinical experts shed light on the limitations of current hyperuricemia treatments and the unmet needs of patients. Their feedback not only inspired our core concept—engineering probiotics to absorb purine precursors in the gut—but also highlighted the safety, regulatory, and public acceptance challenges that must be addressed. Together, these combined perspectives grounded our project in both industrial feasibility and clinical relevance, guiding it from abstract idea to a socially meaningful and technically viable design.
Interview with Chief Physician Jiang Liushun
Interview with Dr. Jiang at Anhui TCM Hospital. She explained TCM's personalized hyperuricemia treatment, inspiring the GoutBuster project to refine its probiotic dosage model and promote tai chi for prevention.
Interview With a Nanjing TCM Physician
Interview with a Nanjing TCM physician highlighted flaws in current hyperuricemia drugs. It inspired developing engineered probiotics to absorb purines, addressing safety and public acceptance issues.
Interview with Shanghai InnoGeco Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
They introduced strain preservation and scale-up processes, inspiring our project to anticipate challenges in industrial fermentation and align our design with practical production feasibility.
Interview with Bright Dairy & Food Co., Ltd.
We shared insights on the probiotic market and product preparation techniques, inspiring our project to consider strain stability, delivery methods, and the consumer perspective in future applications.
Interview with Shanghai Baoteng Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
We discussed original innovation in live biotherapeutics, AI-driven precision medicine, and industry-academia-clinical collaboration, inspiring our project to position engineered probiotics within the broader ecosystem of preventive healthcare.
Visit Xellar Biosystems
We explored cutting-edge innovations in live biotherapeutics and AI-driven precision medicine, while also discussing models of industry-academia-clinical collaboration. These insights inspired us to position our engineered probiotics within a broader preventive healthcare ecosystem.
Public & Patients
The purpose of our survey was to uncover the real concerns, expectations, and acceptance levels of the public and patients' families regarding engineered probiotics for uric acid control. By distinguishing between decision-makers (such as younger family members) and actual users (older patients), we identified safety, efficacy, and affordability as the top priorities, while recognizing the “GMO” label as the main barrier to acceptance. These insights directly shaped our project design, guided the focus of our communication strategy, and informed our long-term vision for preventive healthcare solutions that are both scientifically sound and socially accepted.
Survey Insights
Identifying the true target audience: Our first-round survey revealed a critical insight—the decision-makers are often family members, not the patients themselves. While the end users are typically middle-aged or elderly parents, the buyers are often their children (18-30 and 31-45 age groups combined accounted for 52.36%). This means our communication strategy must appeal both to adult children concerned about their parents' health and to older patients who need to feel safe and willing to try the product.
Top priorities: safety and efficacy: Families care most about safety (“Will it harm my parents?”) and efficacy (“Will it truly ease their pain?”), with price ranking only afterward. This perfectly aligns with our survey data where safety and efficacy were consistently rated as the most important product features.
The chronic illness dilemma: Most respondents currently rely on dietary adjustments, which paints a common picture of gout management. Patients understand the need for strict diets, but this is painful and difficult to sustain. At the same time, fear of side effects and the high cost of existing drugs keep them away from medication. What they need is an effective, safe, affordable, and easy-to-maintain long-term management strategy—exactly the direction and vision of our research.
The “GMO” barrier: One of the greatest obstacles is the label of “genetic modification.” Data shows that 77.6% of respondents said they would “consider engineered probiotics only after learning about their safety,” while just 14.83% said they were “completely comfortable with it.” Importantly, this 77.6% represents a persuadable majority, not outright opponents. They are not rejecting the idea, but lack information and trust. This highlights both the extremely low public awareness of synthetic biology products and the negative connotations of “GMO” in the Chinese context. At the same time, it signals a huge opportunity: whoever succeeds in education and trust-building first will win this market.
Analysis of the First-phase Questionnaire
Our SKLBE team is constantly exploring more diverse and inclusive forms of popular science to ensure that scientific knowledge can reach more people and lay a solid public foundation for the subsequent translation of our project.
Analysis of the Second-phase Questionnaire
Based on the first round of questionnaires and the feedback from the professors and patients, we have further developed the second round of questionnaires to collect public opinions and suggestions regarding the safety of genetically modified products.
Interview with patients
They shared struggles with high treatment costs, strict diets, and poor outcomes, while expressing openness to engineered probiotics as a safer and more sustainable option.
Expert & Academics
We engaged with a wide range of experts, including professors within our university specializing in synthetic biology and probiotics, industry specialists with hands-on experience in live biotherapeutics, and international scholars contacted via email. These conversations provided us with critical feedback on the scientific soundness of our design, highlighted biosafety and translational challenges, and offered global perspectives on how engineered probiotics may evolve within preventive medicine. Their input helped us refine our technical approach, ensure rigorous safety measures, and situate our project within the broader academic and industrial landscape.
Prof. Bangce Ye
Dean, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) research expertise in Synthetic Biology, Intelligent Biomanufacturing, Molecular Machines and Biosensing Systems
Professor Dr. Mian Zhou
Professor of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology; Ph.D., UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA
Dr. Sen Ye
Ph.D.,Zhejiang University;specializes in organ-on-a-chip and organoid applications;currently the Director of Scientific Affairs at Youspeed Technology,a leading AI+organ-on-a-chip company,and former Chief Application Scientist for Asia-Pacific at Emulate;publications include Cancer Research
Professor Dr. Qian Wang
Professor Dr. Qian Wang (Professor of Microbial Biotechnology, Shandong University; research expertise in microbial metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, focusing on biosensors, gene circuits, and low-carbon biomanufacturing).
Professor Dr. Jiawei Shao
Researcher, “Hundred Talents Program,” Zhejiang University School of Medicine; young PI at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital; specializes in mammalian synthetic biology tools and intelligent gene/cell therapy strategies
Professor Dr. Huanxin Xu
Lecturer, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology; expertise in bioseparation engineering, functional foods, and translational applications of probiotics
Dr. Mathieu Verpaalen
Postdoctoral Researcher, ETH Zürich. Field: Synthetic Biology, Probiotic Engineering, Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBPs)
Dr. Aiyou Sun
Assistant Researcher, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) research expertise in Plant Vaccines, Microbial Metabolites, Immune Induction
Dr. Guoliang Zhu
Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) research expertise in Bioinformatics, Systems Biology, Computational Metabolism Analysis
Professor Jingli Xie
Professor, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) research expertise in Digital Bioengineering for Health and Agriculture, AI-driven Bioactive Molecule Design, Probiotic Metabolic Discussion Summary
Human Practice Conclusion
Our Human Integrated Practice (IHP) has effectively mobilized various stakeholders and strengthened our efforts in preventing and educating about hyperuricemia through strategic outreach methods. At the beginning of the project, we conducted a large-scale survey to assess the public's understanding and willingness regarding the project-related knowledge. These basic knowledge were subsequently supplemented through interviews with experts. During the actual implementation stage, we expanded the outreach scope to investors, biotech entrepreneurs, and business representatives. Their feedback helped us establish an efficient and feasible business model. Such strategic arrangements not only enriched our project content but also promoted extensive support across industries, enabling us to develop practical and effective solutions for preventing hyperuricemia that meet social needs.
