Throughout the process of our iGEM project, we have always attached importance to in-depth dialogue with different teams and relevant stakeholders. With a strong sense of social responsibility, our team not only hopes that the project itself is scientific and innovative, but also is committed to fully communicating with all parties, truly understanding social needs, giving back to the iGEM community, and promoting the responsible development of synthetic biology.
Our intergrated human practices (iHP) is not independent of the experimental process, but closely combined with wet lab progress, forming a closed-loop workflow of “practice-feedback-iteration”. Our core idea is to identify problems in the experiment, actively listen to the voices of stakeholders and practitioners in the field, faithfully record feedback, continuously update cognition, and finally optimize the experimental design through reflection.
In most intergrated human practice activities, we systematically implement the following four steps to ensure that the project not only responds to practical needs, but also reflects ethical concern:
Our human practice begins with “questioning”. During the experiment, we pay close attention to those technical issues that may have social or ethical dimensions, such as biosafety, technology accessibility, public acceptance, etc. We not only record the anomalies or bottlenecks in the experiment, but also take the initiative to put them in a broader social context and think about “why is this important?” “who does this affect?”. By consulting practitioners and researchers in relevant fields, we have transformed specific problems in the laboratory into topics of practical significance.
Our problem is not limited to technical details, but to actively explore the social significance of scientific research activities. We regard scientific research as a kind of social activity, emphasizing to find problems from practical application, rather than making a car behind closed doors.
We attach great importance to the process of “recording” and are committed to becoming a loyal listener. Whether it is feedback from experts, potential users, community members or other iGEM teams, whether it is positive, questioned or suggested, we systematically collate and analyze it.
We pay particular attention to those critical or worrying comments, because they are often the key entry point for the project to achieve responsible innovation. We respect and are open to the views of all parties and ensure that our decisions are based on comprehensive information.
Renew is the bridge between our laboratory and the outside world. Through continuous interaction with a wide range of stakeholders, we constantly verify, challenge and even subvert the original assumptions. The diverse perspectives of people from different backgrounds help us see more complex systemic issues beyond the technical solutions, such as the impact of cultural, economic, policy and other factors.
This step ensures that our project can dynamically respond to the concerns of the real world and avoid the rigid technology path. This cultivates the team’s interdisciplinary understanding and systematic thinking ability, and makes the project design more inclusive and adaptive.
Reflection is the sublimation point of the whole process. At this stage, we systematically review all the collected information, make critical thinking, and adjust the project design accordingly. This adjustment is not only for the sake of improving technical efficiency, but also to ensure that the project conforms to ethical standards, safety specifications and environmental sustainability principles.
We repeatedly asked, “is the improved design safer?” “does it consider the needs of marginalized groups?” “does it minimize environmental risks?”. Through this process, we have effectively transformed external feedback into the dual improvement of responsibility and efficiency of the project. This process not only ensures that the results of the project are not only a technical success, but also a responsible and valuable contribution to society, truly fulfilling our social responsibilities as young scientists and global citizens.
In summary, our human practice is a continuous and conscious cycle process. It enables our project to grow from a blueprint next to the experimental platform to a solution that is constantly mature in the continuous dialogue with the society, with scientific rigor and a sense of social responsibility. This not only greatly enriched our iGEM experience, but also profoundly shaped our understanding of the relationship between science, technology and society.
We have learned about the current status and common methods of degradation of vinasse, as well as the physicochemical properties of vinasse; we also understand the company’s preferences and needs, that is, they want high value-added products, which provides inspiration for us to obtain succinate in the future.
What we want to know
Record
Prof. Liu suggested that we select a specific research chassis and reminded us of the huge challenges we face: the current gene editing tools for Trametes versicolor, such as CRISPR, have low efficiency, and their multinucleate characteristics and low homologous recombination efficiency make it extremely difficult to obtain homozygous edited strains. He affirmed the significance of the topic, but emphasized that we must have a clear understanding of technical bottlenecks and time costs.
What we want to know
Record
Prof. Kuanqing Liu provided some importente ideas:
Prof. Xu stated that her lab does not produce Trichoderma reesei and provided us with a protocol for gene editing of Trichoderma hypoxylon, suggesting that the time and enzyme dosage of each stage in their method can be optimized for Trichoderma reesei based on literature review.After this chat, we have gained a deeper understanding of the operating methods of Trichoderma reesei.
Prof. Su guided us in the gene editing process of Trichoderma reesei. At the same time, it indicates that the cycle of Trichoderma reesei is very long and somewhat difficult. It was suggested that we have alternative solutions, and later we found Pichia pastoris as an alternative option.
What we want to know
Record
Prof. Chang said that their laboratory has ready-made strains and vectors related to Pichia pastoris, and they welcome us to come to their platform for related experiments.
We obtained the wild-type Pichia pastoris strain (X33), recombinant plasmid (pPICK), eukaryotic antibiotic G418, restriction enzyme Rru I, and access to an experimental platform from Prof. Zhang’s laboratory, which enabled us to confirm the feasibility of using this system.
We are also incredibly grateful to Tang for her immense help, which included experimental procedures, design, principle verification, and optimization.
Professor Chen Xiuzhen and her doctoral students in the laboratory provided us with the edited strain TU6 of Trichoderma reesei, as well as mature operating techniques, required reagent kits, and experimental platforms. Her PhD student have provided us with great help.
Regarding the resource utilization of vinasse, the professor suggests that we can consider focusing on the direction of converting vinasse into feed protein, which not only meets practical application needs but also effectively enhances the value of resource utilization.It reminded us of the different possibilities of our project.
Prof. Ding’s laboratory has successfully expressed laccase genes derived from Coprinus comatus in a yeast system. Experimental results have shown that the laccase can achieve expression, but its specific activity and catalytic efficiency towards substrates are not ideal, which may become a bottleneck restricting the final effect of the project. Therefore, it is recommended that we consider using laccase from the Polyporaceae family, which typically has higher catalytic activity and better stability.
The primary bottleneck in vinasse conversion is not its low lignin content, but rather the microbial inhibition caused by its high concentration of organic acids. This challenge is compounded by the inherent difficulty of lignin degradation, whose phenolic byproducts further suppress microbial activity. Therefore, to ensure robust bacterial growth, we recommend constructing a phenolic degradation module in addition to the lignin degradation module.
What we want to know
Record
Prof. Yu clearly stated that they are willing to provide us with the original Bacillus subtilis laccase recombinant plasmid as the starting material for our research. However, she also specifically stated that the high-performance laccase plasmid optimized and modified on the basis of his team cannot be provided to third parties for use according to regulations, as it has already signed a cooperation agreement with a commercial company involving confidentiality and intellectual property clauses.
Prof. Lu pointed out that we can further focus on the rational design of the UTR region and its regulatory effect on protein expression. We should consider focusing on literature such as UTR-LM. This strategy may provide a new technical path for the efficient expression of laccase in substrates such as Trichoderma reesei and Pichia pastoris, and suggest that we include systematic optimization of UTR in subsequent experimental designs.
Tenured Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Life - Science and Technology in SJTU, and the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism.
Vice Dean of the school.
Explorers of microbial chassis extreme environment research
We asked Mr. Tang for his views on the relationship between basic research and applied engineering. He shared his understanding of synthetic biology with us and encouraged us to further study synthetic biology. Mr. Tang also answered some of our puzzles during the project, especially in the chassis biological culture and product determination, which is very helpful for the adjustment of our subsequent test scheme.
What we want to know
How to optimize the Dual bacteria co-culture system.
Record
Rational design of co-culture media for microbiome engineering
We told Prof. Tang that our wetlab was facing a problem: we were supposed to make co-cultures of P. pastoris & P. putida and T. reesei & P. putida, but previous experience showed that directly blending two microbes into one culture flask wouldn’t work. We asked Prof. Tang for advice.
Prof. Tang first acknowledged that co-culturing could be the “limiting step” when performing microbiome engineering, because when two species of microorganisms encounter each other, they usually see each other as a rival and would attempt to outcompete one another.
Then he introduced the concept of a cooperative consortium: in order to stop two species of microorganisms from attempting to kill one another, it is crucial to design a culture environment where the two species have to rely on each other in order to survive. In our case, he suggested that we make good use of the fact that only P. pastoris and T. reesei could degrade lignin, because this implies that our P. putida is actually dependant on P. pastoris and T. reesei. He also recommended us a paper (already published) for reference.
Q&As regarding our Ducon’s wetlab details
First, we mentioned to Prof. Tang that our P. putida strain could survive in acidic environments. He found it curious, and advised us to try and elucidate the specific mechanisms behind this phenomenon. He told us we could measure the pH of our culture media before and after inoculating our P. putida strain, this could help us validate whether our strain survives acidic environments by discharging protons or by neturalizing the media with weak bases. Also, he suggested that we could sequence the genome of our strain, so as to further determine the specific genes and mutations that are responsible for the acid-tolerant phenotype.
Second, when measuring succinate secretion of P. putida with different gene modifications, we noticed that our P. putida could express DcuB without IPTG induction (Theoretically, DcuB should only be expressed upon IPTG induction, but our P. putida expressed DcuB anyway). We found it puzzling so we sought advice from Prof. Tang, and he immediatly pointed out that we have been using a promoter (Tac) that works robustly even without IPTG induction, thus providing an explanation for the experiment results.
Finally, acknowledging Prof. Tang’s profound expertise in processing aromatic compounds, we asked him whether he knew what could be left of lignin after degradation by laccase. He told us it’s mainly small aromatic compounds, some types of which could be useful (such as vanillic acid) but other types could be toxic (like benzene or phenol). He also mentioned that it is best if we don’t introduce an additional laccase gene to our P. putida, since P. pastoris and T. reesei are more suitable for degrading large complex compounds.
Renew & Reflect
Overall, Prof. Tang’s insights provided invaluable guidelines for our project:
We would later work on to achieve using P. pastoris & P. putida and T. reesei & P. putida by altering the carbon source in our culture media.
We would determine the underlying mechanism behind our P. putida’s acid-tolerant phenotype (by sequencing and by measuring the pH of our culture media).
More importantly, we learned relationship between basic research
and applicative engineering, emphasizing the importance of basic
metabolic research in promoting the development of synthetic
biology.
We communicated with the Bio-X detachment of SJTU, introduced our projects to each other, learned about SJTU’s software project - Caspia in detail, and further exchanged views on iGEM’s HP work. We told them to be careful to avoid ethical problems when shooting promotion videos (based on Tsinghua’s failure last year), and we discussed team construction issues such as project selection, division of labour, finding art designers for our wikipages and so on.
Record
SJTU BioX’s Project
QURES is an innovative synthetic biology project targeting Staphylococcus aureus-driven inflammation in psoriasis. Current treatments face challenges like systemic side effects, high recurrence, and poor patient compliance. The solution leverages modified S. epidermidis (SE), a native skin commensal, engineered to sense S. aureus (SA) quorum signals.
Key designs of QURES consist of an SA-sensing switch (which reprogrammes SE’s agr system to detect SA density), and a dual-action response (involving secretion of inhibitory AIP-C to suppress SA virulence, and expression of anti-IL-17A/F scFv antibodies to neutralize key psoriasis cytokines) .
QURES aims to restore skin microbiome balance, offering a targeted, low-side-effect alternative to immunosuppressants while advancing equitable dermatological care.
SJTU Software’s Project
The rational design of microbial cell factories is often hindered by the slow and complex nature of the core “Design-Build-Test-Learn” (DBTL) cycle. To address this challenge, BioX propose CASPIA, an AI-driven integrated design platform aimed at automating and accelerating this process. The architecture of CASPIA is built around two highly synergistic modules —— an automated metabolic modeling and multilevel engineering design, and an intelligent assistant for cellular design.
Ultimately, CASPIA submits the computed multilevel engineering strategies (genes, enzymes, regulatory elements) to wet-lab validation. By integrating experimental feedback, the platform completes the DBTL loop, enabling continuous optimization and iterative improvement. Through the seamless integration of automated modeling, in silico high-throughput screening based on ensemble learning, and generative AI, CASPIA significantly enhances both the depth and efficiency of metabolic engineering design, paving the way for the rapid development of high-performance engineered strains.
Renew & Reflect
While our communication with SJTU’s BioX team (and Software team) didn’t try to address specific project problems, it did serve as a valuable chance to exchange ideas & feelings.
Team communication in iGEM is a process of expanding the definition of “we”. It allows us to focus on “our project”, understand “our community”, and finally realize our role in “our common future”. This more mature and tenacious sense of social responsibility tempered in exchanges and collisions has become the most valuable harvest of our exchange trip.
We talked with bluepha’s technical staff about the fermentation efficiency and the design of our dual-bacteria system. They provided us with feasible suggestions, such as using a staircase composed of semi-solid medium to fill the straw and the liquid medium through which the bacterial solution is poured back from top to bottom to improve the fermentation efficiency, and enhancing the connection between the two becteria to obtain a more economical system. Through the communication with them, we were inspired to consider the feasibility and leasability when considering industries different from the key points of the laboratory.
What we want to know
How to develop the fermentation efficiency and the design of our dual-bacteria system.
Record
After a brief introduction of both sides, we talked about the industrialization of our project and were given inspiring suggestions based on the company’s industrial experience and knowledge in iGEM.
Fermentation media choice considering efficiency
Technicians doubted the fermentation efficiency of our previous semisolid medium used in laboratory under industrial conditions. They advised us to get a broad knowledge of the original state of the vinasse and mature method for pretreatment of the vinasse, based on which further calculations could be made to decide the final media. Fluid medium seemed to be a common recommendation, and a semisolid media consisting of stairs filled with straw and bacteria solution pouring through from top to bottom was introduced to us.
Dual-bacteria system considering economy
Technicians wondered whether the two bacteria could co-exist with each other in industrial environments and how we could verify it, which lacked consideration even under our laboratory conditions. According to the technicians, we were encouraged to build and test symbiotic relationships between the bacteria in the lab, but for industry, a simple separation into two continuous parts might be an economical and realistic way. What’s more, whole-cell catalysis was recommended for biochemical reactions without external energy input when modeling.
Suggestions on technical details
We were curious about the build of mass stoichiometry, the parameters for devices and other technical details. Technicians told us that most problems could be solved by learning a foundational lesson called principles of chemical engineering. They emphasized that we should try to design a complete product line and especially focus on the realization of the lignin decomposition process.
Bluepha’s efforts in SDG
Bluepha is a company willing to take social responsibilities. Each year, Bluepha keeps launch its annual ESG report under public supervision. In 2023, Bluepha is one of the successful cases of the United Nations Compact’s 2023 Youth SDGs Innovation Accelerator Program.
Renew & Reflect
This activity let us understand the scientific research ideas of bioengineering enterprises, which are completely different from students’ research in the laboratory, which enriched our understanding of research.
In addition, our project has been recognized by bluepha technicians, because the design and results of the wet laboratory are well considered, but the dry laboratory needs to be polished especially in the aspect of industrialization. This provides us with a perspective for the promotion and improvement of subsequent projects.
In addition, they also encouraged us to visit more industries and learn from the mature product lines of the fermentation industry. We were inspired to consider feasibility and leasability when considering industries different from the key points of the laboratory.
The exchange focused on the practical value of the platform in university scientific research competitions, existing pain points and future cooperation directions.We reported the technical problems and suggestions for improvement of Yanyin platform during the project to Yanyin’s technicians. Yanyin platform promised to further optimize the software design in the future, and hoped to maintain close cooperation with the team to promote the systematic construction of experimental collaboration platform and iGEM data security.
What we want to know
How to reduce program errors during platform use.
Record
We first introduced the great help of Yanyin in the whole process of our experiment to the staff of Yanyin.
We use the platform to manage the plasmid library, experimental records, relate literature and other documents through the platform to achieve cross-module association retrieval. Crucially, the platform successfully resolved our team’s crisis when our data got maliciously deleted - using the “soft deletion 7-day backup” mechanism, combined with operational IP traceability, more than 300 lost experimental records and literature databases were restored within 24 hours. This incident highlights the irreplaceability of the platform in the protection of scientific research data assets, and also exposes the risk of extensive management of the team’s account authority.
Demand gap and scenario adaptation challenges
The team gave Yanyin Tech feedback on several requirements of the iGEM team:
The AI assistant is too slow to respond, and it can also add a function to assist in writing documents.
Laboratory scenes require instant recording of instrument readings, but currently only text input is supported, and photo/voice input functions can be added.
The annual team member turnover leads to the loss of resources in previous sessions, and the existing template library does not cover wiki writing, video materials and other scenarios in iGEM
Enterprise strategy and ecological layout
Combined with the above problems, the team and Yanyin Tech hope to have long-term in-depth exchanges and joint construction:
Build a university alliance chain, cooperate with Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University and other teams to build a desensitization case library, convert the materials of previous award-winning projects into reusable templates, and record scenario-based operation guides through the student ambassador system.
Follow iGEM’s timeline to jointly organize networking activities to promote platform usage and data security awareness.
Renew & Reflect
Based on this exchange, it is planned to optimize the collaboration mechanism from three aspects:
When writing experimental records, relevant personnel are required to collaborate and open up collaboration permissions.
Use the Yanyin platform to write HP documentation, and use markdown language to support writing wiki materials.
Become a long-term partner of Yanyin to promote the systematic construction of experimental collaboration platform and iGEM data security.
We mainly discussed the industrialization of our project with CEO Li Xu and other staffs. They gave us two suggestions: comprehensive waste liquid design and downstream succinate Market verification, which helps the marketization of our project.
What we want to know
How to better realize project industrialization.
Record
After a brief introduction of our project, we talked about the industrialization of our project. The staffs gave us inspiring suggestions based on the company’s industrial experience.
Kangfen’s Vinasse Degradation Technology and its Advantages
Kangfen has independently developed and manufactured a vertical automated enclosed aerobic bioreactor for degrading food processing waste such as vinasse and soybean residue. The entire process operates without external microbial inputs.
Through the intrinsic aerobic microbial fermentation and degradation process, nutrient-rich components in vinasse are preserved and converted into concentrated, high-nutrition organic novel materials within approximately one week. The resulting product is directly applicable as fertilizer. This fertilizer is not only entirely free from toxicity, but also demonstrates remarkable efficacy—achieving comparable effects with merely one-tenth the application rate of conventional fertilizers.
Kangfen’s Global Sustainable Development Strategy
As a multinational corporation rooted in Finland—ranked the world’s most sustainable nation for six consecutive years with sustainability as its national policy—Kangfen proactively champions sustainable principles throughout its operations.
The end products from Kangfen’s fermentation process deliver dual environmental optimization:
Water conditioning: Enhances aquatic ecosystem vitality
Soil enhancement: Improves terrestrial habitat quality, benefiting both aquatic and terrestrial organisms.
Furthermore, through its agricultural solutions and carbon-neutral operations, Kangfen directly advances multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) about Good Health and Well-being and Sustainable Industrialization.
Multinational Transfer of Environmental Technologies to China
While Kangfen’s primary R&D center remains in Finland, its Chinese subsidiary maintains complementary research capabilities. To effectively advance carbon neutrality objectives, we conduct distinct research initiatives addressing:
Divergent raw material profiles
Formulation variances
Application-specific parameters
Regional soil variations
Local data governance standards
This tailored approach ensures optimal adaptation of eco-technologies to the Chinese context.
Gender Equality in Corporate R&D
In Finland, gender equality is so deeply embedded in societal fabric that explicit emphasis is unnecessary. The country’s progressive legacy includes pioneering milestones such as being among the first nations to elect women to parliament and establishing equal parental leave entitlements. Notably, women now represent a slightly higher proportion in tertiary education.
Different socio-cultural contexts, however, necessitate distinct approaches. China’s current developmental stage requires continuous collective efforts across society to advance gender parity—a process demanding incremental progress aligned with local realities.
Renew & Reflect
Based on Kangfen’s technological expertise and corporate strategy, they have provided two key recommendations for our project:
Integrated Waste Solution Design
Current project plans fail to achieve complete degradation of residual vinasse after succinate extraction, creating secondary waste challenges. Drawing from Kangfen’s proven approach of direct-field-applicable fertilizer production, they advise designing a comprehensive processing system that eliminates residual waste streams entirely.
Downstream Succinate Market Validation
Thorough assessment is required regarding:
Process economics: Conversion timelines and cost structures
Commercialization pathways: Market channels and application scenarios
Alternative applications: Non-biodegradable-plastic market opportunities. This multifaceted analysis is essential for accurate economic valuation of the succinate output.
We introduced the current situation and bottlenecks of vinasse degradation to the teachers and students of Tibet Agriculture and Animal Husbandry University, and further proposed the design of vinasse degradation in this project. After understanding, the teacher shared the utilization status of highland barley wine lees in Tibet, and mentioned the use of highland barley wine lees in feed, medicine and even the production of edible Zanba. During the exchange, the teachers asked about the inspiration source of the project, recognized our attempt to find valuable problems from the reality, and also discussed with us the problems of expanded cultivation and separation that will be encountered in the future industrialization development of the project. These introductions inspired us deeply, and also greatly broadened our horizons and inspired us to explore more application possibilities of the project.
Renew & Reflect
This in-depth exchange with teachers and students of Tibet agriculture and animal husbandry university has brought us double innovations in ideas and projects.
In terms of concept, it has prompted us to complete the key transformation from “technology based” to “problem based”. When we learned about the diversified applications of highland barley vinasse in feed, medicine and other fields, we deeply realized that the core of a valuable synthetic biology technology is not the sophistication of the technology itself, but whether it can deeply integrate specific regional resources and industrial ecology to solve the real world pain points. The teachers’ affirmation of “project inspiration comes from reality” has further strengthened our belief in “problem driven scientific research” and expanded our vision from a single degradation technology to the grand pattern of building a green and circular industrial system.
Based on this cognitive leap, our project design has achieved specific and critical iterations. We have clearly upgraded the project goal from simple “waste degradation” to “high-value resources”, and inspired us to explore the possibility of converting vinasse into high-value products such as special feed or pharmaceutical ingredients. This exchange has greatly enriched our project narrative, sublimated it from an environmental protection technology scheme to a vivid practice of helping the sustainable development of regional characteristic industries and connecting tradition and modernity, and greatly enhanced the social influence and connotation of the project.
The Conference of China iGEMer Community (hereinafter referred to as CCiC) is a national conference independently initiated by China’s iGEM participating teams. It aims to provide a platform for resource sharing for participating iGEM teams and young enthusiasts of synthetic biology in China, and to promote mutual learning and communication. Since its first holding in 2014, the CCiC conference has been the key focus of the CCiC Executive Committee’s ongoing work to maintain the positive and vigorous development of the community, a national summit related to synthetic biology competitions in China, and an important academic communication platform for young enthusiasts of synthetic biology in China. We attended the 12thCCiC th conference, where we shared our project, communicated with numerous teams, and sought collaboration opportunities.
Following the CCiC conference, we held a productive discussion with the ZJU iGEM team, focusing on the Best Sustainable Development Impact special prize. After the meeting, we gave them a tour of the Tsinghua campus. Subsequently, the ZJU team requested a plasmid from our 2021 iGEM project, which we gladly provided to them free of charge.
We held an online conference with Huang Lu, chief of Luzhou Environmental Protection Bureau, Sichuan Province, China, on policies and technologies of vinasse treatment and resource utilization, and discussed resource conservation and recycling in Luzhou’s ecological protection planning, especially the balance between environmental protection, economic and social benefits of vinasse treatment. The meeting made us further think about the sustainable development and practical application of our project.
What we want to know
Utilization status of vinasse in brewing industry, its harm to environment and existing countermeasures.
Record
Policies, regulations and standards for vinasse treatment
Luzhou’s protection plan and the high-quality development plan of the liquor industry both mentioned the need to strengthen the resource utilization of vinasse and other wastes, build a liquor industry circular economy industrial park and a modern vinasse comprehensive utilization industrial chain.
Many provinces across the country have issued policies on the comprehensive utilization of solid waste, including preferential policies on taxation, fiscal and scientific and technological support.
Difficulties and challenges in environmental supervision of vinasse treatment
The main environmental problems of vinasse treatment include odor pollution and high concentration leachate pollution, which have high requirements for project site selection and anti-seepage treatment.
The production, storage, transportation and utilization of vinasse have high requirements on the environmental management level and responsibility consciousness of enterprises, especially the management ability of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Environmental impact of traditional treatment
Traditional composting and landfill methods will lead to soil acidification, groundwater pollution, and high concentration of organic matter in leachate, which has high requirements for sewage treatment.
Luzhou liquor industry is located in water environment sensitive areas. The traditional treatment method is easy to cause water pollution events, and the repair cost is high.
Priorities and supporting policies of environmental protection departments
The work priorities of the environmental protection department include guiding scientific site selection, strengthening wastewater pollution prevention and strict solid waste management.
Support policies include tax incentives (exemption from environmental protection tax), financial subsidies (central budget investment) and government procurement support (increase the types of green procurement).
Mainstream technology and advantages and disadvantages of vinasse treatment
Resource utilization methods include animal feed processing and composting to produce organic fertilizer. The advantage is that the cost is low, but the level of environmental protection management is low.
Energy utilization methods include anaerobic fermentation to produce biogas, pyrolysis to produce organic carbon, etc. the advantage is that the utilization is thorough and efficient, but the access restrictions and environmental management requirements are high.
Microbial fermentation to produce high value-added nutrients is a frontier research direction, which can maximize the use of vinasse, but the industrial production is still immature.
Sustainable development and practical application
Microbial fermentation technology is in line with the green development concept of reducing pollution, reducing carbon and increasing efficiency, and can achieve double growth of benefits and economic benefits.
This technology can create new economic growth points and employment opportunities, and promote green transformation and sustainable development.
After the technology is mature, it can be implemented in the wine industry circular economy industrial park to build the upstream and downstream industrial chain and maximize the value.
Renew & Reflect
This exchange with the environmental protection department of Luzhou City raised the perspective of our project from the technical category to the level of regional development and systematic governance. The other party’s elaboration on “environmental protection, economic benefit and social benefit balance” makes us realize that the value of an environmental technology lies not only in its own effectiveness, but also in whether it can be integrated into the local ecological blueprint and resource recycling system. This has led to an important change in our philosophy: from the pursuit of “optimal solutions” in the laboratory to the design of “applicable solutions” that can adapt to complex real conditions. We began to regard the project as a systematic project that needs to coordinate technical feasibility, environmental positivity, economic rationality and social acceptance. This systematic thinking is the key to achieve sustainable development.
Based on this cognitive upgrade, our project design has obtained a practical optimization direction. We began to actively link the plan with the resource recycling goal in the local ecological planning to ensure that it can serve the actual needs of regional development. At the same time, the other party’s professional perspective helps us proactively consider the full chain challenges that technology scale may face, including processing costs, energy consumption standards and the impact on the existing industrial ecology. This prompted us to introduce a more comprehensive evaluation dimension at the R&D stage, pay more attention to the resource consumption and environmental footprint of the whole process while paying attention to the core efficiency, so that our technology path has stronger practical adaptability and long-term vitality at the starting point.
We held an online meeting with HK St. Paul college’s iGEM team. We introduced our project on the dual-microbe system for the treatment of vinasse from the Baijiu industry. And they introduced their project on microplastic degradation. Afterwards, we had an in-depth discussion and exchange on the SDG goals, sustainable development, and water pollution treatment.
Record
Conference background and theme
The conference focused on the application of synthetic biology in environmental protection, especially the research progress on the degradation of plastics and the treatment of industrial wastewater by microbial systems. The content of the meeting covers technology introduction, research progress, practical application challenges and future cooperation directions, aiming to promote the sustainable development of Biodegradation Technology.
1. Application of double microbial system in the recovery of byproducts in liquor industry
Background: China produces more than 30million tons of liquor industry by-products (venar) every year, and its efficient recycling is still a major challenge.
Composition difficulties: The main components are insoluble fiber, lignin and other substances with high moisture content (70 – 80%), and the traditional recovery methods are inefficient and environmentally friendly.
Solution: The team has developed an environmentally friendly, mild, efficient and economically feasible recycling technology using synthetic biology.
2. Microbial selection and engineering transformation
Selected strains: Trichoderma reesei: capable of degrading natural cellulose and aromatic compounds. Pseudomonas aeruginosa: it has strong metabolic ability and can secrete a large number of specific enzymes (such as laccase) after engineering transformation.
Project progress: Laccase was successfully expressed in E. coli. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was modified to adapt to acidic growth environment.
3. Technology application and sustainable development goals (SDGs)
Application scope: It can treat agricultural straw, plastic waste and other biomass. The product can be used to produce biodegradable plastics as a sustainable alternative to traditional packaging materials.
SDGs docking: It is in line with many UN sustainable development goals such as “responsible consumption and production”, “clean drinking water” and “marine protection”.
4. Research challenges and Solutions
5. Future cooperation and knowledge sharing
Cooperation plan: Further cooperation with the University of Hong Kong and other institutions. Contact liquor manufacturers to promote technology transformation.
Knowledge transfer: Share molecular biology operation experience with follow-up teams to improve laboratory efficiency. Send the protein purification protocol of Wesley university to St. Paul’s College for reference.
Renew & Reflect
The in-depth communication with iGEM teams from different backgrounds has greatly enriched our understanding of human practice and sustainable development. This inter team dialogue has made us realize that excellent synthetic biology projects need not only technological innovation, but also a profound understanding of social needs and a shared global responsibility.
At the conceptual level, cross team communication has enabled us to break through the limitations of our own projects. By understanding how other teams integrate social responsibility into all aspects of project design, we realize that the essence of human practice is to inject humanistic care into scientific and technological innovation. This recognition has driven us from simply solving technical problems to thinking about how to make our solutions more inclusive and adaptive and truly serve the needs of a wider group. The unique cultural background and problem perspective of each team together constitute a multidimensional interpretation of the concept of “responsible innovation”.
This collision of ideas directly promotes the iteration and upgrading of our project. The feedback and inspiration obtained in the communication prompted us to re-examine the social acceptance and environmental compatibility of the technology path. We began to pay more attention to the accessibility and inclusiveness of the scheme to ensure that it can not only operate under ideal conditions, but also adapt to diversified real-world scenarios. This continuous reflection based on a global perspective has enabled our project to maintain scientific rigor while gaining greater vitality and positive externality. Through the exchange of ideas with young scientists around the world, we are jointly shaping the future prospect of synthetic biology contributing to human well-being and sustainable development.
The in-depth exchange with two wineries in the Rhinegau region of Germany has provided valuable first-line insight and support for our high-value transformation project of vinasse based on biotechnology.
Record
We learned that the local wineries generally adopt the traditional treatment method of returning the crushed grape skin residue (about 30 tons/17 hectares per year) directly to the field, which is simple and feasible but has limited added value. This confirms the market pain point targeted by our project: a large number of agricultural by-products have not been deeply developed and utilized. During the exchange, the winery owner showed great interest in our proposed technical path of converting “trester” into Succinate and other high-value products, and clearly expressed his willingness to support, and even offered to provide samples for R&D tests, which provided a strong positive signal for the traceability of raw materials and the feasibility of cooperation.
What is particularly valuable is that the other party mentioned the differentiated path of using leather residue in the production of grappa in Italy, which revealed the cultural differences and technological diversity of the resource utilization of by-products in different regions, and broadened our international vision. This exchange not only verified the market acceptance of the technical concept, but also laid a solid trust foundation for us to establish substantive industry university research cooperation with European wineries and promote the implementation of technology.
Renew & Reflect
This in-depth visit to the German tavern culture has brought us double innovations in concept cognition and project design. At the conceptual level, it has prompted us to complete the important transformation from the “industrial perspective” to the “humanistic perspective”. When we experienced the unique position of the tavern as the cultural hub of the community and learned the emotion and memory of the wine making tradition in the local social life, we deeply realized that the significance of a valuable waste recycling technology is not only to solve the industrial pain, but also to respect and continue the profound catering cultural tradition. This recognition makes us realize that technological innovation needs to be deeply integrated with humanistic care. Our project should not only realize the recycling of vinasse, but also become a bridge connecting traditional brewing culture and modern biotechnology.
Based on this cognitive improvement, our project design has achieved key optimization and expansion. First of all, the project aims to expand from simple “waste treatment” to “culture embedded resource circulation”, which inspires us to consider the protection and transformation of unique flavor components of wine making in the technical scheme, so that the final resource products can continue the unique imprint of wine culture. Secondly, the observation on the diversified brewing process of German fine brewed beer prompted us to reserve more adaptive space in strain screening and process design, so as to ensure that the scheme can adapt to the brewing scenarios of different sizes and different formulas, and is not limited to the treatment of a single type of vinasse. Finally, this cultural experience has given our project narrative a richer dimension, sublimating it from a simple environmental governance scheme to an innovative practice to promote the inheritance of food cultural heritage and promote the sustainable development of the community, which has greatly enhanced the cultural connotation and social value of the project.
Tsinghua iGEM team and four other iGEM teams(JLUNBBMS,BUCT, NJTech, ZJUT, XJTLU) jointly launched different white papers on the chassis biology of synthetic biology, which introduced the chassis biology such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia pastoris, Yersinia lipolytica, Pseudomonas putida, Escherichia coli* (BL21), Escherichia coli (DH5 α), Escherichia coli (nt1003), Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella,* probiotics to help others who interest in synthetic biology to understand the subject. Tsinghua produced a white paper of Pseudomonas putida KT2440.
We contacted professor Zhao Xuebing from the Department of chemical engineering of Tsinghua University by email and asked him about some problems encountered in the experiment. Mr. Zhao gave us a more detailed reply and gave us corresponding suggestions, which was very helpful for the promotion of our subsequent experiments.
What we want to know
How to optimize the design of wet experiment based on the existing scheme.
Record
Prof.Zhao questioned that we were concerned about lignin in vinasse, which was not the most abundant, and pointed out that black pulp was the one with higher lignin content; We therefore reflect on how to better introduce the reasons for our concerns and the multi scenario application of our technology.
Prof.Zhao provided us with a feasible brief design scheme for the industrial line and recommended several common information sources to us;
Prof.Zhao suggested a method to purify and determine the content of cellulose;
Prof.Zhao reminded us to pay attention to the theoretical nature of the experiment and the importance of real experimental data.
As one of the core writing members, Tsinghua 2025 team participated in the iGEM engagement guiding white paper jointly written by iGEM teams from several top universities and hosted by SJTU software, and was responsible for “education” and “entrepreneurship” in the specific writing work. This pioneering work aims to sort out and establish the paradigm and standards of excellent human practices for the entire iGEM community. Being invited to participate in the writing of this document is a high recognition of our team’s philosophy and practice. We are deeply honored to systematically contribute our experience to community construction, help follow-up teams carry out scientific and social dialogue more efficiently, and jointly promote the responsible development of synthetic biology.