Team:GreatBay United/Sustainable
Sustainability
This project draws inspiration from the necessity for bacterial endotoxin detection. At present, the most effective and accurate way of bacterial endotocxin detection is through limulus amebocyte lysate. However, this kind of method largely depends on the blood of endangered horseshoe crabs. There are also other methods with zero animal source such as the recombinant C factor, but it is prone to operational problems, resulting in undetectable results. Therefore, developing a brand-new efficient and accurate bacterial endotoxin detection method is extremely important.
Understanding of sustainability
Sustainability, according to the most quoted definition that comes from the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, is that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability and resources of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development is the integration of environmental health, social equity and economic vitality in order to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities for this generations to come. In providing our offspring with clean water, fresh air, and adequate resources for living, sustainability plays a very crucial role.
So far, many governments and non-governmental organizations have involved in protecting environment and developing sustainability. In our point of view, sustainability should not only be developed by authorities such as a specific country or a sustainability organization, the entire society should cooperate together to realize the goal of sustainable development.
Our understanding of sustainable development is to develop without harming the environment, creatures and society. After research into Sustainable Development Goals, we realized that our project could be beneficial for goal 14 and 15, which is to protect lives on earth. With the objective of saving horseshoe crabs, we made up our mind to use synthetic biology to develop artificial limulus amebocyte lysate.
feedback from relevant SDG stakeholders
Our understanding of sustainable development is to develop without harming the environment, creatures and society. After research into Sustainable Development Goals, we realized that our project could be beneficial for goal 14 and 15, which is to protect lives on earth. With the objective of saving horseshoe crabs, we made up our mind to use synthetic biology to develop artificial limulus amebocyte lysate.
Artificial limulus amebocyte lysate
One of the significance of our project is that we successfully emulated the mechanism of natural limulus amebocyte lysate while not hurting horseshoe crabs. Instead, we use bacteria as the raw material of our product and utilize coagulation to produce visible test results. Therefore, this project maintains the advantages of traditional LAL reagents, including high efficiency and clear results, and effectively protected limulus population, which is in accordance our design principle of sustainability. Our efforts eventually paid off, and we were rewarded by having the chance to join COP 15.
Invitation from COP15
On October 14th, our team participated in the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. At the conference, the attendants stressed the importance of sustainable development and emphasized the role of society, especially teenage students and researchers in the field of synthetic biology. After the meeting, the delegates issued a joinit declaration, promised that the human society will cooperate together to establish a "post-2020 global diversity framework" in order to tackle with the trend of decline in biodiversity.
