Team:HiZJU-China/Sustainable
The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.
The United Nations' explanation of this sustainable development goal:
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages.
Our approach to respond:
-Long term positive impact on health of human reproductive system
The original intention of our project is to reduce the negative impact of environmental estrogen EE2 on human reproductive system by detecting and degrading this new pollutant. Our ideas include the development of engineered bacteria that specifically degrade EE2 and the development of high-throughput, convenient quantitative and semi-quantitative detection method. Our engineered degradation strain is effective in sewage treatment process. The gene used is taken from the natural strain, which is harmless to human body. Our proposed low-cost semi-quantitative assay can be used in domestic and other civilian Settings to help the public understand the risks of environmental estrogens and monitor them on a daily basis.
-Long term negative impact our project may have
Although our degrading strain will be used in the sewage treatment process and will apply a kill switch to prevent its release into the environment, there is still a risk of leakage to some extent to human health - large amounts of E. coli can cause intestinal disease.
Feedback from Scholars in this field
—Huijie Lu
Dr. Lu is a doctor in Environmental Science and Engineering specialized in biological treatment of wastewater and environmental microbiology. Her research group conducted a number of studies on Nitrosomonas europaea(which we use to clone the gene of amoA and hao) and EE2 degradation. In her communication with us, she mentioned the disadvantages of applying HPLC to detect EE2 in the experiment, and believed that our rapid detection by biological means had application prospects.
—Mr.Lv
Mr.Lv is Laboratory supervisor of Juguang scientific and technical corporation , which focuses on using technology to solve environmental problems. He was very interested in the semi-quantitative part of our detection method, and suggested a further develop of the detection aspect to civilian use.
Reference
(1) Goal 3 of SDG- Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/
(2) WHO- Water, health and ecosystems
https://www.who.int/heli/risks/water/water/en/
The United Nations' explanation of this sustainable development goal:
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
Our approach to respond:
-Long term positive impact on promotion of women's rights
EE2 is one of the two main ingredients in short-acting birth control pills. As a contraceptive with few side effects and a high rate of protection, the short-acting pill can help women gain more choice and autonomy in their gender relations. However, the high estrogen effect and chemical stability of EE2 in the environment will certainly limit the production and use of short-acting contraceptives in the future. Therefore, our development of degradation means is conducive to the universality of EE2 production and application.
Reference
(1) Goal 5 of SDG- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
The United Nations' explanation of this sustainable development goal:
Marine protected areas need to be effectively managed and well-resourced and regulations need to be put in place to reduce overfishing, marine pollution and ocean acidification.
Our approach to respond:
-Long term positive impact on aquatic conservation
High levels of estrogen in the aquatic environment may cause serious aquatic biological problems such as male dioecism. Such problems have been detected by experts in China's Yangtze River basin. Through our development of EE2 degradation means and rapid detection means, the CONTENT of EE2 in the water environment can be monitored, and the EE2 can be controlled at a level that does not threaten aquatic organisms. At the same time, in view of that Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has included EE2 in the list of prohibited of feed supplement, the establishment of efficient and rapid EE2 detection means is conducive to real-time detection of whether farmers illegally add this substance in feed, which is conducive to the benign development of fish breeding industry.
Reference
(1) News- The east Lake of Wuhan has been polluted for a long time, and the phenomenon of " male fish feminization" has appeared
http://news.sohu.com/72/14/news202191472.shtml
(2) Goal 14 of SDG- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/oceans/
(3) Announcement- Chinese Ministry of Agriculture’s prohibition of drug use in food animal production
http://www.moa.gov.cn/gk/tzgg_1/gg/202001/t20200106_6334375.htm
Conclusion
As we work through our projects, we are trying to connect our projects to the well-being of more communities. In the process of communicating with experts and scholars in related fields, we also made some improvements to the project, so that it can be applied in more aspects and levels, and contribute to creating a better and more sustainable development environment.
Go for more information about our efforts linked with those SDG goals:
(1) Home page
(2) Project-description
(3) Project-design
(4) Hp-intergrated hp
(5) Lab-safety
