Team:NWU-CHINA-B/Human Practices

NWU-CHINA-B

>

①The popularity of ginseng among the masses.
② Market research.
③ Ensure that the project is responsible and beneficial for the world.
④ Consult on the production of ginsenoside.
⑤ Market application and development of ginsenosides.
⑥ Project exchange on synthetic biology safety issues.

To understand the public's recognition of the medicinal value of ginseng, we conducted a questionnaire survey. From the survey results, we found that about one-third of the respondents fully recognized the medicinal value of ginseng. Although a large number of respondents have doubts about the value of ginseng, they have certain recognition of its medicinal value. This shows that the medicinal value of ginseng has gained a considerable degree of recognition.

At the same time, we also investigated people's desire to buy ginseng products in the questionnaire. It is found that although the number of people who often buy ginseng products is small, most people have bought ginseng products more or less, which indicates that ginseng products have a certain market.

According to the feedback of the people in the questionnaire, we started the research on ginseng products in the market. First of all, we conducted a survey on the common ginseng products in the market and found that the product types in the market are very rich. After that, we investigated the application fields of ginseng products and found that a large part of ginseng products were used in the medical field. With today's growing emphasis on health, the demand for ginseng is expanding, as can be seen from the industry scale and growth rate of the ginseng market in recent years. But we found in the survey that the price of ginseng products is generally relatively high. Ginsenosides, especially the rare ginsenosides, are the constituents that bear pharmacological activity in ginseng products. So we began to study the transformation of rare ginsenosides.

From April 5 to April 16, 2021, we, NWU-China-B,participated in the Global Youth Summit hosted by Nature Protection Alliance. The focus of the Natural Protection Alliance is to protect the sustainability of biodiversity and biological resources, and develop a variety of strategies and programs to protect and manage forests, wetlands, coastal and marine resources.

    In this meeting, we realized the importance and potential development of synthetic biology for world environmental protection.If we can use synthetic biological methods to extract effective substances from plants, protecting endangered plant species, we will greatly promote further development of world environmental protection.

During the meeting, we learned that there were still many problems in the environment and endangered species of wildlife, and we showed our current project (rare ginsenoside CK transformation) to the summit member, including botanists. And the energy researchers gave our proposal for our project, which made us more determine the direction of our project.

    In this study, our team also got more confidence in this project. We believe that the ginsenoside we produce will not only promote the development of the economic market, but will also improve human ecological environment, protect plants, make a huge contribution to building a human future community.

In the search for ginsenosides production methods, we were fortunate to find a fermentation company - Fufeng Biotechnology Co., LTD. So we have a preliminary communication with the company on the Internet, to understand the company's business scope and production situation. Recognizing that the company's fermentation production can guide the fermentation experiments in our project, we decided to make a field visit to the company next.

On July 2nd, we visited Fufeng Biotechnology Co., LTD. The company's principal and technical personnel introduced to us the operation process and working principle of fermentation workshop. We also showed them our idea of producing ginsenosides by enzyme transformation based on codon optimization.

With the problems we encountered in the experimental operation, we visited their factory. During the visit of factory workshop, we realized the huge gap between the industrial fermentation operation and the laboratory fermentation operation. The experimental conditions of the laboratory shaking fermentation production and industrial mass fermentation are not exactly the same, which makes us think about the industrial production of enzyme transformation:Can our experiment reproduce in large-scale fermentation tank?

    Then we visited their laboratory to learn their production and fermentation methods and experience. Relevant technicians told us that the linearized plasmids could be simply and quickly transferred into the competent cells by the electric transformation method. At the same time, the self-linking phenomenon of the linearized plasmids was very normal, and the plasmids could be linearly digested by the enzyme by prolonging the digestion time. He hoped that putting these methods to experience would help with our ongoing experiments.

In our subsequent experiments, by prolonging the enzyme digestion time, our plasmids reduced self-linking, which greatly increased the expression of plasmids and crude enzyme yield. We then performed active measurements of the enzymes produced. We measured the reaction rates of substrates catalyzed by enzyme solutions at different temperatures, and the results were very much in line with our expectations, which made us very excited. So we went to the company again to exchange our results with relevant technical personnel and thank them for their support and guidance to our project.

The Relevant technicians involved are equally delighted with our success. He said that our research is very promising, and if we could access more information and have a deeper understanding of the product market, maybe our research can generate huge profits. It made us think about the value of our products and understand what the market was doing.

Shaanxi Juzi Biotechnology Co., LTD. is a high-tech enterprise led by genetic engineering and biomaterial engineering, focusing on the fields of dermatology, medical devices, preventive medicine and nutrition medicine. It has rich experience in the marketization of various new medicine fields. We hoped to understand the marketization potential of our project by communicating with the company．

At the beginning of January, we had a field visit and exchange to understand the production scale and operation of the company's related products. In this exchange, they showed us the research and development process of humanoid collagen and made a basic reference for our initial project design.

In early September, we communicated with the person in charge of the company again. As the experiment progressed, we began to tell companies more about our project. As a triterpenoid compound, rare ginsenosides can greatly increase the content of hyaluronic acid on human skin surface. When the company learned of our research results, it said that our product could be used in the research and production of new skin care products. The company has taught us their experience in purifying the humanoid collagen that does not exist in nature, and commercializing it on a large scale and applying it in medical cosmetology. This makes us think further about the commercial production of ginsenosides.

After this exchange, we began to put some energy into the application of ginsenoside-related products instead of just focusing on experiments, which greatly improved our confidence and motivation in learning the project.

Under the guidance of Shaanxi Giant Biotechnology Co., LTD., we have begun to develop application philosophy in the market and assess business risks. During this process, we have been fortunate to see Yuhan Bao, Tsinghua University. He mainly studies the safety and development potential of synthetic biological products. He asked several questions about synthetic biology and introduced us to synthetic biology. Make us a more in-depth understanding of the safety of synthetic biology.


Yuhan Bao
    Good day, I’m Yuhan Bao, a PhD student in Public Administration of Tsinghua University, thank you for sharing and answering just now. I just asked a question in the conference room. I am currently mainly studying the governance and policy of synthetic biology, but I have always studied environmental management and environmental science, so I am particularly interested in what your group does. Both of your points are closely related to me.
    I have a few small questions I want to ask you for advice.


Yuhan Bao:
    The first question is, you just mentioned that your method of producing saponins ck by enzymatic transformation is more environmentally friendly than microbial transformation, but what do you think is the possible risk of this route? The point is that it is through engineered bacteria. Where are the main risks of producing products?


Jiacheng Li:
    The first answer: The reason why we choose the enzyme conversion method is that compared with the microbial method, the enzyme conversion method has high selectivity, good specificity, and is not easily affected by the environment. At the same time, we also ensure that it is completely environmentally friendly. This is also a point that we emphatically considered at the beginning of the project investigation. If it is really said to be risky, it should be a problem in our production. Because the repeatability in biological experiments is really low, the results of each measurement are not the same, and it may eventually deviate from our thinking. The product produced by engineered bacteria depends on what product it is. If it is food, then food safety must be considered. At the same time, different engineered bacteria have different effects. Some bacteria are Potentially pathogenic, this is also more important, you need to pay attention.


Yuhan Bao:
    The second question is whether you have investigated what related regulatory requirements may be involved if commercial conversion is achieved, and are there any regulatory gaps?


Jiacheng Li:
    The second answer: If you want to achieve commercial conversion, we need to move from increasing production in a laboratory environment to increasing production in a commercial environment. If it is to be commercialized, it must Focusing on the value of the economic market and the characteristics of the product, it is necessary to consider the efficacy, application value and acceptable price of this product from the perspective of consumers, as well as the cost. Of course, there will be gaps in drug supervision. For example, the lack of rigorous supervision of drugs leads to the outflow of counterfeit drugs, which the masses cannot distinguish. This is also a point to pay attention to. At the same time, the shelf life of drugs, in general, if you want to put them into commercial applications, you really need to consider too many factors.

   Yuhan Bao:
    The last question is, do you have any more ideas about using synthetic biology to achieve biological carbon sequestration?


Jiacheng Li:
    The third answer: Use synthetic biology methods to achieve biological carbon sequestration. Using synthetic biology to achieve biological carbon sequestration, as an example of our original idea. Remove heavy metals from soil. We use a biosurfactant to adsorb heavy metal ions in the soil, and ensure that heavy metal ions are not absorbed by the body during the cycle. Another idea is to use microbes to eat what needs to be removed from the soil. However the idea of a microbe devouring target substances, because of the bioethical issues involved, is to stop there.