Team:HKUST/Human Practices
Integrated Human Practice
Our goals:
- Raise public awareness about environmental issues and educate them how synthetic biology is a solution to solve these issues
- Evaluate the public’s perception on genetically modified organism (GMO) and acceptance on our project
- Consult stakeholders to gain market insights and learn from their expertise to ensure the feasibility and ethicality of our project
- Collaborate with other iGEM teams to join hands and further spread the impacts of synthetic biology
Overview
Our Integrated Human Practice adopts a flow that allows us to first, understand the current situations/ problems. Then, we ideate and design solutions in order to solve the problems. And over the time, we evaluate and iterate our existing solutions. And eventually propose a future plan/ direction.
Interviews
Dr. Douglas Fudge (University of Chapman)
Dr Fudge’s expertise is in understanding the biophysics of marine animals, specifically, he has extensively studied the function and biogenesis of hagfish slime, hagfish slime threads. We believe he is suitable to assess the feasibility of our idea. We discussed with him the characteristics of hagfish and the challenges faced by our project.
After evaluating our project, he raised concerns such as the concept of genetically modified products are not completely welcomed in today’s market and deriving hagfish slime may be impractical. We discussed how replicating spider silk is very difficult due to the highly repetitive genes making them unstable. Therefore Hagfish slime would be a better alternative for making a biodegradable fabric.
His main input was on the subject of dyes. We initially wanted to dye our biomimetic fibre with chromoproteins. However, Dr Fudge doubts if the size of chromoproteins would be too large and may Fudge suggest we could use Congo red as it has been successfully used and tested before. Congo red is visible under UV light, and the beta sheets can be seen via a polarizing microscope. Hagfish intermediate filaments should bind to Congo red similar to how spider silk does and allows us to achieve a spectrum of color dyes.
However, Congo red is toxic and carcinogenic, so it was decided we would not carry out experiments with Congo red. Nevertheless, this inspired us to think of alternative dye for chromoproteins which is non-toxic and has a smaller molecular size than chromoproteins. Thus, we've chosen some natural dye for our future trials of dyeing IF.
We also discussed our ideas of linking chromoproteins in front of IF covalently at either N-terminal or C-terminal. However, he suggested that these methods may inhibit IF polymer formation as. He stated that mechanisms for bundling between IF dimers and IF polymer formation are still unclear and under research. Therefore, this inspired us to explore other ways for dyeing our intermediate filaments, we proposed using a small segment of the binding domain which could bind to our hagfish threads after draw processing, this idea will be explored more in Phase 2.
When we asked Dr. Fudge why there is yet no hagfish thread 3D structure available from research. We learned that the terminal regions of IF are inherently elastomeric domains, which may make it difficult to experimentally determine the structure at the atomic-resolution level. Therefore we used the power of modeling to determine the 3D structure of our IF subunits and we will try to improve that with new experimental findings in the future.
Esquel Group (Chinese Textile Manufacturing Company)
Esquel Group is a leading Hong Kong based textile and apparel manufacturing company, and their practices take into account ethicality and the environment. We had an interview with them to learn more about the apparel manufacturing industry from a business perspective. We had a better understanding of the trends in the fashion industry and were especially aware of the rise of awareness in sustainability. We re-evaluated the business value that can be brought by our new fabric and gain some insights in how to dye our fiber. This allows us to better prepare for our potential entrepreneurship plans in the future.
They invited us to visit their manufacturing sites in Mainland China after the pandemic to have a better understanding. This shall be done in the second phase if the situation allows.
HKRITA (The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel)
HKRITA is an applied research centre in Hong Kong that focuses on textile and clothing. The management and operations of HKRITA involve different experts in the fashion industry including Fashion and Textile Faculty Professors from Hong Kong Polytechnic Universities and directors from various Hong Kong leading fashion companies. Apart from research, they also support recycling and upcycling of worn clothes. We had an interview with them to learn more about the current situation and development of Hong Kong/s fashion industry as well as exploring the market potential of hagfish IF as a new material for clothing.
Representatives from HKRITA shared with us the story behind the excessive use of synthetic fibres for clothing, and told us the recent market trends are clothes which are breathable, water-resistant and quick-dry, based on their observation. Yet synthetic fibres are non-biodegradable and polluting to the environment, and they are looking for materials to replace synthetic fibres. We shared with them our iGEM project and they also find it interesting and feasible. They also reminded us to pay attention to market demand for clothing for example, allergic response and colour choices. They gave us new directions to carry out research for our project.
We also touched on the dyeing problem in our chat, and we realised there are various loopholes in existing dyeing solutions and large amount of resources are not used efficiently in the dyeing process, for example, excessive use of water and hugh electricity demand to maintain the system at certain temperature, pressure and pH level. In view of this, our team was inspired to utilise green dyeing system for our IF colouring to save energy and resources.
Questionnare
Objectives
The survey was conducted to investigate the public awareness of microplastics pollution, sustainability, their clothing preferences, and opinions on our project so as to provide data for tackling the problem.
Methods
226 respondents were surveyed anonymously by convenience sampling via an online form during the period from 23rd August to 19th October 2020. The data was collected and analyzed using Google Forms and Microsoft Excel, respectively.
Results
The majority of respondents are aware of the environmental problems brought about by clothing waste. In reality, clothing wastage is one of the culprits leading to land, air, and sea pollution.
The majority have a correct guess and understanding on the current textile situation both locally and worldwide, but a large number of them underestimate the impact of textile waste. Most of them know what fast fashion is and sometimes buy them, but do not know any government policies or NGOs focusing on the aspect.
In general, most respondents have reasonable purchase habits and discardment of clothes. Most are willing to adopt a more sustainable clothing habit, as reflected in their willingness to pay more for a greener t-shirt.
The awareness of hagfish is low. Most of them do not know what hagfish is or what is the significance of hagfish fibers.
There is a correlation between age, education level, and acceptance towards transgenic products. There is also a correlation between age/education level and interest towards our project.
Discussion
The survey results indicate that the price, comfortability and durability of clothes are key in generating a greater impact, and that more science communication is in order to educate the public on the topic of sustainable textiles.
The general awareness in sustainable development is high but most lack specific knowledge on issues related to textiles.
Overall, there is a discrepancy in the environmental awareness of respondents and the actions taken by them. This implies relatively passive consumers who change buying behaviors slowly. This represents our major challenge in promoting novel solutions to alleviating the environmental impact of the textile industry.