Team:NCTU Formosa/Human Practices
Overview
"Be the light of the world."
"Be the light of the world." is both of the motto of NCTU and the core of our project
this year. We want to change the world by developing a strain of E. coli that can use
alternative energy sources for growth and protein expression. To show our project would benefit
the world, we incorporated various principles of the SDGs.
By visiting Grape King Bio., we learned that E. Hybrid would be beneficial for
therapeutics usages, such as medicine production. By visiting TWBIO, we learned that E. Hybrid
can also be used for spike protein production which could lead to the development of vaccines.
Finally, we learned that most people wanted us to apply E. Hybrid to environmetal usages, and it
became the main concept of our device. In addition, with the characteristics of E. Hybrid,
we think that it is incorporative and applicative for daily usages.
Integrated Human Practice
Through integrated human practices, we hoped to not only improve various parts of our
project but also expose ourselves to various viewpoints and receive feedback to improve the
overall usefulness for every part of society.
Professors
First, we met with two NCTU professors to confirm the logic behind our project
design as well as confirm the validity of certain experimental procedures we were unfamiliar
with.
β-carotene measurement
Professor Ya Ting, Kao
To measure β-carotene accurately, we consulted Professor Kao regarding
optical measurement. She told us if we measured β-carotene directly from the cell, a
light scattering effect would most likely occur and the concentration of β-carotene
would be overestimated. Professor Kao suggested us to extract β-carotene from the
cell for more accurate measurements.
Metabolic engineering: Increasing intracellular ATP
Professor Ethan I. Lan
To prove E. Hybrid is applicable to and can be incorporated into many
metabolic engineering and creative uses, we consulted Professor Lan, an expert in
metabolic engineering at NCTU. He told us the increased intracellular ATP may be
useful in pathways, especially under specific conditions. Therefore, we assessed
protein expression levels under low glucose conditions.
Public-Carbon Source Consumption Survey
Working out of the lab and interacting with the public provided indispensable information
that guided the formation of our project. Throughout the project, we held many conferences
and made a Carbon Resource Consumption survey to gauge public opinion.
People who replied to the survey were mostly undergraduates or students with higher degrees
in Taiwan. We wanted to know how people think about carbon consumption nowadays and how
excessive consumption leads to green-house effect and global warming. Additionally, we want
to know what people will do with E. Hybrid and the device designs they expect to have
The Enterprise
Finally, we visited a few actual biotech companies to gain a better
understanding of industry needs.
Grape King Bio
Grape King Bio is a company that uses fermentation to manufacture health foods.
After visiting and sharing our E. Hybrid with them, we learned some ways to implement E.
Hybrid in the real world.
- The life cycle of E. Hybrid should be calculated
- Although E. Hybrid may not be useful in directly producing food, it can be used to produce important in food processing.
- E. Hybrid may be great for therapeutics related protein production with its growth characteristic – rapid and long stationary phase which can adapt to the medicine manufacturing rate.
Figure 1: Grape King Bio Visit
TWBIO
TWBIO is also a company that uses synthetic biology for fermentation. With their
special cloning skills, bacteria can easily be endowed with highly valuable expression
targets. After visiting sharing our E. Hybrid with them, they shared that they had a similar
vision of achieving protein expression through culturing yeast, and that our E. Hybrid
system had the potential to not only achieve their vision but surpass it. We were even lucky
enough to begin a collaboration with them!
- They tried to clone COVID-19 spike protein genes into E. Hybrid.
- They provided us with continuous growth curve detector to measure growth curve more precisely.
Figure 2: TWBIO Visit
Others – SDGs in Hsinchu
Xiangshan Wind Power Plant Visit
Hsinchu the city which NCTU_Formosa is located has a nickname "Wind City".
Developing wind power here is very appropriate! The mutual characteristic between wind power
plant and E. Hybrid is that they both satisfy the seventh SDGs
goal: Affordable and Clean Energy. Let's use affordable and clean energy together!
Figure 3: Xiangshan Wind Power Plant Visit
Video 1: Sharing SDGs in Hsinchu with People around the World
Qalang Smangus Visit
On a remote mountain of Hsinchu, there is a aboriginal tribe, Qalang Smangus. It
creates a sustainable environment for humans and creatures by using biological anti-blue
light pollution streetlights. Residents and nature coexist harmoniously
there!
Figure 4: Qalang Smangus Visits