human_practices.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Human Practices</title>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=no">
    <script src="js/jquery.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <script src="js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
    <script src="js/vue.min.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/general.css">
    <script src="js/general.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/sidebar.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/article.css">
    <script src="js/sidebar.js" defer></script>
</head>
<body>
<nav id="nav-bar" class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light sticky-top"></nav>
<div id="title" class="col-12" style='-o-background-image: url("https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/a/a6/T--DUT_China--t_hp.jpg");
    -moz-background-image: url("https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/a/a6/T--DUT_China--t_hp.jpg");
    -webkit-background-image: url("https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/a/a6/T--DUT_China--t_hp.jpg");
    background-image: url("https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/a/a6/T--DUT_China--t_hp.jpg");'>
    <div>Integrated<br>Human Practices</div>
</div>
<div id="sidebar" v-bind:class="{'sidebar-active':isActive}">
    <table>
        <tr v-for="(value,key,index) in articles">
            <td>
                <canvas width="40" height="40" class="canvas"></canvas>
            </td>
            <td class="side-item" v-bind:class="{'side-item-active':itemActive[key]}">
                <a v-bind:href="'#article'+(key+1)" style="font-size: 16px;">
                    {{value.innerHTML}}
                </a>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</div>
<style>
    #main-text img {
        display: block;
    }

    #main-text img.portrait {
        display: block;
        width: 25%;
        float: left;
    }

    @media only screen and (max-width: 575px) {
        #main-text img.portrait {
            width: 100%;
        }
    }
</style>
<section id="main-text">
    <article class="article">
        <h1>Human Practices</h1>
        <h2>Putting the larger questions into the context</h2>

        <p>Solving a problem generally requires three steps: discover the problem, analyze the problem, and deal with
            the problem in an appropriate way. In each step, problems arising from the connection between theory and
            reality will be encountered. The road of scientific research is not smooth, but we can never forget our
            source and the value of final application promotion in this journey. We answered the core questions of the
            team project, including environmental friendliness and responsibility, social technological innovation,
            social tolerance, and scientific feasibility. We must ensure that our projects can provide certain value to
            the world and society and can be used for reference in human life and even the future.</p>

        <h2>How can we gather a holistic perspective about the public responses and holding the social
            investigation?</h2>

        <p>Since we want to deal with the microplastics in the environment, the most accumulated microplastics are still
            in the downstream sewage treatment and other links. We contacted the Chunliuhe Sewage Treatment Plant for
            interviews and investigations. As a more professional sewage monitoring and treatment institutions. In the
            view of the treatment characteristics of sewage treatment plants, we mainly investigate the microplastic
            composition of water waste in sewage treatment plants. In order to obtain more professional knowledge
            guidance, we consulted with teachers whose research direction is similar to that of plastic degradation.
            However, it was important to realize that there was a target question we need to solve, namely the
            application of our innovation in the real world.</p>

        <h2>What kind of factors should be considered in the practice of project application?</h2>

        <p>We have to consider the effects of a number of factors in the process of environment application. Because our
            study subjects are not single in the environment but co-existing with toxic substances, we must consider the
            possible effects of the presence of other substances on enzyme activity and effects. The nature of the
            degradation products and the interaction with the unknown environment are in urgent need of research and
            in-depth understanding. We also need to consider the cost in order to apply the extensiveness in the
            practical application. Material recovery and disposal should also be taken into account and we must ensure
            that it can be recovered timely so that it doesn't impose a burden on the environment in case of the event
            of unforeseen circumstances.</p>

        <h2>What other ethical considerations should we take into account in our project?</h2>
        <p>Having the strict technical requirements and standards in the production process, the products used in the
            land will not produce microplastics are significantly important, which effectively avoiding affecting soil
            natural-bacterial consortium populations. Different production companies will choose to add different raw
            materials according to the cost, such as plasticizers. We wonder whether the company considers the
            degradation of plastics when processing, and whether they have taken measures to minimize the environmental
            burden that it may bring. The Basel Convention adopted not long ago made us wonder whether the relevant
            staff consciously started to improve the regulations after discovering problems. We set out to interview the
            Golden Land Company to understand the impact of plastics on planting soil and crop growth. Our team took a
            stakeholder-focused approach for our project at every stage. To gain a better sense of the overall space and
            get advice from industry professionals, we talked to several individuals at some of the famous plastic
            processing technology companies in China such as JIN TU DI Group and Chunliu River Sewage Treatment Ltd. We
            also talked to individuals in academia to understand some of the crucial variables that we had to consider
            when designing and optimizing our genetic circuits.</p>
        <p>From talking to these stakeholders, we came to realize that there was a broader picture here, namely the
            deployment of our innovation in the real world. In designing our degradable microplastics system, we were
            able to meet the requirements of both companies and sewage treatment plant, including environmental
            friendliness, high efficiency and thoroughly degradation. The one factor that we were still unable to meet
            was specific delivery method as the vector we used is Escherichia coli. One of our goals going forward will
            be to further promote our technology to more vectors and meet this requirement.</p>

        <h2>How can we become better scientists? How to popularize and promote synthetic biology through education?</h2>

        <p>We need to communicate more with other colleagues and learn from each other to make progress. We formed New
            Pollutants Alliance with Ocean University of China, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Nanjing Foreign Languages
            School, and Zhejiang University. We organized an online workshop with the theme of New Pollutants together.
            We invited teachers in the field of synthetic biology and ecotoxicology, enterprises in the field of rapid
            inspection and students with relevant legal backgrounds to share and discuss online solutions to decrease
            pollutants. We also co-planned with OUC-IGEM to write popular science articles on "new pollutants", focusing
            on the hazards of antibiotics and microplastics to today's environment. In addition, we also exchanged and
            promoted projects with students from 18 schools including Tongji University, Beijing Institute of Technology
            and Tianjin University who participated in the iGEM competition.</p>
        <p>Our team knew that brilliant idea couldn't come up alone: it is only through communications and discussions
            from co-teams that we are able to be inspired and move forward. As a result, we completed our core
            design-Hydrophobin from the sharing meeting with China Pharmaceutical University in May. That's also one of
            the main spirits of iGEM.</p>

        <h2>What are the central values of our project to society and life?</h2>

        <p>There are currently 4.9 billion tons of plastic waste. Only 9% of the world's plastics are recycled, and the
            rest of the garbage ends up in landfills or scattered in our land and oceans. If we continue or the current
            plastic consumption continues to grow, by 2050, there will be 12 billion tons of plastic waste. The shocking
            thing is that 91% of all plastics are disposable. Since plastics became common use about 60 years ago, the
            speed of mass production has resulted in 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic pollution. Although people are
            becoming more aware of its adverse effects on the environment, it will still double in the next 20 years.
            Putting all these facts together, it is clear that we are in the gloomy depths of the global plastic crisis.
            This problem is so serious that the United Nations has identified single-use plastics as one of the biggest
            environmental challenges in the modern world.</p>

        <p>Vladimir Moshkalo, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the Russian Federation,
            said:"We must fundamentally rethink the way we produce and consume. If these trends continue, by 2050,
            there
            will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. A sustainable future requires cooperation from all levels of
            society", he said.</p>
        <p>Based on what we investigated, we designed our program to solve this urgent and serious problem in the
            world.</p>

        <p>More important information is provided in the Integrated Human Practice part.</p>

    </article>
    <article class="article">
        <h1>Integrated Human Practices</h1>
        <article class="article">
            <h2 class="marked">1 Background</h2>
            <p>Synthetic polymers pervade all aspects of modern life, due to their low cost, high durability, and
                impressive range of tunability. Originally developed to avoid the use of animal-based products, plastics
                have now become so widespread that their leakage into the biosphere and accumulation in landfills is
                creating a global-scale environmental crisis. Currently, large amounts of plastic debris are entering
                landfills or are left as waste accumulated in natural world, and it's a public emergency to prevent its
                release and accumulation in the environment via appropriate biological, chemical, and physical
                treatments. Among them, wide spreading and utilization of plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in
                the world has caused a large quantity of environmental challenges and gained much attention. PET is one
                of the major plastics, in addition to polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and
                polyurethane, and its worldwide production amounted to more than 106 million tons in 2020. Synthetic
                plastic polymers Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used forms of synthetic
                plastics in several industrial fields, which has been reported spreading as particles less than 5 mm in
                environments and being captured from environments with low efficiencies. Furthermore, in addition to the
                microplastics found in the environment, PET is frequently used in household products, which is severely
                accumulated in the landfill and even worse, natural environments. Thus, plastic waste may have a
                negative effect on human health and reveal a serious threatening to environments.</p>

            <p>In August 2021, the United Nations Biodiversity Organization released the document "The global plastic
                crisis is imminent". More than 180 countries and regions passed the plastic waste amendment of the Basel
                Convention, calling on human beings to minimize the generation of plastic waste and carry out
                environmentally sound management.</p>

            <p>In China, as one of the world's top 10 producers and consumers of plastic products, Chinese natural
                environment and city are faced with severe plastic pollution and high recycling pressure. In 2020, China
                produced 70.302 million tons of plastics and imported nearly 450 thousand tons. The total consumption of
                plastics in China in 2019 was about 90.877 million tons, of which millions of tons were used for
                packaging. Most of the plastic used for packaging is discarded in the environment in the form of waste
                film, plastic bags and cutlery. In terms of consumption level, the consumption of bottle-grade PET in
                China continues to grow from 6.33 million tons in 2016 to 9.49 million tons in 2020. In 2020, the total
                consumption of PET bottles in China reached 9.49 million tons. Although the export volume decreased to
                2.34 million tons due to the epidemic in 2020, accounting for 24.7% of the total consumption, the
                domestic demand continued to expand, reaching 7.15 million tons. All these demands and consumptions have
                caused severe challenges in environment, especially for over accumulation of frequently used plastic
                form, PET, in biosphere.</p>
        </article>
        <article class="article">
            <h2 class="marked">2 What can we do?</h2>
            <p>Plastics pollution represents a global environmental crisis. In response, microbe <i>Ideonella
                sakaiensis</i>
                was evolved corresponding mechanism that is capable of secreting two efficient enzymes to deconstruct
                PET polymers in mild temperature. However, this two-enzyme system degradation capacity is highly limited
                by inhibition effects, diffusion of intermediates and PET surface physicochemical properties. According
                to previously reported experimental results, the direct linking combination of these two different
                enzymes effectively improved the reaction rate. However, this new strategy is still limited by enzymatic
                activity loss caused by direct linking method and low expression ratio. Simultaneously, the hydrophobin
                protein is discovered to be capable of attaching to plastic surface via its hydrophobic part and expose
                its hydrophilic part to aqueous environment. This unique feature may effectively make enzymes more
                accessible to hydrophobic surface of PET. Therefore, inspired by nature, we designed a delicate
                multicomplex enzyme system, in which short peptide tags (Redesigned RIAD and RIDD derived from natural
                proteins) are applied to create scaffold-free modular enzymes assemblies. Here, in order to effectively
                degrade microplastic PET particles, we construct enzymes of <i>Is</i>PETase and MHETase and protein
                hydrophobin
                together in our complex system via scaffold modular part, which may reveal higher catalytic efficiency
                in mild temperature and avoid high possible loss of enzymes activity. Therefore, we created an
                innovative strategy to improve PET degradation at mild temperature via biosynthetic factories and
                artificially designed proteins system that do not exist in the nature.</p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/1/10/T--DUT_China--hp_0.jpg" class="mx-auto col-12 col-md-8"
                 alt="">
        </article>
        <article class="article">
            <h2 class="marked">3 Overview</h2>
            <p>While completing our project design and experimental parts, our ultimate goal is to put scientific
                research results into real practice. We've been thinking, what is the significance of our project? What
                problems can be solved? What kind of value can be created? Are there any risks? As a team, we always
                believe that it is vital to have a lasting impact on others and society through our project. This is why
                we try our best to understand the needs of stakeholders in the process of promoting the project, and we
                will consult the implementation of bio-based enzymes degradation feedback from experts, doctors,
                manufacturers and the public to promote our project, while ensuring that our project is biosafe,
                responsible, feasible and sustainable. In the following content, you will learn about our progress,
                thinking process and how we integrate expert opinions.</p>
        </article>
        <article class="article">
            <h2 class="marked">4 Expert interviews</h2>
            <h3>The first stage</h3>
            <p>At this stage, we interviewed many relevant stakeholders regarding the plastic including PET pollution in
                China, the problems and challenges faced at current stage. To better understand the situation of PET
                accumulation with the corresponding impact on the economy, society and environment. In this way, we can
                understand our problems from multiple angles and think about how our projects can better affect
                society.</p>

            <h4>Name: JIN TU DI Group</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/e/e8/T--DUT_China--hp_1.png" alt="">
            <p>JIN TU DI Group is a famous company that dedicated to the products of agricultural film, plastic
                products, plastic plates, tubes and waste plastic recycling processing. It is the largest agricultural
                plastic industry company in the northwestern part of China. It is fortunate for us to communicate with
                this company's chief manager Mrs. Sun and her student Qi Liu about the current industry situation
                related to plastic and corresponding national manage laws. Company officials told us that the type of
                plastic is mainly PE and PET material, in which the current PE material plastic degradation method
                invented by JIN TU DI Group has become matured. However, PET recovery rate is only around 10%, and PET
                common recycling technology involves high temperature and high pressure, strong acid and alkali and
                other issues, is likely to cause further pollution. According to JIN TU DI Group market investigation,
                PET degradation at mild temperature especially in agricultural land is still a great challenge. Plastics
                caused by agricultural plastics cannot be effectively recycled and be buried in the agricultural land,
                resulting severe soil fertility damage. Soil contamination makes it impossible to grow the ideal crops
                and the cost is huge. Although government has made corresponding laws to limit plastic using and
                spreading in relevant fields, the effects are still limited. The PET degradation at mild temperature
                still needs to be improved.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Making sure that PET degradation at mild temperature is a truly emergency and
                meaningful
                direction and our project focus point should be dedicated to solve this tough problem among other
                plastic pollutions problems. The key points for solving current challenges in plastic pollution mainly
                lies in mild temperature degradation, effective degradation rate and good performances in its endurances
                for long period using and degradation, which would be our project designing core. Although China has
                issued relevant strict policies on controlling plastic pollution, the current law on managing PET and
                other material is still at early stage and not consummated. Thus, new method for accelerating PET
                plastic at mild condition is needed and more comprehensive and mature Legislative Proposals are
                necessary.</p>

            <h4>Name: Kaiserslautern University 2019 iGEM team<a href="http://2019.igem.org/Team:TU_Kaiserslautern" target="_blank">
                <svg class="icon" style="width: 1em;height: 1em;vertical-align: middle;fill: currentColor;overflow: hidden;"
                     viewBox="0 0 1024 1024" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" p-id="1714">
                    <path d="M607.934444 417.856853c-6.179746-6.1777-12.766768-11.746532-19.554358-16.910135l-0.01228 0.011256c-6.986111-6.719028-16.47216-10.857279-26.930349-10.857279-21.464871 0-38.864146 17.400299-38.864146 38.864146 0 9.497305 3.411703 18.196431 9.071609 24.947182l-0.001023 0c0.001023 0.001023 0.00307 0.00307 0.005117 0.004093 2.718925 3.242857 5.953595 6.03853 9.585309 8.251941 3.664459 3.021823 7.261381 5.997598 10.624988 9.361205l3.203972 3.204995c40.279379 40.229237 28.254507 109.539812-12.024871 149.820214L371.157763 796.383956c-40.278355 40.229237-105.761766 40.229237-146.042167 0l-3.229554-3.231601c-40.281425-40.278355-40.281425-105.809861 0-145.991002l75.93546-75.909877c9.742898-7.733125 15.997346-19.668968 15.997346-33.072233 0-23.312962-18.898419-42.211381-42.211381-42.211381-8.797363 0-16.963347 2.693342-23.725354 7.297197-0.021489-0.045025-0.044002-0.088004-0.066515-0.134053l-0.809435 0.757247c-2.989077 2.148943-5.691629 4.669346-8.025791 7.510044l-78.913281 73.841775c-74.178443 74.229608-74.178443 195.632609 0 269.758863l3.203972 3.202948c74.178443 74.127278 195.529255 74.127278 269.707698 0l171.829484-171.880649c74.076112-74.17435 80.357166-191.184297 6.282077-265.311575L607.934444 417.856853zM855.61957 165.804257l-3.203972-3.203972c-74.17742-74.178443-195.528232-74.178443-269.706675 0L410.87944 334.479911c-74.178443 74.178443-78.263481 181.296089-4.085038 255.522628l3.152806 3.104711c3.368724 3.367701 6.865361 6.54302 10.434653 9.588379 2.583848 2.885723 5.618974 5.355985 8.992815 7.309476 0.025583 0.020466 0.052189 0.041956 0.077771 0.062422l0.011256-0.010233c5.377474 3.092431 11.608386 4.870938 18.257829 4.870938 20.263509 0 36.68962-16.428158 36.68962-36.68962 0-5.719258-1.309832-11.132548-3.645017-15.95846l0 0c-4.850471-10.891048-13.930267-17.521049-20.210297-23.802102l-3.15383-3.102664c-40.278355-40.278355-24.982998-98.79612 15.295358-139.074476l171.930791-171.830507c40.179095-40.280402 105.685018-40.280402 145.965419 0l3.206018 3.152806c40.279379 40.281425 40.279379 105.838513 0 146.06775l-75.686796 75.737962c-10.296507 7.628748-16.97358 19.865443-16.97358 33.662681 0 23.12365 18.745946 41.87062 41.87062 41.87062 8.048303 0 15.563464-2.275833 21.944801-6.211469 0.048095 0.081864 0.093121 0.157589 0.141216 0.240477l1.173732-1.083681c3.616364-2.421142 6.828522-5.393847 9.529027-8.792247l79.766718-73.603345C929.798013 361.334535 929.798013 239.981676 855.61957 165.804257z"
                          p-id="1715"></path>
                </svg>
            </a>
            </h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/2/2d/T--DUT_China--hp_2.png" alt="">
            <p>We communicate with iGEM alumni from Kaiserslautern 2019, Germany, who is also dedicated to focus on the
                PET pollution threatening. Through this online communication, we obtain an overview situation of plastic
                degradation and current limitations, which significantly function in our final project formation. Their
                work mainly related to revolutionizing plastic degradation by introducing <i>Chlamydomonas
                    reinhardtii</i> as a
                eukaryotic secretion platform, which effectively secret two degradation enzymes and adhere to
                microplastic surface so that PET can be continuously exposed to enzymes degradation. Our online meeting
                fully discussed all previous efforts in this field and possible future strategies for further
                accelerated PET decomposing in environment. Through this discussion, we have also discovered the
                limitation of current PET degradation: 1. High temperature that may not be applicable to current mild
                enzymes like <i>Is</i>PETase. 2. Newly discovered enzymes with prefect performance at high temperature
                may not
                be able to convert accumulated MHET into final monomers TPA that possess economical values.
                3.Hydrophobic surface of PET makes it hard for enzymes effectively adhere to it. Therefore, after this
                communication, we recognized that one of the core challenges in this field would be to degrade
                accumulated PET at mild temperature with higher rate. Most PET accumulated in environment can only be
                degraded at room temperature and involvement of industrial method at high temperature may cause the
                further pollution to natural environment. Although at this stage, our team was experiencing the
                brainstorm section and the new possible ideal was still being formed.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Recognizing one of the core challenges is degrade PET effectively at mild temperature
                because
                most plastic accumulated in environment can only be degraded at room temperature. With their shearing of
                PET-related fields information, we further understand the current stage of PET degradation key
                limitations and decide to apply <i>Is</i>PETase discovered in 2016 rather than LCC enzymes reported in
                2020 to
                our project because <i>Is</i>PETase is potentially applicable to degrade PET at mild temperature and
                combined
                with MHETase to accelerate reaction rate.</p>

            <h4>Name: Chunliu River Sewage Treatment Ltd</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/a/ac/T--DUT_China--hp_3.png" alt="">
            <p>Dalian Chunliu River Sewage Treatment Ltd was built in 1982 and put into use in 1986. It is the earliest
                urban secondary sewage treatment plant built in the northeastern part of China. In 2017, the second
                phase of the Dalian Chunliuhe River Sewage Treatment Ltd was upgraded with advanced sewage treatment
                technology. The plant mainly uses corresponding physical, chemical and biological methods for sewage
                treatment and purification. Our communications focus on sewage treatment processes and industry
                standards related to wastewater waste, and in particular, we are more concerned about the industry
                standards for plastics in wastewater treatment plants, but staff revealed that they have never known any
                knowledge related to microplastic particles, and after our introduction, they said that existing
                processes cannot remove plastics debris from water because relevant equipment was not initially
                considered to remove accumulated plastic particles in water. Out of our expectations, even professional
                workers didn't pay much attention to plastic processing in waste water. This means that plastics in
                sewage are often overlooked, and whether they are effective in removing plastics from sewage is often
                overlooked. Since many research teams around the world have detected the existence of plastics in many
                types of water including the waste water processing system. However, the possible existence of plastic
                in Chunliu River Sewage Treatment Ltd has been ignored, which may cause threatening to humankind health
                and environment. Current technology on degrading plastics including PET material is still limited and
                further processing at high temperature may not be applicable due to the further pollution and
                inconvenience. Thus, the effective detection and degradation of accumulated PET at room temperature is
                urgent.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Conversations with sewage treatment plants have exposed the problem that terminal
                treatment
                plants do not pay much attention to PET accumulated in water. Through this conversation and follow-up
                data verification, we knew that there is no uniform standard for PET processing in water purification,
                in which the uniform Legislative Proposals are needed. Therefore, this report directly encouraged us to
                propose corresponding Legislative Proposals calling for paying more attention to eco-friendly remove PET
                and other plastics accumulated in environment and our community. Simultaneously, this communication with
                relevant industry directly strengthened and supported that our project focused problem is a true
                emergency, which further conformed with our previous investigations, and our approach is really
                important and needed for further solving PET plastic pollution challenge.</p>

            <h3>The second stage</h3>
            <p>In order to solve the problem of effectively degradation of accumulated PET at mild temperature, we hope
                to find a safe and efficient approach. At first, we summarized and compared the certain methods reported
                by previous literature. Among them, we regard artificially designed scaffolds combined with PET
                degradation enzymes as the most potential method due to its neglected disturbances to enzymes structure
                stability and possible improved efficiency. We believe it is of great practical significance to develop
                this new ideal for PET degradation. For further understanding of its characteristics, advantages,
                disadvantages and other related questions, we visited experts and researchers at this stage for
                designing our project.</p>

            <h4>Name: Wei Kang</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/5/53/T--DUT_China--hp_4.png" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p><b>Occupation: Associate professor, School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Protein chemistry, synthetic biology, chemical biology</b></p>
            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <p>Associate professor, Mr. Kang expressed great interest in our project, which may be combined with his new
                discovery of RIAD-RIDD dimer peptides interaction. These two types peptides possess strong binding
                affinity to each other. Under his discovery inspiration, we proposed that <i>Is</i>PETase and MHETase
                may can
                be fused to RIDD and RIAD respectively so that the physical closer contact with these two enzymes active
                site may significantly accelerate PET degradation via intermediate delivery. One previous research has
                proved that the combination of <i>Is</i>PETase and MHETase has significantly accelerated PET
                degradation.
                Therefore, our new inspired designing may further accelerate enzymes degradation rate without disturbing
                enzymes active site structure or enzymatic activity. Associate professor, Mr. Kang encourage us to make
                use of his newly discovered system.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Through this key communication, we obtained inspiration of making use of RIDD-RIAD
                system to
                construct our artificial PET degradation enzyme that may significantly contribute to higher PET
                degradation via intermediate delivery and, simultaneously, we also invited the Assistant Prof. Wei Kang
                as the team advisor to guide our project. Deciding to apply this intricate RIDD-RIAD system into our
                project.</p>

            <h4>Name: CHINA PHARMACEUTICAL UNIVERSITY<a href="http://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA" target="_blank">
                <svg class="icon" style="width: 1em;height: 1em;vertical-align: middle;fill: currentColor;overflow: hidden;"
                     viewBox="0 0 1024 1024" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" p-id="1714">
                    <path d="M607.934444 417.856853c-6.179746-6.1777-12.766768-11.746532-19.554358-16.910135l-0.01228 0.011256c-6.986111-6.719028-16.47216-10.857279-26.930349-10.857279-21.464871 0-38.864146 17.400299-38.864146 38.864146 0 9.497305 3.411703 18.196431 9.071609 24.947182l-0.001023 0c0.001023 0.001023 0.00307 0.00307 0.005117 0.004093 2.718925 3.242857 5.953595 6.03853 9.585309 8.251941 3.664459 3.021823 7.261381 5.997598 10.624988 9.361205l3.203972 3.204995c40.279379 40.229237 28.254507 109.539812-12.024871 149.820214L371.157763 796.383956c-40.278355 40.229237-105.761766 40.229237-146.042167 0l-3.229554-3.231601c-40.281425-40.278355-40.281425-105.809861 0-145.991002l75.93546-75.909877c9.742898-7.733125 15.997346-19.668968 15.997346-33.072233 0-23.312962-18.898419-42.211381-42.211381-42.211381-8.797363 0-16.963347 2.693342-23.725354 7.297197-0.021489-0.045025-0.044002-0.088004-0.066515-0.134053l-0.809435 0.757247c-2.989077 2.148943-5.691629 4.669346-8.025791 7.510044l-78.913281 73.841775c-74.178443 74.229608-74.178443 195.632609 0 269.758863l3.203972 3.202948c74.178443 74.127278 195.529255 74.127278 269.707698 0l171.829484-171.880649c74.076112-74.17435 80.357166-191.184297 6.282077-265.311575L607.934444 417.856853zM855.61957 165.804257l-3.203972-3.203972c-74.17742-74.178443-195.528232-74.178443-269.706675 0L410.87944 334.479911c-74.178443 74.178443-78.263481 181.296089-4.085038 255.522628l3.152806 3.104711c3.368724 3.367701 6.865361 6.54302 10.434653 9.588379 2.583848 2.885723 5.618974 5.355985 8.992815 7.309476 0.025583 0.020466 0.052189 0.041956 0.077771 0.062422l0.011256-0.010233c5.377474 3.092431 11.608386 4.870938 18.257829 4.870938 20.263509 0 36.68962-16.428158 36.68962-36.68962 0-5.719258-1.309832-11.132548-3.645017-15.95846l0 0c-4.850471-10.891048-13.930267-17.521049-20.210297-23.802102l-3.15383-3.102664c-40.278355-40.278355-24.982998-98.79612 15.295358-139.074476l171.930791-171.830507c40.179095-40.280402 105.685018-40.280402 145.965419 0l3.206018 3.152806c40.279379 40.281425 40.279379 105.838513 0 146.06775l-75.686796 75.737962c-10.296507 7.628748-16.97358 19.865443-16.97358 33.662681 0 23.12365 18.745946 41.87062 41.87062 41.87062 8.048303 0 15.563464-2.275833 21.944801-6.211469 0.048095 0.081864 0.093121 0.157589 0.141216 0.240477l1.173732-1.083681c3.616364-2.421142 6.828522-5.393847 9.529027-8.792247l79.766718-73.603345C929.798013 361.334535 929.798013 239.981676 855.61957 165.804257z"
                          p-id="1715"></path>
                </svg>
            </a></h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/8/82/T--DUT_China--hp_5.jpg" class="col-12 col-sm-4 float-start"
                 alt="">
            <p>We communicate with the 2021 iGEM team from CHINA PHARMACEUTICAL UNIVERSITY on plastic degradation. Their
                team is dedicated to degrade PE materials, which is also one of the frequently used forms of plastics.
                During the communication, their team has mentioned the hydrophobic surface of plastic including PET and
                PE is one of the significant factors that limit the degradation rate. Is there exist possible methods to
                retard this limitation? Inspired by their team, we get accessed to a new functional protein called
                hydrophobin, whose structure is highly flexible and able to adhere to hydrophobic plastic surface with
                its hydrophobic surface part with maintaining the hydrophilic surface exposed to water phase. With the
                involvement of this new functional protein, PET surface may become accessible to our enzymes.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Hydrophobin was once used for improving PET degradation rate, however, its efficiency
                was
                limited at that time due to the lack of highly efficient enzymes at mild temperature and therefore was
                ignored by scientists for a long time. Through the discussion with the 2021 iGEM team from CHINA
                PHARMACEUTICAL UNIVERSITY, we obtained the knowledge of hydrophobin protein and were inspired to
                redesigned our project and apply this new protein via fusing it to RIAD and constructed via our
                artificially designed scaffold system, in which this new involved protein may significantly improve the
                designing our project. We also decided to further cooperate with the iGEM team from CHINA PHARMACEUTICAL
                UNIVERSITY.</p>

            <h4>Name: TIANJIN UNIVERSITY 2021 iGEM team<a href="http://2021.igem.org/Team:TJUSLS_China" target="_blank">
                <svg class="icon" style="width: 1em;height: 1em;vertical-align: middle;fill: currentColor;overflow: hidden;"
                     viewBox="0 0 1024 1024" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" p-id="1714">
                    <path d="M607.934444 417.856853c-6.179746-6.1777-12.766768-11.746532-19.554358-16.910135l-0.01228 0.011256c-6.986111-6.719028-16.47216-10.857279-26.930349-10.857279-21.464871 0-38.864146 17.400299-38.864146 38.864146 0 9.497305 3.411703 18.196431 9.071609 24.947182l-0.001023 0c0.001023 0.001023 0.00307 0.00307 0.005117 0.004093 2.718925 3.242857 5.953595 6.03853 9.585309 8.251941 3.664459 3.021823 7.261381 5.997598 10.624988 9.361205l3.203972 3.204995c40.279379 40.229237 28.254507 109.539812-12.024871 149.820214L371.157763 796.383956c-40.278355 40.229237-105.761766 40.229237-146.042167 0l-3.229554-3.231601c-40.281425-40.278355-40.281425-105.809861 0-145.991002l75.93546-75.909877c9.742898-7.733125 15.997346-19.668968 15.997346-33.072233 0-23.312962-18.898419-42.211381-42.211381-42.211381-8.797363 0-16.963347 2.693342-23.725354 7.297197-0.021489-0.045025-0.044002-0.088004-0.066515-0.134053l-0.809435 0.757247c-2.989077 2.148943-5.691629 4.669346-8.025791 7.510044l-78.913281 73.841775c-74.178443 74.229608-74.178443 195.632609 0 269.758863l3.203972 3.202948c74.178443 74.127278 195.529255 74.127278 269.707698 0l171.829484-171.880649c74.076112-74.17435 80.357166-191.184297 6.282077-265.311575L607.934444 417.856853zM855.61957 165.804257l-3.203972-3.203972c-74.17742-74.178443-195.528232-74.178443-269.706675 0L410.87944 334.479911c-74.178443 74.178443-78.263481 181.296089-4.085038 255.522628l3.152806 3.104711c3.368724 3.367701 6.865361 6.54302 10.434653 9.588379 2.583848 2.885723 5.618974 5.355985 8.992815 7.309476 0.025583 0.020466 0.052189 0.041956 0.077771 0.062422l0.011256-0.010233c5.377474 3.092431 11.608386 4.870938 18.257829 4.870938 20.263509 0 36.68962-16.428158 36.68962-36.68962 0-5.719258-1.309832-11.132548-3.645017-15.95846l0 0c-4.850471-10.891048-13.930267-17.521049-20.210297-23.802102l-3.15383-3.102664c-40.278355-40.278355-24.982998-98.79612 15.295358-139.074476l171.930791-171.830507c40.179095-40.280402 105.685018-40.280402 145.965419 0l3.206018 3.152806c40.279379 40.281425 40.279379 105.838513 0 146.06775l-75.686796 75.737962c-10.296507 7.628748-16.97358 19.865443-16.97358 33.662681 0 23.12365 18.745946 41.87062 41.87062 41.87062 8.048303 0 15.563464-2.275833 21.944801-6.211469 0.048095 0.081864 0.093121 0.157589 0.141216 0.240477l1.173732-1.083681c3.616364-2.421142 6.828522-5.393847 9.529027-8.792247l79.766718-73.603345C929.798013 361.334535 929.798013 239.981676 855.61957 165.804257z"
                          p-id="1715"></path>
                </svg>
            </a></h4>
            <div class="col-12">
                <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/6/66/T--DUT_China--hp_6.jpg" alt="">
            </div>
            <p>Browsing through the previous iGEM wiki page, we noticed the 2020 iGEM team from TIANJIN UNIVERSITY was
                dedicated to improve <i>Is</i>PETase enzymatic activity via protein evolution method and this team
                continuously
                participate in 2021 iGEM competition. We actively connect this team's student leader and student
                responsible for dry experiment. From this connection, we obtained the information that <i>Is</i>PETase
                possess
                prefect ability at mild temperature, however, with limited thermal stability. Their work is to dedicated
                to improve its thermal stability and enzymatic activity. They are willing to share us with their new
                mutated protein sequence that possess more excellent features. We also simultaneously offered our
                constructed engineering bacteria that express MHETase protein to their team. Their team is responsible
                for providing the <i>Is</i>PETase sequence with good performances, and we are responsible for
                constructing
                improved <i>Is</i>PETase with MHETase via artificially designed scaffolds. Furthermore, our two team dry
                experiment members communicate with each other since we both choose to apply molecular dynamics
                simulation to explore and identify structure information that support project designation. We share the
                valuable information about the correct force field choosing for different explicit simulation system and
                the parameters setting. From our communication related to dry experiment, we both recognized that the C
                termini of <i>Is</i>PETase is too near to enzymatic active center and the fusion of our artificially
                designed
                scaffolds to this location should be avoided. Lastly, their team invite us to visit their laboratory and
                shared with information on human practice, in which we shed with them the information we obtained from
                stakeholders. We decided to cooperate with TIANJIN UNIVERSITY 2021 iGEM team in different fields
                including wet experiment, dry experiment, human practice and etc.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> We decided to further cooperate with 2021 iGEM team from TIANJIN UNIVERSITY, by which
                we
                successfully co-finished the business plan and legislative proposals in the next several months. We also
                shared the dry experiment parameters verification of molecular dynamics simulations with their team.
                Sharing with information about PET stakeholders and relevant industry. Offered us necessary protocols
                for establishing PET degradation detection method. We obtained the improved <i>Is</i>PETase sequence and
                more
                valuable structure information that significantly contribute to our artificially designed scaffolds
                fusion orders decision of our project.</p>

            <h4>Name: Ziying Zhang</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/b/be/T--DUT_China--hp_7a.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p><b>Occupation: Chief manager of Guangzhou Yinfo Information Technology Co., Ltd.</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Expert in macromolecular simulation and calculation</b></p>
            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/3/36/T--DUT_China--hp_7b.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">
            <p>Fortunately, our team got a chance to discuss with Mr. Zhang for better using of molecular dynamics
                simulation that support our project designing. He and his company are dedicated to make computational
                biology more accessible to biological researches. All the necessary measurement methods for evaluating
                the overall stability of our assembly system in the aqueous environment and Ca2+ binding site
                maintenance were suggested by Mr. Zhang. He also offered us professional suggestions of parameters
                setting and forcefield choosing in protein simulation. The obstacles of unreasonable energy minimization
                caused by un-rational initial structure were overcome with the aid of Mr. Zhang. More detailed
                information is offered in the model part. Furthermore, he and his company selflessly provide free high
                speed and accurate super computational calculate resources to run our molecular dynamics simulations
                since he thought our project may greatly contribute to solving accumulated PET pollution challenges.
                Thanks for his selflessly support!</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> We obtained professional guidance and aid in molecular dynamic simulations and
                available free
                super computational calculate resources to run our molecular dynamics simulations. Meanwhile, we further
                understood the significant roles of each domain in enzymes applied in our project and how do they
                contribute to enzymatic activity function. We also decide to apply flexible GS linker because it
                effectively minimizes the surface area of solvation and thus make each protein physically close to each
                other with synergistic relationship, which has been demonstrated in our dry experiment part. More
                importantly, we obtained a deep insight of how to make use of modern computational technology to design,
                explain and improve our project.</p>

            <h4>Name: Zhiwei Zhu</h4>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/7/70/T--DUT_China--hp_8.png" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p><b>Occupation: Professor, School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Protein chemistry, synthetic biology, genetic engineering</b></p>

            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <p>For avoiding the mismatch of three scaffolds components and maintain their expression level in general
                same level, we discussed with Pro. Zhu. He strongly recommended us to use the same cis acting element
                for both the 3 genes translate 3 different functional components. T7 promoter, RBS, lac operator, T7
                terminator and His tag of pET28a (+) were available for each of the 3 target genes. Furthermore, Pro.
                Zhu suggested to secret our enzymes into extracellular spaces so that un-penetrate PET material could be
                effectively degraded by our designed enzymes. He said this suggestion may also avoid the mis-matching of
                enzymes components because the peptides translated from mRNA will not be further folded before secreting
                into the extracellular spaces because of the transporting proteins locking effects. After secretion, the
                peptides will spontaneously fold into functional state.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> We re-designed our plasmids for ensuring the rationality of enzymes components correct
                assembly ratio and avoiding mismatching expression level of 3 unique components. Deciding to add signal
                peptide in our system to secreting our newly designed proteins according to Prof. Zhu's suggestions, in
                which the secreted proteins with large quantities of disulfide bonds will be much easier to be
                successfully folded in the oxidizated extracellular environment and assembled in the extracellular
                spaces. Meanwhile, we obtained a deep insight of how unmatured peptides is secreted into extracellular
                spaces and folded to become matured functional proteins.</p>

            <h3>The third stage</h3>
            <p>Experts in the field of synthetic biology and protein engineering research have a deep understanding on
                making use of genetic elements via synthetic biology methodology. So, we hope that our project will
                become feasible and reasonable with their guidance. Simultaneously, their professional advices also
                significantly support our project and experiment developed smoothly. At this stage, we initiate our
                experiment sectors and many of our imaginations were becoming reality with the guidance of different
                experts.</p>

            <h4>Name: Ziying Zhang</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/b/be/T--DUT_China--hp_7a.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p><b>Occupation: Chief manager of Guangzhou Yinfo Information Technology Co., Ltd.</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Expert in macromolecular simulation and calculation</b></p>
            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/3/36/T--DUT_China--hp_7b.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p>Our simulated proteins system was collapsed in explicit simulation due to unknown reasons. Therefore, we
                discussed with Mr. Zhang for further help. After repeated checking, Mr. Zhang finally find out the crux.
                The topology in our simulated document is not included disulfide bonds, which ultimately lead to the
                collapse of our final simulation structure. Simultaneously, he also pointed out that the TIT3P may not
                be accurate to simulate our system because it is a type of early 3 points water model that is too old
                and imprecise to simulate our structure.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Reconstruct our structure topology that is applicable to be simulated via molecular
                dynamics
                simulations. Substitute original TIT3P water model with more advanced water model.</p>

            <h4>Name: Yanbin Feng</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/e/e6/T--DUT_China--hp_9.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p><b>Occupation: Associate professor, School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Biocatalyst and biosynthesis guided by protein evolution</b></p>
            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <p>Our meeting with assistant professor Yanbin Feng was focused on the signaling peptide that has been
                applied in our research. After one month period of experiments, our experiments result has revealed that
                the pelB signaling peptide applied possess insufficient ability to secret PETase, MHETase and
                Hydrophobin effectively. Therefore, we were looking for a new alternative solution to produce PETase,
                MHETase, Hydrophobin as a complex and then we sought help from assistant professor Yanbin Feng, who
                dedicated in protein designing. He suggested us that we should wipe off signaling peptide and synthesize
                modular enzymes system in cytoplasm. The maintaining of signal peptide would prevent the further folding
                of each enzyme according to signaling transportation mechanisms reported in previously published
                article. Therefore, with signaling peptide in our sequence of enzymes, most enzymes would not
                successfully fold and lagged in cytoplasm. Only few of these enzymes successfully secreted and then
                folded. According to our experiment results, it may be inevitable to assembly these enzymes in the
                cytoplasm of the cell and then broken the cell to obtain our target enzymes. Furthermore, the
                feasibility of the signaling peptide applied in our research was only demonstrated in the secreting of
                free PETase without RIDD and GSlinker that involved in our research. It may not be applicable to be
                further used in the system of secreting MHETase and Hydrophobin.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> The feasibility of maintaining pelB signaling peptide in our research need to be
                reconsidered
                according to previously published articles and our experiment results. The assembly complex released via
                ultrasonic wave would be more applicable and effective to obtain our target enzymes complex.</p>

            <h4>Name: Chengba Zhu</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/d/de/T--DUT_China--hp_10a.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">

            <p><b>Occupation: postdoc at RWTH Aachen University</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Microalgae engineering and plastic degradation</b></p>
            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/c/c2/T--DUT_China--hp_10b.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">
            <p>We were fortunate to discuss with Dr. Zhu about the enzymatic activity detection problem. In our
                experiment, we found both the reference group and induced protein expression revealed possible enzymatic
                activity, which made us feel confused. Dr. Zhu is also dedicated to research related to <i>Is</i>PETase
                Therefore, we seek Dr. Zhu for further help and solutions. Finally, after listening our detailed
                experiment procedures, he pointed out that our model substrate 4-(p-nitrophenyl) butyric ester may be
                easily degraded to be final product when exposing to light and Tris-HCl buffer, which may account for
                our abnormal experimental results. He suggested that we should held our experiment in dark place. We
                finally verified that the exposure to light is the main cause of our experiment failure. With his help,
                we finished our corresponding experiment.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> We recognized the reason of our abnormal experiment results and finally finished our
                experiment with the aid of Dr. Zhu. He pointed out that our model substrate 4-(p-nitrophenyl) butyric
                ester may be easily degraded to be final product when exposing to light and Tris-HCl buffer, which may
                account for our abnormal experimental results.</p>

            <h3>The fourth stage</h3>
            <p>We are currently trying to make use of artificially designed scaffold fused to degradation enzymes to
                accelerate PET decomposing rate at mild temperature. We expect to apply synthetic biology to solve the
                challenges faced in the application of its industry, including protein expression, collection and using.
                From lab to industry, what are the challenges for future application and how can we maximize our
                influence on society?</p>

            <h4>Project Sustainability</h4>
            <h4>Name: Yu Fan</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/d/d6/T--DUT_China--hp_11.jpg" class="portrait" alt="">
            <p><b>Occupation: Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology</b></p>

            <p><b>Field: Language and diplomacy, international policies research</b></p>

            <p class="clearfix"></p>
            <p>Pro. Fan from the School of Foreign Languages of Dalian University of Technology has nearly ten years of
                experience in leading the Model United Nations and has a deep understanding of various United Nations
                documents and backgrounds.</p>

            <p>We had a conversation with Prof. Fan. We elaborated on the purpose and reality of the project. Prof. Fan
                thought that our project was totally in line with the basic core of SDGs: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND
                COMMUNITIES and LIFE ON LAND. Our project is based on environmental care, solving human problems with
                engineering thinking and methods, providing a convenient way for possible PET degradation, which is of
                positive significance and value for preventing the accumulated PET materials in environment. Our project
                is contributing to SDG goals in terms of SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES and LIFE ON LAND. But the
                teacher also mentioned that the biosafety issues involved cannot be ignored, especially the potential of
                engineering bacteria to spread resistance genes, pollute the environment and harm the human body. The
                biosafety protection of SDG and the relevant documents of the United Nations on biosafety have paid
                attention to related issues. We should have a deeper understanding of the connection between SDG and the
                iGEM community and the connection between human beings as a species, and clarify the responsibility and
                feelings of the concept of sustainable development.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Sustainable, biosafety, responsible</p>

            <h4>Name: JIN TU DI Group</h4>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/e/e8/T--DUT_China--hp_1.png" alt="">
            <p>At this stage, we re-interviewed with the member of researchers from JIN TU DI Group, who is professional
                in current Chinese degradable plastic market and field. Their suggestion clearly mentioned the
                significance of biosafety and real practical using efficiency. Any product needs to be ensured that they
                possess corresponding function without safe risks. Many experiment products do not well serve for
                society needs because of lacking of these necessary principles. We also visited their laboratory and
                their producing line, which enhanced our understanding of real-sustainable production mode.
                Simultaneously, they remind us of researching all the relevant laws requested by government to form our
                possible products into a safe and responsible norm. Relevant laws and clauses for industrial production
                for plastic degradation and recycling are offered by their company manager and well introduced by
                professional engineers.</p>

            <p><b>Take away:</b> Through this visit, we obtained a new perspective as engineers and stakeholders for
                sustainable production mode. Basic clauses and laws related to our project and relevant fields were well
                introduced to us and we knew more about current industrial production technology and cooperation between
                different departments. On these bases, we re-understood how to propagandize one new proposed product to
                market, via which we draw up our business plan.</p>

            <h4>Public Level</h4>
            <h4>Public Acceptance</h4>
            <p>We hope that our project can promote the research of PET degradation, and act as an alternative to
                traditional methods coupled with high pollution. The public took a conservative and hesitant attitude
                towards the emergence of new things. In order to further understand the public's acceptance to our
                proposed methods and knowledge to current PET pollution condition, how difficult it is for our
                engineered parts to be applied and promoted industrially, and what factors affect the public's
                acceptance of new things, we conducted a detailed questionnaire survey. Detailed questionnaire results
                and analysis can be found below.</p>

            <p>We hope that our project will improve the urgent problem of plastic pollution and provide a more
                effective, applicable and green biodegradation method. In the process of talking with enterprises and
                the community, we realized that one of the challenges of our project is to make people really pay
                attention to and understand the close connection between plastic pollution and their own lives,
                especially in the process of talking with plastic companies, we found that the current plastic
                components are mainly PE, PET, etc., but the degradation and recycling methods of PE are more mature,
                but PET is not optimistic. And the current degradation method of PET plastic is highly polluting and
                energy consuming, which is not the ideal degradation method. It is with this inspiration that our
                project was born. A detailed questionnaire survey was conducted to further understand the public's
                knowledge of plastic pollution and plastic composition, and to promote our project to the public. The
                detailed questionnaire results and analysis are as follows.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/e/eb/T--DUT_China--hp_q1.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 1:</b> What is your job?</p>

            <p>According to the results of the questionnaire, the occupational distribution of the respondents was
                roughly balanced. The number of students was 219, the number of researchers was 167, and the number of
                the general public was 182, which is roughly balanced and in line with our expectations. The
                respondents' occupations are widely distributed, and the results can basically reflect the opinions of
                people from various occupations in society.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/7/78/T--DUT_China--hp_q2.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 2:</b> What do you usually use to carry your shopping items?</p>

            <p>From the overall data, nearly one-third of people will use plastic bags provided by supermarkets in their
                daily lives, plastic bags are widely distributed in people's daily use, and only one in ten people will
                reuse plastic bags, which means that if there is no effective way to degrade plastic, plastic will
                continue to accumulate in daily life.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/8/8f/T--DUT_China--hp_q3.png" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 3:</b> Would you mind if the garbage bag is degradable?</p>

            <p>More than half of the respondents do not care whether the plastic is degradable or not. Although
                degradable plastic has been popularized to a certain extent, people's awareness of using degradable
                plastic in their life is not strong, which means most of the plastic used is still hard to degrade
                plastic products. This gives us some inspirations: firstly, we can carry out publicity and
                popularization of degradable plastics; secondly, we should find more widely applicable degradation
                solutions for the existing plastic accumulation.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/7/7e/T--DUT_China--hp_q4.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 4:</b> Do you think PET plastic is easy to degrade?</p>

            <p>After a brief science on PET plastic, more than half of the respondents think that PET plastic is easy to
                degrade, which is very different from the current situation we are facing, and there is no efficient and
                mild effective way to degrade PET plastic, which brings us the inspiration that people's inadequate
                knowledge of plastic material misleads their attitude and way to use plastic products.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/8/88/T--DUT_China--hp_q5.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 5:</b> What are the benefits of using biological methods to degrade PET plastic?</p>

            <p>In terms of the benefits of biodegradation of PET, most people believe its fast degradation rate,
                environmental benefits and low costs. This shows the public's recognition of biotechnology.</p>
            <p>In contrast, "will not cause secondary pollution" has been suspected by some people. Therefore, we need
                stronger evidence about the final product verification and safety to ensure that our product is accepted
                and used.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/1/12/T--DUT_China--hp_q6.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 6:</b> Do you think plastic degradation is very difficult or easy in nature?</p>

            <p>What shocked us is that nearly half of the people think plastic degradation is very simple. The daily use
                of plastics may make everyone take it for granted that it is easy to degrade, which ultimately leads to
                the widespread phenomenon of plastic waste and serious pollution. While the project is committed to
                degrading plastics, this data makes us also aware of the necessity of universal education. The increase
                in public awareness will become an effective means of improving the environment.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/f/fa/T--DUT_China--hp_q7.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 7:</b> What is your acceptance of the method of linking multiple functional proteins
                together, that
                is, the
                method of degrading plastics by multiple backbone proteins?</p>

            <p>From the graph, testers do not have a high degree of recognition of the multi-frame protein degradation
                method. The number of approved people is only 13.93%, and most people are not clear about the method or
                have doubts. It can be seen that our project has a certain degree of innovation and difficulty. Although
                relevant studies have proved that multi-skeleton proteins can better improve the efficiency of the
                experiment, it is still necessary to fully demonstrate the feasibility of the experiment in the early
                stage and in the process of the project to ensure that the experiment can be successfully completed and
                recognized by the public.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/c/c1/T--DUT_China--hp_q8.png" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 8:</b> Where do you think plastic can be found?</p>

            <p>From the overall data, the respondents have a relatively average understanding of the question plastic
                distribution set answers, it is evident that the respondents still have a certain basis of knowledge of
                the widespread distribution of plastic such as mountains, oceans medium and the location of the human
                body, and recognize the urgency of the spread of plastic pollution and harm solution.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/0/01/T--DUT_China--hp_q9.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 9:</b> If there is a mild and efficient plastic degradation method, but the cost is high,
                would you
                use it?</p>

            <p>According to the questionnaire results, more than 80% of people would not use efficient but expensive
                plastic degradation methods, indicating that people still give priority to economic issues such as
                practicality and cost of degradation solutions. The distribution of answers to this question is
                generally in line with our expectation, indicating that we still ultimately pursue the economic
                feasibility of optimized methods.</p>

            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/d/d0/T--DUT_China--hp_q10.jpg" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p><b>Question 10:</b> What do you think is the urgency of research in plastic degradation?</p>

            <p>According to the results of the questionnaire, the perception of urgency of research on plastics is at a
                slight extreme, with less than 30% of respondents not feeling a sense of urgency and more than 30%
                believing that the current status of plastic degradation is already very urgent. In this regard, we
                believe that we need to promote the knowledge of plastic degradation to the public, and at the same
                time, we can actively explore and mobilize people with the same ambition to take action with us.</p>


            <p><b>Conclusion:</b></p>
            <p>The respondents were mainly practitioners and students in the biological industry, accounting for more
                than 90%. The questionnaire mainly investigated the relative professional people's understanding of
                plastic pollution and their views on the difficulty and advantages of biodegradation of plastic. The
                respondents generally believe that the research on plastic degradation is very urgent, and the use of
                biological degradation of plastic is beneficial to the environment and will not cause secondary
                pollution, but they have a wait-and-see attitude towards the cost and ease of operation.</p>
            <p class="caption text-center">
                Word frequency statistics
            </p>
            <table>
                <tr>
                    <th>Word</th>
                    <th>Frequency</th>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Plastics</td>
                    <td>57 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Degradation/degradable</td>
                    <td>15 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Respondents</td>
                    <td>7 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>PET</td>
                    <td>7 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Public</td>
                    <td>6 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Pollution</td>
                    <td>6 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Urgency</td>
                    <td>4 times</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Effective</td>
                    <td>4 times</td>
                </tr>
            </table>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/7/75/T--DUT_China--hp_words.jpg" class="mx-auto col-12 col-md-8"
                 alt="">
        </article>
        <article class="article">
            <h2 class="marked">5 Computer algorithm applied in our work</h2>
            <p>The following is the modeling and analysis of the data. My idea is to build a decision tree or
                neural network model, using specific data in the questionnaire as a dependent variable and other
                data as an independent variable to establish an analysis and prediction model. For example, use
                other factors on the questionnaire to analyze "do you care if garbage bags are degradable?" Or
                "do you think PET plastic degrades easily?"</p>
            <p>The feasibility of this is that due to the large scale of the data, there is some relevance among the
                options in the problem.</p>
            <p>We tried to draw a column chart for each column and observe their quantity distribution.</p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/c/cc/T--DUT_China--hp_m1.png" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p>After carefully considering the data, we decided to establish a decision tree model based on
                comprehensive learning (a machine learning method).</p>
            <code>
                # Set independent and dependent variables<br>
                X = df.loc[:,df.columns != 'Think whether PET plastic is easy to degrade']<br>
                Y = df.loc[:,df.columns == 'Think whether PET plastic is easy to degrade']<br>
            </code>
            <p>Take "care about when the garbage bag is degradable" as an example, first divide the data set, then
                automatically divide the training set and the test set by the <span class="mono">train_test_split</span> function
                in <span class="mono">sklearn.model_selection</span> package, and finally determine 449 rows of data as
                the training set and 150 rows of data as the test set.</p>
            <p>The decision tree model was established by the <span class="mono">DecisionTreeClassifier</span> function
                in the package <span class="mono">sklearn.tree</span>, and the decision tree model was automatically
                fitted by the <span class="mono">fit</span> function. The
                optimal parameters were determined by searching the optimal decision tree in the <span class="mono">sklearn.model_selection</span>
                package.</p>
            <p>The optimal hyperparameters were determined by optimizing the decision tree through grid
                search.</p>
            <code>
                'max_depth' : 6<br>
                'min_samples_leaf' : 2<br>
                'min_samples_split' : 3<br>
            </code>
            <p>Finally, cross-validation was used to calculate the accuracy of the optimization model, the accuracy
                of the model prediction is 81.81092436974791%.</p>
            <p>This is the visual structure of the decision tree model drawn by us with software Graphviz.</p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/4/44/T--DUT_China--hp_m2.png" class="col-12" alt="">
            <p>Similarly, "care about whether the garbage bag is degradable" was used as the dependent
                variable. The method is similar, and the accuracy of model prediction is 75.8053221285155%.</p>
            <img src="https://2021.igem.org/wiki/images/6/6c/T--DUT_China--hp_m3.png" class="col-12" alt="">
        </article>
    </article>
</section>
<div id="footer-point"></div>
<script>
    //About the top-scroll--linked to general.js
    window.onload = init;
</script>
<script>
    $(document).ready(function () {
        $('#nav-bar').load('top.html');
        $('#footer-point').load('footer.html');
    });
</script>
</body>
</html>