Our project aims to provide a new solution for emotional relief for high-pressure individuals and symptom management for depression patients. Throughout the project, we will closely integrate the "design-build-test" iterative process into Human Practice to ensure feasibility. We need to focus on the unmet needs of high-pressure individuals and depression patients, continuously collecting feedback to improve and optimize the product, ensuring that the project has a positive impact on society and is responsible and beneficial to the world.

In recent years, with the economic downturn, many people around us have experienced increasing stress, whether from adult work or student studies, often complaining of overwhelming pressure and even mentioning "I'm about to be depressed." We realize that depression has become a common and serious social issue. However, it is concerning that while many claim to feel anxious or depressed, few choose to seek help from hospitals, and many are reluctant to take medication, finding such measures unnecessary or too cumbersome.

In this context, we believe there is an urgent societal need for an economical and everyday emotional support solution to help those under pressure. Initially, our understanding of depression was limited to medication and psychological counseling. However, after in-depth interviews with the target population and experts, we identified the potential of using traditional Chinese medicine, specifically using the component quercetin, for treating depression.

We also learned that the treatment of depression requires a comprehensive approach. Therefore, we position our product as an auxiliary support solution that can assist both depression patients and provide emotional relief for high-pressure individuals. Through market feedback and extensive research, we ultimately decided to define the product as a fruit tea. This not only offers a more economical and everyday form of emotional support but also ensures broad acceptance and practicality in the market.

We conducted a survey on the emotional health status of the people around us.

Based on the data table, only 2.38% of people rarely or never feel low in mood; 59.52% occasionally feel low and are sometimes troubled by life stress; and 33.33% frequently feel low and always find life stressful. Overall, the majority of people experience some degree of low mood or excessive stress in their daily lives.

Regarding the duration of low mood, participants showed significant differences in expectations. 38.1% of people believe that this emotional state is temporary and does not require special attention; 42.86% think that attention should be paid to these feelings and that methods for improvement may be necessary; while 11.9% consider their emotional state relatively serious and believe they need to seek professional help. This indicates that most people hold an optimistic view of emotional fluctuations, but generally do not prioritize emotional health.

Through this survey, we found that the vast majority of respondents have experienced varying degrees of low mood, with one-third frequently feeling emotional distress. However, most people show a low level of concern for mental health, especially when facing emotional issues; many believe there is no need to take further action or seek professional help. This reflects a lack of attention to emotional management and mental health in society, emphasizing the necessity for accessible emotional support solutions. This provides clear direction for our project's positioning and indicates a potential market demand for emotional support products.

As the survey was limited in precisely targeting our intended audience, we primarily gained insights into the psychological state of the general population. While the representativeness of these surveys is limited, they offer preliminary insights. Our future activities will focus more on direct interactions with people. Through face-to-face engagement and in-depth conversations, we can better understand the needs and challenges of our target audience. This direct communication will provide more authentic feedback, helping us adjust our project accordingly.

We hope to maintain a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere during our communication with the target audience. This not only facilitates more natural interactions but also helps us gain deeper insights into their true needs. In our discussions with experts, we found that many individuals have introverted personalities and often feel shy during initial encounters. We recognized the importance of breaking the ice and creating a comfortable dialogue environment.

To achieve this, we designed a series of souvenirs as small gifts before our conversations. By offering these tokens, we aim to convey friendliness and facilitate more effective communication moving forward. These thoughtful gestures not only express our sincerity but also contribute to creating a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere for dialogue, promoting smoother conversations.

To better communicate with our target audience and gather their feedback on our project, we created a promotional tri-fold brochure. This brochure not only introduces our initial topic but also includes a self-assessment form for depression. We hope it will help individuals understand their emotional states and encourage participation in our project discussions.

Below is the attachment for our promotional brochure:

After communicating with individuals suffering from depression, people under high pressure, and in psychology counseling rooms, we optimized and improved our project. We aim to help everyone understand and accept their own stress and anxiety. Therefore, we redesigned the second edition of our promotional brochure, which includes our advice on how to embrace emotions, the latest updates on our project, and our social media accounts.

Below is the attachment of our promotional brochure:

We distributed the promotional tri-fold brochures to people around us and our target audience, gathering a lot of feedback. This feedback has helped us better understand the needs of our audience and optimize our project. Subsequent sections will detail this feedback and further explore how to enhance and refine our project. Through this interaction, our project gained broader understanding and support, laying the groundwork for future improvements.

We placed the promotional tri-fold brochures in the classroom bulletin board, aiming to reduce prejudice and discrimination against individuals with depression while providing support for those feeling depressed or anxious. Due to the presence of stigma, many are reluctant to openly acknowledge their depression or emotional distress. Through this discreet approach, we hope to offer these students a safe channel to learn about our topic and find us for help without drawing attention. Our goal is to create a more inclusive and supportive environment, helping everyone better face and manage emotional issues.

Compared to limited written descriptions, media platforms allow us to better showcase the full scope of our project, including more visual content and videos to help everyone gain a deeper understanding of our topic. Therefore, we created WeChat and YouTube accounts to provide richer and more dynamic content. We also included links to these media accounts on our promotional tri-fold brochures, making it easier for those who need help, such as individuals with depression and high-stress groups, to find our team and seek support and advice. This enables us to spread the project more widely while providing a convenient communication channel for those in need of assistance.

In our project, we believe the most important aspect is to gather feedback from stakeholders. At the project's outset, we utilized the stakeholder maps from the iGEM website's "iGEMer's Guide to the Future" (https://live.flatland.agency/12290417/rathenau-igem/) to conduct a detailed assessment of potential stakeholders. This evaluation allowed us to clarify our focus early on, enabling us to conduct human social practice activities more effectively.

We aim to maintain close communication with them and continuously seek their feedback to improve our project. Their input is crucial for refining our project, making it more reasonable and responsible to the world.

Our goal is to ensure their satisfaction and address their concerns. Their feedback can help us enhance our project effectively.

These individuals are our potential users, and understanding their needs is vital. While their feedback may not directly resolve professional issues in the project, grasping their requirements is equally important. We will establish channels to help them learn about and engage with our project.

These individuals may not be interested in our project and are unlikely to provide feedback. However, we will remain attentive, as they may gradually become involved as the project develops.

By applying stakeholder maps, we not only identified key stakeholders but also engaged in targeted communication and interaction around them. These preliminary assessments and interactions laid a solid foundation, allowing us to discover more relevant groups that need attention and engagement as we advance the project. This process enriched our project perspective and enabled us to establish effective communication bridges among different stakeholders.

We conducted interviews with practitioners at a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic and learned that many herbal medicines and formulas can be used to treat depression. The formulas include Si Ni Decoction（四逆汤）, Chai Hu Shu Xin Powder（柴胡舒心散）, and Bai He Di Huang Decoction（百合地黄汤）, while the herbs include Chai Hu（柴胡）, Xiang Fu（香附）, Zhi Ke（枳壳）, Yong Chong Cao（蛹虫草）, and Suan Zao Ren（酸枣仁）. These TCM remedies play a significant supportive role in the management and treatment of depression, providing direction for our project.

The Percentage of Individuals Experiencing Stigma Around Mental Health Issues - %[1]

We planned to interview individuals with depression, but when we began our search, we found it difficult to locate those willing to openly discuss their experiences. Research indicated that many people feel shame about acknowledging their mental health issues, creating a "barrier" to our outreach. This made it challenging to directly ask someone, "Do you have depression?" as such questions could come across as intrusive and might further burden them psychologically. Consequently, we initially identified only two individuals willing to be interviewed about their depression, serving as a starting point for our project. These interviews provided us with preliminary insights into their needs and feelings, guiding our subsequent research.

We first had an conversation with our team member, Wang Qianyu, who was previously diagnosed with depression. She shared her experiences with emotional regulation, emphasizing that emotional relief relies not only on medication but also on pleasure and relaxation in daily life. However, she raised a crucial concern regarding our initial concept of a milk tea product: the tea components in milk tea could lead to insomnia, which in turn could worsen her anxiety and make her mood worse. This feedback made us realize the importance of considering the overall impact of ingredients on users, especially for those with sleep issues or emotional distress. In our subsequent product development, we pivoted our offering to a fruit tea that does not contain tea leaves.

We conducted an online interview with Huang, who candidly admitted that she dislikes acknowledging her illness but has to face reality. Taking medication makes her feel like a "patient," which she finds uncomfortable. She prefers to alleviate her emotions by enjoying delicious food and drinks. Huang also mentioned that hands-on activities can bring emotional joy, suggesting that if our product becomes commercialized, we should include DIY milk tea activities to help people relax in a fun atmosphere. We incorporated similar activities into our business development plan, aiming to help with mood regulation during commercialization.

Additionally, she highlighted the positive impact of pleasant scents on emotions. We discussed creating sachets, but she expressed a dislike for strong, pungent odors, especially medicinal ones, preferring fresh and natural fragrances. Therefore, we decided to include sachet-making in our product development as a byproduct.

Finally, Huang encouraged us to conduct interviews courageously, pointing out that being overly cautious can increase the psychological burden on those with depression, and direct, natural communication is more effective. This insight will aid us in creating a communication manual for our target audience.

She also suggested that if we struggle to directly reach individuals with depression, seeking help from professional organizations would be an effective route. We could connect with mental health institutions, counseling centers, or psychiatric departments in hospitals, as these places usually have professional psychologists and counselors who can provide relevant support. Additionally, NGOs, charitable organizations, or community mental health service centers often have close ties with individuals with depression and could help bridge our communication efforts.

To better understand the needs of individuals with depression, we submitted a volunteer application to the Guangzhou Psychological Counselor Association. Unfortunately, the application did not pass the review.

We visited the Psybene medical institution, where we had discussions with Dr. Li, a psychiatrist, and counselors Wan and Yang. During this visit, we toured their psychological clinic, and the three professionals educated us on the symptoms and treatment methods for depression, discussing related issues.Psychiatrists can help us understand depression from a biological and drug treatment perspective, while psychologists focus on emotions and cognition.

Through this exchange, we learned that the high-risk population for depression primarily falls between the ages of 20 and 40, with a higher proportion of female patients. Dr. Li praised our focus on the stigma surrounding mental health and pointed out that very few teams pay attention to the psychological feelings of depression patients. The stigma mainly stems from external discrimination, as many people lack understanding of depression, leading to fear and rejection of those suffering from it, which in turn makes patients reluctant to acknowledge their condition. Based on this feedback, we updated our brochure to include a section on self-acceptance of emotions.

The three professionals provided us with valuable insights into the prices, onset times of antidepressants, as well as the costs and durations of psychological treatments, which will aid in our project's commercialization. According to their information, the cost of psychological treatment is approximately 1,000 to 2,000 yuan per session, with each session lasting between 50 minutes to 1 hour. Generally, 16 to 24 sessions are required, typically once a week, leading to a treatment duration of 4 to 8 months. Some patients may even need 2 to 3 years of treatment. These high costs far exceed the average income level of residents in our country, and the lengthy duration makes it unaffordable for many, resulting in a reluctance to seek psychological therapy. Our project needs to provide a more economical and accessible emotional management solution, offering auxiliary support to those who cannot afford long-term therapy, helping them relieve stress and improve their quality of life.

They also pointed out that, apart from fluoxetine, other antidepressants carry a potential increased risk of suicide. This is particularly concerning for patients with severe depression, who often exhibit somatic symptoms and may choose to commit suicide after regaining some physical strength from medication. Therefore, our anticipated product is not suitable for patients with severe depression and cannot serve as an independent treatment solution. Treating depression requires a comprehensive intervention involving medication, psychotherapy, and more.

The three professionals suggested that we position our product as an auxiliary support solution for emotional regulation, suitable for high-pressure populations. For depression patients, our product can serve as a supplementary tool. This shifts our project focus from treating depression to helping high-pressure individuals manage their emotions and prevent the onset of depression, while also providing non-pharmacological support for those with depression.

During our discussions, they made it clear that they could not help us contact their patients due to strict confidentiality requirements. However, they were willing to provide us with professional education and project advice to help us refine our product. In the end, they mentioned that we could make our materials public, hoping this could help more people.

During our visit, we encountered a disreputable psychological counseling agency that imposed significant psychological pressure from the start. Despite clearly stating our purpose—to understand the needs and treatment methods for individuals with depression—the counselors persistently tried to coerce us into admitting we had psychological issues, even attempting to convert us into clients. Shockingly, their consultation fees were as high as 3,000 yuan per hour, giving the impression of exploiting people's psychological vulnerabilities for profit. This disappointing experience heightened our awareness of the potential issues within the mental health service industry.

After this interaction, we realized the importance of educating the public about depression and the need to be wary of bad psychological counseling agencies. We updated our pamphlets and published related educational articles on our media accounts to help more people understand depression and avoid being misled or harmed by unscrupulous organizations. Through these efforts, we hope to contribute to a better understanding and treatment of depression.

After our visit to the counseling center, the project's focus shifted from treating depression to helping high-pressure groups manage their emotions and prevent the onset of depression, while also providing non-medication support for those with depression. To better understand the current state of stress and its needs, we reviewed relevant materials.

What causes depression?

After consulting the 2022 National Depression Blue Book, we found that 86% of depression patients believe that emotional stress is the main cause of depression. When faced with negative emotions, many people choose to bury them in their hearts instead of channeling and releasing them in a timely manner. In the long run, this emotion will not only fail to be relieved, but may be aggravated and even lead to depression. Our project hopes to provide high-stress people with a simple and daily way to regulate their emotions through fruit tea products, helping them better cope with the stress in life. [2]

2019 stressors vs 2020 stressors

Data shows that the main sources of emotional stress include work, money, family, and health issues. Among them, financial problems account for 29.6%. This finding makes us realize that products need to be affordable and healthy to meet the needs of more high-pressure people. We must take into account the economic affordability of this group in terms of emotional management and provide an affordable emotional regulation solution. [3]

Top 3 emotional issues

Data shows that among people who receive psychological counseling, stress, anxiety, and depression are at the forefront. This shows that more and more people have a real need for emotional regulation. As social pressure increases, the demand for emotional management is on the rise, proving the potential of our project. [3]

Self-reported stress vs. diagnosed stress

Data shows that, globally, 42.2% of people say they have experienced stress, but only 26.8% of them have received a formal diagnosis. This suggests that many people may be reluctant to seek professional help when faced with emotional problems. This phenomenon reflects the lack of attention paid to mental health in society and people’s disregard for emotional problems. Therefore, we need to provide an economical and daily emotional support program to help more people relieve emotional stress, especially those who are reluctant to actively seek help. [3]

Age of onset of depression

Data shows that people under the age of 18 account for 30% of the total number of patients with depression. For the overall patient population, 50% of patients with depression are students. The incidence of depression is showing a clear trend of getting younger, which shows that society needs to pay great attention to the mental health of adolescents. At present, the prevalence of adolescent depression has reached 15% to 20%, which is close to the adult level. Some studies have pointed out that depression in adults often occurs during adolescence. Therefore, in our subsequent survey of high-stress people, in addition to paying attention to adults, we also need to pay special attention to our classmates. [2]

By consulting relevant information, we learned that emotional stress is one of the main causes of depression. Therefore, our products should not only be affordable and healthy, but more importantly, provide an effective and daily way to manage emotions. With the increasing severity of stress and anxiety problems in modern society, the market demand for emotion regulation products will continue to grow.

In addition, data shows that 50% of depression patients are students, and the incidence of depression is obviously tending to be younger. This reminds us that in the process of product development and promotion, we should not only pay attention to the emotional management needs of adults, but also pay special attention to the mental health of our classmates around us, and provide appropriate support and help for the youth group.

During our online exploration of fellow students, we found that they face a variety of pressures, including academic stress, daily life issues, and challenges from competitions and training. These different sources of pressure create significant challenges in emotion management for students.

We interviewed our classmates and also engaged with high school and university students at the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC). In these conversations, we were surprised to find that high school students experience even greater pressure than university students. In China, high school students face significant pressure regarding college entrance exams. They not only feel overwhelmed themselves but also mentioned that their peers often discuss their emotional struggles, expressing concern that failure to manage their emotions might lead to depression.

However, both high school and university students lack financial resources for emotional management, with high school students being particularly short on funds. They typically choose to endure their stress quietly and try to comfort themselves. When emotions become unmanageable, they resort to buying their favorite foods, exercising, or playing video games as coping mechanisms. These discussions underscored the importance of affordability and convenience in providing emotional support, especially for younger populations.

We also interviewed office workers and learned that they generally experience significant work-related stress in China. In these discussions, we found that female office workers tend to prefer reduced-sugar or sugar-free fruit teas, while males often favor iced fruit teas or pure teas. For them, a refreshing and sweet drink after a busy workday can greatly ease their emotions and help them relax.

Additionally, office workers are very price-conscious. While they have some economic capability, they rarely opt for expensive drinks. A price point around 10 yuan is more in line with their expectations, whereas milk tea products priced between 30 to 50 yuan are not typically chosen. They also expressed concerns about the safety of the ingredients added to the fruit tea since it is a consumable product. This interview provided us with deeper insights into the needs of the office worker demographic, offering important references for product pricing and market positioning. We must ensure that all additives in our product comply with food safety standards and clarify the legality and permissibility of these ingredients.

Although professional institutions couldn't provide us assistance, we still need to work hard ourselves. After group discussions, we believe we can find depression patients online, where they may feel more comfortable and willing to seek help under the anonymity of the internet.

We specifically established a support group for depression patients, hoping to help them gradually overcome their difficulties through our efforts. During this process, although we won't conduct direct interviews or inquiries, we pay close attention to their needs through casual conversations. This way, we can continuously gather their feedback and improve our products to better meet the actual needs of our target audience.

In our interactions, we discovered that many depression patients have a special fondness for cute pets like cats and dogs, which can provide them with emotional comfort. Therefore, we designed adorable koala merchandise in our marketing plan, hoping to convey stability and tranquility through this image.

We also share platforms and articles that help depression patients seek professional support when needed.

We also organized offline activities for students with depression and anxiety, hoping to help them relieve stress. Surprisingly, many people participated in our activities. This event provided them with a relaxing and soothing environment, and also gave us the opportunity to collect their opinions and feedback on our project.

In our communication with them, we learned that they were resistant to taking medicine because they did not want to be seen as "patients". In contrast, they prefer to relieve their emotions through some daily ways, such as eating delicious food, buying favorite aromatherapy, watching a happy movie or doing appropriate exercise. During the event, we also observed that many participants would buy drinks and snacks, and unconsciously drink and eat these items during the event. This phenomenon encouraged us and further strengthened our confidence in providing help to the target population based on daily needs.

Our project primarily targets depression patients and high-pressure groups. Through interactions with these communities, we have summarized some experiences and recommendations. These suggestions include how to communicate with depression patients, ensuring that they receive sufficient understanding and respect during interactions. Additionally, we provide guidance on using appropriate language and behavior to alleviate interviewees' anxiety, helping them feel more comfortable and relaxed during conversations.

We hope these experiences can also offer effective support for future iGEM teams researching related topics, ensuring smoother and more effective communication with target groups.

After discussing with the JIASHU-Shanghai team, we also made an online donation to the depression group on Tencent Charity. Through this action, we hope to contribute to the prevention and treatment of depression and use our efforts to help more people in need.

We visited Professor Liu, the director of the Key Laboratory for Innovative Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Product Research, who has extensive experience in TCM research. During our discussion, we detailed our preliminary concept of using effective components from traditional medicine to treat depression. Professor Liu affirmed the feasibility of our project and mentioned that her lab is also researching effective components with the goal of converting them into viable products. She advised us to consult relevant literature and utilize biotechnology to produce substances with antidepressant effects, enriching and enhancing our product.

We also discussed the importance of product commercialization. Professor Liu pointed out that laboratory research funding is limited, and the primary focus is on R&D. To promote our project more quickly and benefit society, the most effective way is to achieve commercialization through product implementation. This can drive our product development and market expansion, providing stronger momentum and resource support for the project's long-term growth.

Additionally, she mentioned that there is a researcher in the lab who specializes in depression. We can reach out to her for more specialized guidance, as her research aligns closely with our project and her expertise could offer deeper theoretical support to further refine the scientific rigor and feasibility of our initiative.

We visited depression research expert Wang Ziqin, and coincidentally, another teacher Wang Fei who studies Chinese medicine for sleep was also present. After listening to our project, Wang Ziqin pointed out that Chinese medicine for treating depression is diverse and complex in composition, and we need to conduct in-depth research. She particularly recommended that we focus on three Chinese medicines: Bupleurum, Citrus aurantium, and Ziziphus jujuba.

After listening to our project, another teacher Wang Fei and we discussed the team's idea of ​​Chinese medicine fruit tea, especially when the team interviewed people with depression and mentioned that the tea ingredients in milk tea may cause insomnia, thereby aggravating anxiety. As an expert in Chinese medicine for sleep, Wang Fei suggested that we use milder Chinese medicines in the fruit tea formula to avoid stimulating the nervous system. At the same time, she mentioned that we can also add some sleep-inducing ingredients, such as GABA, which is a substance that has been approved for food additives, which not only helps improve sleep but also relieves anxiety.

After interviews with two teachers, we conducted an in-depth review of a large amount of relevant literature. We found that kaempferol is one of the main medicinal ingredients of Bupleurum, and the flavonoids in Citrus aurantium and Ziziphus jujube core also contain kaempferol. Through further research, we found that kaempferol has significant antidepressant effects, and its mechanism of action includes reducing oxidative stress, inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokines, and upregulating the AKT/β-catenin cascade. [4] These findings led us to decide to use microbial production of kaempferol to provide an effective mood-modulating ingredient in our products.

In addition, we also reviewed previous iGEM team projects and learned that some teams had successfully used microorganisms to produce GABA and used it to help with sleep. Through literature research, we found that GABA can not only improve sleep, but also effectively relieve anxiety, fear, and stress. [5][6] Therefore, we decided to produce GABA through microorganisms and use it as one of the key ingredients in the product to enhance the overall efficacy of the product and help the target population better manage emotions and improve sleep quality.

After the initial conception of our project was formed, we visited Teacher Wang again, and she gave her affirmation of the project. Teacher Wang emphasized that if we intend to use Chinese medicine in beverages and add key ingredients to the beverages, we must pay special attention to food safety issues. She suggested that we consult the relevant literature on the homology of medicine and food and the relevant laws and regulations issued by the state to ensure the legality and compliance of all added ingredients.

Teacher Wang also introduced us to the extraction process of Chinese medicine. She pointed out that the extraction process of Chinese medicine ingredients is not only complicated but also time-consuming. This reality made us more determined to use microorganisms to produce key ingredients of Chinese medicine.

It was because of these two exchanges that when we developed our fruit tea, we selected a variety of Chinese medicinal materials with soothing effects (tangerine peel, Poria cocos, wolfberry, red dates and dried longan). We consulted the "List of Items that are Both Food and Medicine" [7][8] and the "Regulations on the Management of the Catalog of Substances that are Both Food and Chinese Medicinal Materials in Accordance with Traditional Methods" [8] to determine that these ingredients can be added to our fruit tea as food. Our first generation products do not contain tea leaves, kaempferol and GABA. Tea leaves can cause insomnia, and the addition of kaempferol and GABA needs to be reviewed.

After communicating with the teachers in the Chinese medicine laboratory, we finally determined the plan to produce kaempferol and GABA with microorganisms. Through data review and research on previous iGEM projects, we decided to use Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 as the production microorganism. We first designed a pathway for synthesizing kaempferol from naringenin. After optimizing and confirming that our microorganisms can produce kaempferol, we referred to the process of producing GABA by the iGEM team in previous years and began to produce GABA with microorganisms.

ccic poster file:

We attended the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) and took the opportunity to interview high school and college students attending the conference to find out whether they feel stressed and what they expect from the price of mood relief products. In our communication with them, we found the needs and expectations of young people for mood management products, which provided a reference for our subsequent product positioning and pricing.

At the conference, we presented our project and detailed our research direction and progress. Unfortunately, the judges did not give any feedback.

Our poster presentation was recognized and won the first place in the "Most Popular Poster Award". This is not only an affirmation of our team's efforts, but also strengthened our confidence in continuing to advance the project.

We discussed our project with Teacher Liu from Shenzhen University, particularly regarding ways to enhance product yield. Teacher Liu made many practical suggestions, including codon optimization, using stronger promoters, optimizing fermentation conditions and enzyme connection. After discussion, Teacher Liu suggested that we explore the use of appropriate links to connect enzymes. We need to conduct research on the appropriate link length and amino acid composition in order to improve the activity and stability of the enzyme, thereby optimizing the overall reaction efficiency.

Regarding whether our product can be added to beverages, Teacher Liu indicated that this is not his area of expertise, and he suggested we pay attention to legal regulations on market supervision to ensure product additions comply with food safety laws. He also encouraged us to learn from other similar biotechnology products on the market to improve our own.

Teacher Liu mentioned that as researchers, he and his colleagues sometimes feel emotionally down due to the pressures of scientific research. He affirmed our idea of turning the product into a tea, believing that integrating beverages into daily life is a good way to help regulate emotions.

In the subsequent optimization of our project, we introduced fusion enzyme technology by linking flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) and flavonol synthase (FLS) using a linker. In our experiments, we tested different types and lengths of linkers to evaluate their impact on the performance of the fusion enzyme, ultimately finding the optimal linker to enhance enzyme stability and product generation efficiency.

We discussed with Teacher Yang how to increase the yield of kaempferol in microbial production. Teacher Yang suggested that we could try the gene multi-copy technology to increase enzyme expression and thus increase the yield of kaempferol. However, Teacher Yang also emphasized that gene multi-copy does not always directly increase yield. Sometimes gene overexpression may burden the engineered strain and reduce the yield of the target product. Therefore, he suggested that we verify the effectiveness of this strategy through experiments to ensure the final yield increase effect.

We conducted multi-copy experiments on F3H and FLS genes, and the results showed that adding the F3H gene on the basis of the original plasmid can effectively increase the yield of kaempferol. However, after adding the FLS gene, the yield of kaempferol decreased.

We had a conversation with General Manager Gan from the food additive factory. During this discussion, he emphasized the importance of microbial control if we plan to use microorganisms for producing food additives. He provided us with many valuable suggestions, such as establishing a comprehensive quality management system, introducing advanced microbial testing technologies and equipment, and maintaining close communication with food regulatory authorities. Through our discussion with GM Gan, we further clarified the importance of biosafety and food safety in our project. We will continuously monitor and strictly implement relevant safety measures to ensure compliance and safety throughout the project.

Lawyer Liu informed us that Kaempferol and GABA can be used as additives in food, but their inclusion requires review and approval from relevant authorities. Due to the time constraints of the online consultation and the unavailability of some documents, we scheduled an appointment with an offline lawyer for further consultation to obtain more detailed legal guidance and support, ensuring that our products can legally and compliantly enter the market.

We communicated with offline legal experts to address the issue of adding Kaempferol and GABA in food products. According to the lawyer's advice, these ingredients can be included in food, but we must strictly adhere to relevant food safety standards and regulations to ensure their use as food additives does not exceed safe limits, thus safeguarding consumer health and safety.

We need to comply with a series of food safety standards, including the National Food Safety Standard for Food Additive Use (GB 2760-2014), the National Food Safety Standard for Food Flavoring Agents (GB 29938-2020), and the National Food Safety Standard for Food Fragrance (GB 30616-2020). These standards specify the usage range, dosage, conditions, and quality specifications for food additives in detail. When adding Kaempferol and GABA to our products, we must strictly control their content to ensure compliance with national regulations.

To legally include these ingredients, we need to submit detailed safety assessment materials to the National Health Administration. This includes analysis of the safety, efficacy, and potential risks of Kaempferol and GABA. Only after passing this rigorous safety evaluation and obtaining administrative approval for new additive varieties can we legally use these ingredients in our products.

We have a teacher from Sun Yat-sen University who previously worked part-time at a milk tea shop on campus. According to her description, most of the milk tea purchasers at the school are female, and they tend to prefer fruit tea. However, since it has been a long time since she worked there, she couldn’t provide us with more specific advice and suggested that we visit existing milk tea shops to gather the latest market information.

As she was not willing to appear in our promotional materials, we selected a favorite emoji of hers and processed the image to represent her in our presentation.

We discussed our product concept with Mr. Fan, the owner of a traditional Chinese medicine milk tea shop in Shenzhen, who is also a TCM practitioner. He first affirmed our idea and shared his entrepreneurial experiences with us. According to him, consumers in Shenzhen have a high acceptance of herbal tea drinks. However, he also pointed out that certain herbal tea formulations need to have medical qualifications to be sold legally. Additionally, he mentioned that male consumers tend to prefer health teas, and the product pricing can be relatively low. By learning about some formulations from the Zhongxintang herbal milk tea shop, we gained inspiration for our own product development, providing ideas for our formula innovation.

Since the teacher we previously interviewed had a part-time job at a tea shop a long time ago, they were unable to provide a full understanding of current consumer beverage preferences. To gather the latest market information, we visited Nayuki Tea for on-site research. Our business plan includes the concept of creating a sub-brand under Nayuki, and we conducted relevant inquiries.

During the research, we found that female customers make up the majority of beverage purchasers, while males typically visit the shop accompanying their girlfriends. The staff noted that in earlier years, people preferred milk tea, but in recent years, fruit tea has become more popular. Males tend to choose iced fruit tea and pure tea, while females favor fruit tea that is served without ice and unsweetened. As for the specific process of franchising the sub-brand, Nayuki employees were not particularly familiar with it; we need to fill out a cooperation application form on the brand's official website to further advance our plan.

One of our team members, Wang Qianyu, has been involved in the development of the project and laboratory experiments. Throughout our communications with students experiencing depression, high stress, and office workers, she has provided many suggestions on how to approach these conversations. She also raised concerns about the potential for tea ingredients to cause insomnia and exacerbate anxiety, which led us to remove tea leaves from the fruit tea and replace them with gentler traditional Chinese medicinal ingredients. Additionally, she offered valuable insights on product pricing, helping us better meet the needs of our target audience. Wang Qianyu believes that the current progress of the project is going smoothly and has met expectations.

While distributing our latest tri-fold brochures to classmates, we detailed our project's recent progress and the concept of our fruit tea product, encouraging everyone to confront and accept their emotional issues. The students expressed great admiration for our project and product ideas.

Since this distribution activity took place in a sports arena, the students engaged in physical activities showed high concern regarding the sugar content in the fruit tea. They mentioned that excessive sugar intake could lead to feelings of guilt, while insufficient intake of sugar and carbohydrates could result in hypoglycemia, potentially worsening depression symptoms. Therefore, maintaining a balance of sugar was very important to them.

To meet these needs, our fruit tea product will offer various sugar adjustment options, including zero sugar, one-third sugar, half sugar, seven-tenths sugar, and full sugar, with even the option for zero-calorie sweeteners. This will ensure the beverage remains flavorful without unnecessary sugar intake. Additionally, we plan to add healthy toppings like fiber-rich oats and barley, which can not only supplement carbohydrates but also help regulate blood sugar levels. These toppings are also common options in tea shops, allowing customers to customize their fruit tea based on their individual needs, thereby reducing dietary stress.

Furthermore, we have collaborated with a nutritionist to discuss the fruit tea formula and possible additional toppings, further enriching our product line to better cater to the needs of different groups.

Initially, we distributed the latest tri-fold brochures to office workers on the street, but we found that everyone was short on time and unable to engage deeply with our presentation about the project and the importance of emotional management. Subsequently, we visited a company where we received support from a supervisor who introduced our project's latest developments and fruit tea concept to the employees, urging them to confront and accept their emotional issues. The supervisor pointed out that employees working with emotional burdens might develop psychological problems, making proper emotional relaxation very important.

During our discussions, office workers expressed their recognition of our project and fruit tea concept, showing great interest in the flavors. However, we discovered that everyone had different taste preferences and hoped for more options. They also inquired about the product pricing, indicating they were unwilling to pay for overly expensive drinks, and suggested we consider a business model similar to Mixue Bingcheng—promoting affordability through low-margin, high-volume sales to make our product accessible to more people. Mixue Bingcheng's products are popular due to their affordable prices, resulting in higher customer numbers compared to other milk tea brands.

Based on this feedback, we decided to launch more flavors in the future, but due to our team's limited resources at the moment, we will initially focus on one formula. Additionally, we will collaborate with a nutritionist to develop the fruit tea formula. Regarding pricing, we ultimately opted for a low-margin, high-volume business model to improve market acceptance.

We also introduced our project and product concept to the school teachers, who appreciated the idea in our tri-fold brochure that encourages everyone to accept their emotions. One teacher mentioned that, as educators, they also face work-related stress, making them very supportive of the importance of emotional management. The teachers encouraged our team to continue pushing the project forward and expressed their anticipation of seeing our product come to fruition, hoping it would help more people.

During the process of determining the product form, we considered various options such as gummies, cookies, tablets, and powders. However, after extensive discussions, we realized that while these forms were creative, they might not easily fit into people's daily lives. Through discussions with experts, interviews with our target audience, and internal reflections within the team, we recognized that beverages have already become a part of modern daily life, with almost everyone accustomed to drinking various drinks. By choosing a beverage format, we can offer more flexible customization options, such as adjusting sweetness and ingredient selections, allowing consumers to tailor the product to their needs. Therefore, we decided to establish the product form as fruit tea, which not only integrates easily into people's lives but also provides a more economical and everyday solution for emotional support for our target audience. This decision also ensures our product's acceptance and practicality in the market.

Our first-generation product will incorporate traditional natural ingredients such as dried tangerine peel, Poria, goji berries, red dates, and dried longan, without any tea components. These ingredients are well-established natural stress relievers. We consulted the "List of Items That Are Both Food and Medicine" [7]and the "Regulations for the Management of Substances That Are Both Food and Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials"[8] to confirm that these ingredients can be added as food to our fruit tea. Our first-generation product will not include tea, Kaempferol, or GABA, as tea can cause insomnia, and the inclusion of Kaempferol and GABA requires approval.

We contacted a company and invited its employees to conduct a taste test of our fruit tea product. The results indicated that the flavor of the fruit tea did not suit everyone's preferences, with noticeable differences in taste among individuals. This made us realize that our current single formula would struggle to meet the diverse needs of different groups, so we decided to develop more flavors and formulas to provide a richer selection.

The office workers expressed strong interest in the scented sachets made with our fruit tea formula, finding the fragrance refreshing and pleasant. They reported feeling pleasantly surprised and uplifted after smelling it. This reinforced our confidence in the potential of our fruit tea products for diverse applications.

We interviewed nutritionist Teacher Huang, who suggested that in addition to incorporating some traditional Chinese medicine ingredients, we could enhance the diversity of our formula by adding fruits like grapefruit. Additionally, supplementing with B vitamins can help regulate and soothe the nervous system, further enhancing the functionality of the product.

Regarding the sugar content concerns raised by the students about the fruit tea, Teacher Huang provided more suggestions for ingredient options beyond our existing sugar regulation options and fiber-rich ingredients like oats and barley. Her recommendations include:

1.Peach gum and tremella: These ingredients primarily consist of water and gelling agents (such as agar and carrageenan), are low in calories, and have a light burden. Peach gum and tremella are close to natural foods and can supplement dietary fiber.

2.Coconut jelly: Made from the fermented product of coconut water, coconut jelly mainly consists of cellulose and has almost no calories, making it a dietary fiber food.

3.Grass jelly: Made from grass jelly and starch, grass jelly has a smooth texture and is rich in dietary fiber.

4.Sago: Although sago itself does not contain dietary fiber, it can indirectly provide some fiber when paired with fruits and grains.

Furthermore, Teacher Huang expressed her willingness to serve as our health advisor when our project is further refined and enters the commercialization stage, continuing to provide us with professional support. This commitment adds professional backing to our project and lays the foundation for future healthy development.

1.Stigma Issues: Both depression patients and high-pressure individuals often feel ashamed of their emotional problems and fear social discrimination. This stigma can hinder their willingness to seek help, making it difficult for teams to identify these populations and obtain assistance from professional organizations.

2.Courage to Engage in Interviews: When communicating with depression patients, being overly cautious can make them feel singled out or discriminated against. Many depression patients are willing to share their experiences and appreciate the attention from others. Therefore, teams should maintain a sincere and natural attitude during interviews, avoiding excessive caution.

3.Qualification Review of Psychological Institutions: When collaborating with psychological counseling organizations, it is essential to rigorously review their qualifications and reputation. Not all psychological institutions comply with regulations, and some unqualified organizations may mislead the team’s research direction. Therefore, pre-qualification verification and user evaluation are crucial.

4.Product Development Qualifications and Safety Issues: In the product development process, especially for products related to health and mental well-being, ensuring the product's qualifications and safety is vital. All ingredients and production processes must comply with relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards to avoid project failure due to safety concerns.

From patients with depression to high-stress populations, from psychiatrists to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and from biological experts to fruit tea industry specialists, we are committed to establishing a complete feedback loop in our project design and implementation process—enabling our project to benefit society while continuously optimizing through social feedback. Through this cycle, we aim to achieve true social value.

During our human practice (HP) process, we encountered many challenges and obstacles; however, it is these difficulties that drive us forward. We strive to overcome these barriers to meet the actual needs of high-stress individuals and patients with depression. These obstacles are not only difficulties faced by our team in advancing the project but also challenges that patients with depression and high-stress individuals encounter in seeking treatment and managing their emotions, as well as potential pitfalls. We are pleased to confront these challenges head-on and provide help and support through our efforts.

We hope that through our project, we can make the world a happier and better place, allowing everyone to enjoy the beauty of life together.

[1]https://www.remarkgroup.com/zh/insights/职场压力流行病-基于消费者数据的洞察

[2]https://k.sina.cn/article_5329862058_13daf3daa019011eie.html

[3]https://www.remarkgroup.com/zh/insights/%E8%81%8C%E5%9C%BA%E5%8E%8B%E5%8A%9B%E6%B5%81%E8%A1%8C%E7%97%85-%E5%9F%BA%E4%BA%8E%E6%B6%88%E8%B4%B9%E8%80%85%E6%95%B0%E6%8D%AE%E7%9A%84%E6%B4%9E%E5%AF%9F

[4]Gao, W., Wang, W., Peng, Y. et al. Antidepressive effects of kaempferol mediated by reduction of oxidative stress, proinflammatory cytokines and up-regulation of AKT/β-catenin cascade. Metab Brain Dis 34, 485–494 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-019-0389-5

[5]Lydiard RB. The role of GABA in anxiety disorders. J Clin Psychiatry. 2003;64 Suppl 3:21-7. PMID: 12662130.

[6]Murphy MJ, Peterson MJ. Sleep Disturbances in Depression. Sleep Med Clin. 2015 Mar;10(1):17-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jsmc.2014.11.009. Epub 2014 Dec 12. PMID: 26055669; PMCID: PMC5678925.

[7]https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1793642933729328492&wfr=spider&for=pc

[8]http://www.nhc.gov.cn/sps/s3593/200810/a298f342c464475b923bcdc3c9d0575a.shtml

[9]https://baike.baidu.com/item/按照传统既是食品又是中药材的物质目录管理规定/63730811?anchor=1#1