In the dawn of a new era, our generation of young people is tasked with propelling the world forward, embracing the mission to achieve the 17 ambitious goals set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Our project consistently implements SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG4 (Quality Education), and SDG17 (Partnerships for the Goals), with SZPU-China as our banner of action. Through concrete actions, we are injecting youthful vitality into global sustainable development, collectively shaping a future that is healthier, more educated, and characterized by win-win cooperation.
Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is dedicated to ensuring healthy lifestyles and promoting well-being for all ages. The core objectives include reducing maternal and child mortality, controlling infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and decreasing deaths from non-communicable diseases. Additionally, it encompasses preventing substance abuse, reducing traffic accidents, universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, achieving universal health coverage, and reducing the impact of pollution and hazardous chemicals on health.
Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services, and access to safe, effective, quality, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." ——Hippocrates
We recognize that prevention is better than cure, a valuable wisdom left to us by Hippocrates. Our project aims to protect mothers, infants, and non-pathogen carriers by reducing the risk of pathogen transmission, thereby indirectly reducing mortality rates. Starting from prevention. We hope to achieve a continuous inhibitory effect on pathogens. By selecting the probiotic E.coli Nissle 1917 (EcN), we are developing a bio-sanitizer that is cost-effective and provides sustained preventive protection, ensuring our strategy is both effective and safe.
By using gene-editing technology, we are developing a probiotic EcN strain that can colonize in the human body or environment and effectively suppress the growth of harmful pathogens. Enhancing the strain's natural defense mechanisms, such as increasing the length of fimbriae by knocking out the FimE gene and increasing the production of capsular polysaccharides by overexpressing key genes (galU, pgmA, KpsT), thus improving resistance to pathogenic attacks. At the same time, we will utilize the T6SS and CDI systems of the engineered bacteria to suppress pathogens, allowing beneficial engineered bacteria to occupy ecological niches and continuously inhibit pathogens.
To ensure the safety of the engineered bacteria, we have designed a suicide switch mechanism, such as temperature-controlled toxin accumulation or membrane rupture strategy, ensuring that the engineered bacteria can self-destruct after a certain time or upon contact with the human body temperature environment, avoiding potential risks to the environment or human body.
The continuous evolution of pathogen drug resistance is a global issue that not only threatens individual health but also poses a serious challenge to public health security. The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria reduces the available treatment options, making common infectious diseases difficult to treat, increasing medical costs, and mortality.Synthetic biology and genetic engineering research, lower costs.With the continuous discovery of bacterial antagonism systems, we are researching bacterial antagonism to suppress pathogens. Genetic engineering is fascinating, with the diversity of genetic sequences, providing us with more potential means to combat pathogens. By discovering more effective genetic sequences against drug-resistant pathogens and constructing a weapon library, we can make corresponding adjustments to the changes in pathogen drug resistance.
Bacterial antagonism refers to the phenomenon where certain bacteria can inhibit or kill other bacteria. This phenomenon is widespread in natural environments and the human microbiome and can be used to combat drug-resistant bacteria.
Through laboratory screening and genetic engineering techniques, we have identified and improved beneficial strains with strong antagonistic activity that can secrete antimicrobial substances or inhibit the growth of drug-resistant bacteria through other mechanisms.
Using synthetic biology methods, we have constructed engineered bacteria that can express specific antimicrobial proteins or peptides. These engineered bacteria are carefully designed in the laboratory to ensure they can effectively suppress drug-resistant bacteria in the natural environment.
In addition to the development of single strains, we are also exploring the possibility of constructing complex bacterial communities that can work together through various mechanisms to enhance the inhibitory effect on drug-resistant bacteria.
We hope for this in the future, but there are always some issues we are not aware of. This is our vision, but there are many uncontrollable factors in public environments, and our project may not be able to cover everything completely.
During our visits to Shenzhen community health centers and pharmacies, we focused on understanding the specific practices of these institutions in bacterial prevention and routine disinfection operations. Through communication, we learned that community health centers and pharmacies usually use alcohol as a disinfectant and regularly disinfect the environment and surfaces to ensure the health and safety of the premises.
Dr. Guo Lihua mainly treats respiratory system diseases. We hope to understand the current situation of respiratory pathogen infections, treatment methods, and main prevention methods, and learn how to prevent pathogen infections. We have learned about one of the transmission methods and prevention methods of pathogens. Next, we will go to the gastroenterology department to learn more about the transmission through the digestive tract, so as to determine the direction of our project.
Dr. Cai is an expert in the field of disinfection. We are delighted to have had the opportunity to talk with her and receive her valuable insights and opinions. We discussed the application of chemical disinfection or physical disinfection methods to kill pathogens in public health places and the shortcomings of each method. After talking with her, we were encouraged and further researched how bio-preventive products can meet national standards.
We visited Shenzhen Ando Fu Disinfection High-tech Co., Ltd. and had an in-depth exchange with Vice Chairman Zhou Hailin. Mr. Zhou introduced the company's corporate culture and development history to the team, giving us a clearer understanding of the current situation of the disinfectant industry and how to follow standards for production. During the communication with Ando Fu, Mr. Zhou affirmed our project and shared the company's concept of sustainable development.
"Education is to help the educated develop their own abilities,
complete their personality, and fulfill a part of their responsibility in human culture." — Cai Yuanpei
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education that leads to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.
By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
Difficulty in accessing the emerging field of synthetic biology. Traditional and emerging divide: In China's traditional education system, although biology has been included as a subject in the compulsory education system, new branches of biology such as synthetic biology are difficult for people to access and learn. Therefore, we strive to bring the subject of synthetic biology into the students' field of vision, and we promote the relationship between biology and synthetic biology through high school synthetic biology education.
In some regions of China, there is still a relative lag in educational resources. Under the circumstances of limited educational resources and pathways, it is difficult for people to access such an emerging discipline. We use our knowledge of synthetic biology, such as experimental or theoretical knowledge, to teach in areas with relatively scarce educational resources (middle and high schools), allowing them to have a certain understanding of the discipline of synthetic biology.
We realize that people are not only unable to access synthetic biology due to educational resources and pathways, but also due to physical limitations. We hope to benefit these groups, we have developed synthetic biology books so ,(Click here.)hoping to solve the difficulties these groups face in accessing synthetic biology.
Different groups have different educational methods Synthetic biology is a specialized discipline, and teaching highly specialized content to non-biology professionals may make it difficult for them to understand or even resist. At the same time, we also consider that different groups have different acceptance levels for the same discipline. "Tailoring teaching to individual students" is an important concept in Chinese education, which means that different educational measures should be taken for different groups. Promoting synthetic biology and sustainable development concepts with this educational philosophy may bring us unexpected surprises. Therefore, we have identified two issues and taken corresponding measures:
People with different educational backgrounds or age groups have different understanding and acceptance abilities for a discipline. Therefore, we hope to teach synthetic biology knowledge in different ways for different groups, hoping to stimulate their interest in synthetic biology and sustainable development concepts.
"Down-to-earth" education methods (Chinese traditional culture). We have thought about how to better let local people learn synthetic biology. People often prefer to learn knowledge through easy-to-understand methods. We believe that starting from Chinese traditional culture is a good thing. We combine Chinese traditional culture with synthetic biology, such as integrating synthetic biology into traditional cultures such as tie-dyeing, shadow puppetry, seal cutting, and cyanotype, to understand and learn synthetic biology in a way that is familiar to understand and learn synthetic biology in a way that is familiar to Chinese people.(Click here.)
Our ability is limited and it is difficult to benefit too many people.
We know that relying solely on our team to do educational publicity, the ability is limited, and this cannot extend our education to too many people. There is a famous saying in China, "A single spark can start a prairie fire," which means that although it starts small, it has a promising future. Our number of people and resources are relatively small, but we pass on knowledge to a group of people, and let this group of people pass on this knowledge to another group of people, which allows our education to benefit more people.
Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries.
No man is an island,
entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main;
——John Donn
We have observed that sustainable development faces different situations in different countries. iGEM teams are working hard in the field of sustainable development, but a single tree cannot make a forest. We need to communicate and continuously improve.
Through exchange meetings, we can establish strong partnerships with iGEMers from different regions. The meeting discussed in-depth the design of each other's project content and how to better achieve sustainable development, providing feedback and suggestions for improvement.
At the Shenzhen University exchange meeting, Mr. Zhang Nan (iGEM Foundation Global Development Vice President) explained to the participating teams how to better integrate knowledge from different disciplines, improve the efficiency of interdisciplinary project cooperation, and optimize team internal communication and coordination.
We communicated with local SDG non-profit organisations in Shenzhen, effectively suggesting us to understand the local development of the SDGs and the mission they carries. We can find out the connection point between the project and the SDGs, and explore how to achieve the SDGs more effectively. In addition, Mr Feng from Shenzhen Duckgaga Creative Philanthropy Center invited us to participate in a sustainable themed growth class: "Climate Change and Sustainable Development" Science Lecture and Book Club on 14th July, from which we gained inspiration, in terms of publicity, our peripheral sticker production in the promotion of synthetic biology based on a greater emphasis on the fun and hands-on.
By participating in The 8th iGEM Southern China Regional Meeting, through communication and reflection with other teams, we can absorb suggestions on optimizing experimental design, improving project feasibility and impact, thereby promoting the project to higher goals.
At this exchange meeting, the team obtained valuable suggestions on how to optimize experimental design and improve project feasibility and impact through communication with other teams, and also promoted cross-team cooperation and knowledge sharing.
We participated in the launching ceremony of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sustainable Development Innovation Demonstration Project (Longhua, Shenzhen), where we had the opportunity to talk with a number of international friends who provided valuable suggestions for the project:
Mr. Ludovic Krundel, Vice President of French Technology Hong Kong (Shenzhen Branch), gave encouragement and affirmation to our project.
Mr. Philip McMaster, the founder of the MacMax Business Sustainability Development Institute, proposed the "three-finger" concept, and encouraged us to achieve a transformation of health and environmental protection in daily life, and emphasized the importance of transforming cultural knowledge into practical actions.
We participated in the "2024 iG20 SDG Meetup" event, where Teacher Bao Yu mainly provided feedback on our SDG section.
South University of Science and Technology co-organizes the safety exhibition: By cooperating with the South University of Science and Technology to hold a safety exhibition, we can raise public awareness of safety issues and showcase related technologies and solutions. This cooperation helps to enhance public awareness and promote the support of all sectors of society for sustainable development goals.
We publish the SDG Manual with partners such as BIT-China, which can provide guidance and resources for achieving sustainable development goals. The manual can include goal requirements, goals that ordinary people can easily achieve, and China's special achievements in this area, providing practical information and tools for the public.
In our first online communication sharing on June 15, 2024, we shared and exchanged about the project. The board interpretation of SDG shared our own team's insights and what we have done, since then we have been looking for the possibility of collaboration about SDG board. Fortunately on September 16, 2024 our team initiated the communication about the board collaboration. Finally we negotiated to Producing a promotional link-up about SDG3 good health and wellbeing.
SDG17 emphasizes the importance of global sustainable development partnerships. We have strengthened sustainable development efforts worldwide through establishing partnerships, exchanging and sharing, and cooperating. We have conducted in-depth exchanges and cooperation with iGEM teams, educational institutions, and SDG-related organizations in different regions to support the achievement of sustainable development goals in all countries, especially developing countries.
I. Skilled interpretation of the meaning behind the SDGs
A deep understanding of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations is the foundation for achieving sustainable development. These goals not only cover all aspects of the economy, society and environment, but also reflect the major challenges shared by the world. iGEM teams should enhance their comprehensive understanding of the SDGs by systematically studying their historical background, targets and indicators, and the interrelationships between them. For example, understanding the formation process of the SDGs and their importance in the international development agenda can help the team better grasp their core concepts and thus effectively apply these principles in the project.
II. Understanding the link between the project and the SDGs
Identifying the linkages between the project and the SDGs is an important part of ensuring the success of the project. The team should identify how the project corresponds to one or more of the SDGs. By examining the potential contribution of the project to the SDGs, the team can identify these linkages during the design phase, ensuring that the project is not only scientifically sound and innovative, but also contributes substantively to the achievement of the global SDGs.
III.Integrate SDGs into project development
Considering the impact of SDGs at every stage of a project is key to achieving sustainable development. Teams should ensure that all activities, objectives and expected outcomes are aligned with the relevant SDGs during project planning. This will not only help to enhance the social value of the project, but also enable timely adjustment of strategies to address challenges and opportunities that may arise by continuously tracking and evaluating their impact on the SDGs during project implementation.
IV. Demand for Stakeholders' Help
Communication and co-operation with project-related stakeholders is crucial. These stakeholders include local communities, government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and businesses. By building a good working relationship with these stakeholders, the team is able to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and expectations, thus ensuring the success and sustainability of the project. For example, working closely with the local community not only ensures that the project meets their actual needs, but also enhances the project's social recognition and support.
