Overview
Figure 1.1. The 17 goals of Sustainable Development.
·What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
17 Goals for People, for Planet! —— United Nations
A historical promise, which provides a promising future of the security of everyone’s well-being and right of living on a healthy and thriving planet, was made by the world leaders in 2015, when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainability Goals (SDG) was adopted. According to the agenda, the SDGs represent a new development value that integrates economic growth, social well-being and environmental protection, as well as a new methodology that is more scientific and responsive to the needs of all human beings today. The 17 cores of SDGs were designed to provide the world's people with the most practical and effective means of addressing the issues that caused the world's great chaos, such as violent conflicts, insecurity of human rights, health problems, climate change and environmental degradation.
·The initial enlightenment
We have a rescue plan before us, in the [SDG Summit] political declaration. Now is the time to lift the declaration's words off the page, and invest in development at scale like never before. ——António Guterres
During the brainstorming phase of the project, UM-Macau began to conduct a background research on the quality of sustainable development goals achieved in our region. The whole research was done from a global perspective and referred to The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 published by the United Nations. The completeness of SDG#3 Good Health and Well-being, which has the most direct relationship to our project, is far less satisfying compared with the completion of other SDGs in the aspect of the degree of “On track or target met.
The SDG#8 Decent Work and Economics Growth, the estimation standard of which is the unemployment of patients with malignant tumors, was not performed well in our region as well. According to the latest UN Summit of the Future report, although China, including Macao SAR, ranks the 68th in the world in terms of overall progress in the latest SDGs score, its performance in conducting SDG#8 are stagnant or even regressing in some of the sub-goals.
Figure 1.2. Progress assessment for the 17 goals based on assessed targets.
Although the achievement of SDG#9 is relatively satisfactory globally and in China, our work on ‘Novel exosomal tumor therapy using a bidirectional calcium overload platform’ highlights areas for further improvement. Our project focuses on innovative therapies like CAR-T and CAR-M, as well as synthetic biology practices which are significantly larger in terms of environment and production. In China, these therapies require high upfront investments and long research and development periods, leaving significant room for progress in the biomedical production field. Additionally, regional developmental differences in China present challenges to advancing SDG#9, particularly in the biomedical sector.
Along with the extension of our project around the core SDGs, as well as the work and mission of the project itself, we are obliged to take our project a step further in the aspect of health economics of poverty eradication (SDG#1), and a deeper dig into the contribution that the iGEM project can bring to the reduction of the economic burden around the world. Besides, in the promotion of universal cancer prevention, and popularization of the concept of synthetic biology, we will take a more effective and efficient approach to enhance the public's understanding of the knowledge in cancer prevention and synthetic biology (SDG#4).
Based on the preliminary research, internal discussions and practical work, we adopted the above five SDGs as the overall focus of our project. At the same time, UM-Macau always believes the power of solidarity, therefore we worked together throughout the project, from team to team, and from team to social organization, to maximize the impact of each SDGs (SDG#17).
We want to show our synthetic biology achievement to colleagues in Macau and around the world through CavengerX. We want that through learning our team's efforts, colleagues can combine the SDGs with the project not only inside but also outside of the lab. And we wonder about the approach to gain public identification for our project as a contribution to building a world where people with malignant tumors can be truly freed from their suffering, and can finally enjoy a better world.
·SDG#3-Good Health and Well-being
Goal Identification and Why SDG#3
Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. This comprehensive target encompasses various critical areas of health. One of the most important subgoals of SDG#3 is ‘By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment’(subgoal#3.4). According to the global burden of disease data in 2019, the number of malignant tumor cases and deaths in China have increased by 170.07% and 86.10% respectively in 2019 compared with 1990, which is obviously contrary to the expectations of SDG#3.
Figure 2.1. The trend of neoplasm’s number of incidence and deaths from the GBD 2021 database: 1980 to 2021.
Although new therapies for malignant tumors and the concept of precision medicine have been popular for long, the coverage and promotion of the so-called new therapies in actual clinical practice is very unsatisfactory. Taking the most popular CAR-T as an example, although it has excellent therapeutic effects on non-solid tumors such as leukemia, its hard-to-bear high price to the general public and its ineffectiveness against solid tumors still leaves most malignant tumor patients around the world to spend their last days under the torment of the traditional treatments’ protracted side effects. Therefore, in order to eliminate malignant tumors as a barrier between human beings and our well-being, it is important to implement the goal of ‘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.’(Subgoal#3.8). At the same time, the development of and access to NCD treatments in developing countries requires broad support at the societal level, so Subgoal#3.b.2 can serve as a beacon to point the way to new anti-tumor technology routes.
Our solution and application on SDG#3
SDG#3 is the goal most directly related to our project. This year, we developed a controlled system for exosome-mediated bi-directional calcium ion overload, combined with ultrasound-induced tumor cell destruction, using synthetic biology methods.
Malignant tumors account for a significant portion of the global disease burden, with many patients who miss the optimal time for surgery or develop resistance to targeted drugs left relying on traditional, painful treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The CavengerX project by UM-Macau aims to offer a more effective and less burdensome solution, providing cancer patients with a chance for a healthier and pain-free life.
Our approach uses a synthetic biology method to mass-produce exosomes containing human nitric oxide synthase 2 (hNOS2) and ultrasound-sensitive calcium channels, which induce calcium overload in tumor cells. This mechanism allows for more efficient and safer cancer cell destruction while reducing treatment side effects and the financial burden of long-term traditional therapies. We believe CavengerX can stimulate social and governmental organizations to promote these more accessible and inclusive anti-cancer treatments.
Figure 2.2. The high killing effectiveness of our CavengerX exosomes to cancer cell line A2780 in our testing part.
In future iterations, we plan to incorporate iRGD signal peptides for better targeting of tumor tissues, and modify the exosomes with small molecules like nano-molecular probes to enhance precision medicine applications. These improvements will further advance the inclusivity and applicability of our solution, aligning it even more closely with SDG#3 by bringing hope and better health outcomes to a broader range of cancer patients.
Figure 2.3. Impact of CavengerX on cancer patients’ health and well-being.
Stakeholders Feedback
Prof. Chen Qiang and Prof. Miao Kai
Both Prof. Chen Qiang and Prof. Miao Kai are two experienced scientists in the field of new cancer therapy development and drug resistance of cancer cell research in Macau SAR. For over 10 years, their achievements in academia were widely recognized in the Greater Bay Area as well.
After we had communication with them about our CavengerX approach and our overall technological pathway, these two professors highly praised our innovation, and they recognized our solution can give the clinical field new hope to overcome the problem of drug resistance. Today, although there are many new targeted small-molecule drugs on the market, they are still too easy to have drug resistance, which means for the patients with neoplasm, they try everything to find a suitable drug, but after several months, the therapy still fails because of the mechanism of the tumor's drug resistance. Prof. Miao Kai highlighted that our project chose a more natural pathway for cancer cells, thus having more possibility, not as easy as the traditional way to let cancer cells develop resistance, and giving patients more opportunity to survive with higher quality and better well-being.
Figure 2.4. The interview and feedback collection from Prof. Miao Kai.
Meanwhile, Prof. Chen Qiang also gave us additional feedback from his perspective of drug-resistance pathway research. He said although the calcium overload is a more rooted pathway to induce the apoptosis of cancer cells, maybe there will also be some pathway that the cancer could pump out the high-level calcium ions and make the cancer cells develop resistance against our approach. If the pathway exactly exists, the objective for us to improve the health well-being of cancer patients will be disrupted. Based on his feedback, we shall have more consideration in the future project design and use it as a direction to gain more information both from stakeholders and previous data or literature.
Figure 2.5. The interview and feedback collection from Prof. Chen Qiang.
·SDG#8-Decent Work and Economics Growth
Goal Identification and Why SDG#8
SDG#8 is about promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all. Decent work means opportunities for everyone to get work that provides income, security, better prospects for personal development and social integration. And in today's world, the loss of basic life and labor capacity of malignant tumor patients is not only a great burden to individuals and families, but also a health and economic problem: for the 15-49 year olds (productivity weight 0.75-0.8), who are a very strong contributor to the GDP all over the world, the percentage of their cause of death attribution has risen from 11.53% in 2005 to 14.33% in 2019. In China alone, the DALY per 100,000 due to malignant tumors in 2019 was a staggering 1,825.27, which shows that behind every number the employment and socio-economic problems derived from malignant tumors cannot be ignored.
Figure 3.1. The global map of the DALY of neoplasm from the GBD database 2021.
Figure 3.2. The comparison between different diseases’ number of deaths from the GBD 2021 database.
As a‘disabled groups in the broad sense, for malignant tumor patients who suffer from both pain and side effects of treatment, apart from the direct economic burden brought by treatment, the loss of income for themselves due to the loss of work, and the inability to provide effective shelter for their families with decent jobs is a pain that cannot be concealed——The wards of oncology hospitals have witnessed how many families have been separated and broken up because of malignant tumors? So here, ‘achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value’(Subgoal 8.5) must be more than just a slogan in projects like ours to explore new ways of cancer treatment.
Our solution and application on SDG#8
Our project has the potential to make a significant positive impact on achieving SDG#8, which aims to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, enabling everyone to enjoy decent work and provide for themselves and their families.
CavengerX directly addresses one of the key challenges: the loss of economic productivity caused by malignant tumors. Every year, countless individuals in their prime working years are forced to leave their jobs due to cancer or the need to care for sick family members. The prolonged hospital stays and side effects of traditional treatments severely limit their ability to contribute to the econom
By offering a radical new treatment for malignant tumors, CavengerX aims to restore both the physical health and quality of life of cancer patients. This will maximize their ability to return to work, reduce the burden of the disease and its treatments, and restore the time and energy previously lost to illness. Ultimately, CavengerX will empower patients to resume their normal lives, re-enter the workforce, and contribute to economic growth. Through our approach, CavengerX will play a vital role in preserving a healthy and productive workforce, particularly for young adults, helping to drive overall societal economic growth.
Figure 3.3. Impact of CavengerX on promoting cancer patients’ decent work and social economic growth.
Stakeholders Feedback
Dr. Liu Jingjing
In the process of our team's communication with the stakeholders of our project, we had an in-depth conversation with Dr. Liu Jingjing, a health journalist who has long been active in a variety of sensitive health topics, including cancer therapy. Dr. Liu believes that economic sustainability is very important, and that our team's final product is valuable in health economics because it can both directly and indirectly improve the employment of the people involved. Furthermore, Dr. Liu believes that as iGEMers, we should further consider the differences in economic strength and development levels between different countries and regions worldwide, and then thinking about the role and potential of the iGEM projects in promoting SDG#8 from the perspective of all iGEM projects globally, can be a direction for our further effort in the future.
Figure 3.4. The interview and feedback collection from Dr. Liu Jingjing.
Dr. Chen Ping
Dr. Chen Ping is a current postdoctoral researcher in UM’s Frontier Sciences Center for Precision Oncology and also a clinical expert at Sichuan University's Western China Hospital. In our interview with him, he gave us a more comprehensive view from his unique perspective of being on the frontline of both clinical and scientific research—that is, how difficult it is to find a more effective anti-cancer target with low side effects nowadays; and how terrible it is, and how, in addition to the pain of the disease itself, the side effects of long-term treatment and the time it takes away from them and their families are all significant factors to their financial woes.
He gives our feedback that our idealized project can certainly offer a fresh hope to patients who are currently both suffering and have no other choice in treatment. But there is still a long way to go from the stage of our current design to finally putting it into real practice in terms of helping terminal cancer patients to regain the conditions for decent work in SDG#8, such as the need to look at the practicalities of whether our CavengerX still has side effects that are hard to ignore.
Figure 3.5. The interview and feedback collection from Dr. Chen Ping.
Dr. Deepa Alex Mora
We interviewed Dr. Deepa Alex Mora, who is running a biological product startup in Macau, for her opinions on our project. Based on her own understanding of ESG, which include SDGs component, she thinks the CavengerX will not only be a great treatment approach to increasing the living quality of cancer patients, but also provide jobs for those who have knowledge and passion in biomedicine and cancer treatment, which can directly decrease the unemployment rate at local places. However, the geographic drawbacks are obvious. UM-Macau has our base in Macau, China, and we do not have a complete supply chain and financing environment in China, so it will be difficult for the project to survive unless we cooperate with another U.S. company and find investors in the United States, where plenty of money flows to basic cancer research. We can only conclude that our project has a potential to decrease unemployment, but its feasibility still needs to be further discussed.
Figure 3.6. The interview and feedback collection from Dr. Deepa Alex Mora.
·SDG#9-Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Goal Identification and Why SDG#9
SDG#9 aims to develop quality, sustainable infrastructure that supports economic growth and enhances human well-being, ensuring affordable access for everyone. During the progress of our project and our interactions with major synthetic biology industry stakeholders based on our content, we found that even in the Greater Bay Area, where synthetic biology industrialisation is quite mature and advanced, the development of synthetic biology is more oriented towards the production of bulk products, and that there is still a significant development gap at the intersection of biomedicine and synthetic biology. Therefore, based on the vision of subgoal 9.5, ‘Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors, encourage innovation and substantially increase the number of research and development workers.” The shortage of practitioners and experts in the field of synthetic biology + medicine practice is an issue that we found to be a real need to address after our visits and research. The related SDG#9 is also a motivation for us to make further efforts, urging us to develop new therapies while keeping pace with the emerging biomedical industry, and to draw a blueprint for the project and the industry that is bound to the each other in depth, use our work as a primer for the practice to take a step forward in the industry's innovation, and to make up for the shortage in the infrastructure for this sector based on planning.
Our solution and application on SDG#9
We are using our project for the treatment of malignant tumors, which address the SDG#9-related problems to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation in the key fields related to our CavengerX project.
Our approach sums between the advancement in two key fields -- Genetic Engineering and Precision Medicine Research. We are developing an approach by building a platform of bi-directional calcium ion overload to reach an effective treatment for malignant tumors and avoid the severe side effects.
The development and application of therapies that precisely target tumor cells using calcium overload platforms with modified exosomes could have a direct impact on SDG#9 as it represents the intersection of genetic engineering and biomedicine using our designs, has potential to completely overturn the traditional approach to the treatment of many more diseases and their position in industrial application. In addition, by showcasing our efforts, more researchers can be inspired to use synthetic biology to target more of the root causes of malignant tumors and develop more technologically innovative oncology therapies on a more standardized basis, ultimately creating a virtuous circle that will lead to upward mobility in the field of medical oncology-related innovation and industrialization.
CavengerX will also encourage the healthcare infrastructure’s development as synthetic biology-based therapies will become more popular in the future, which will need specialized medical facilities and experts in the field of biomedical technology. We have mentioned that in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area where we are located, although the development in the field of synthetic biology is advanced, there is still a lot of room for advancement in the field of healthcare and synbio intersection, which undoubtedly exposes the need from the perspective of the project location. This need will lead to the further establishment of better healthcare facilities and more job opportunities on the field related to the key element of CavengerX and new cancer therapy, at the end strengthening our healthcare systems and building strong infrastructure.
Figure 4.1. Impact of CavengerX on industrial optimization, innovation in the oncology area and biomedical field promotion.
Stakeholders Feedback
·Imstem Biotechnology
Imstem is a biotechnology company focused on the field of independent research and stem cell drug development in Guangdong, Zhuhai. Because our project is iteratively designed to consider stem cells as the final output in an iterative process that relies on feedback (before we make sure to use exosome), our interactions with Imstem during the iHP portion of the project have been long and deep.
For SDG#9, Dr. He from Imstem introduced the success of their stem cell products to us and the stringent industrial requirements that need to be met when bringing them to the market, emphasizing that there is no escaping space that any cell product with therapeutic use has to meet both GLP and GMP requirements. As a senior of our team members, Dr. He thought that in his mind our CavengerX project was refreshing in terms of innovation. However, from a macro perspective of our field, which combines oncology and synthetic biology, Dr. He admits that in China, even in the Greater Bay Area, where biomedical science is the most advanced. He said the share of medical applications in synthetic biology is very low compared to those related to ‘improving the environment’ or ‘boosting production’. Moreover, the technological barriers to overcome are even higher, making it difficult to maintain long-term sustainability in terms of investment and policy. He hopes that more projects like CavengerX will emerge in the future, that the synthetic biology industry, which is closely related to medicine, will grow as healthy as Imstem in the past, and that a sustainable, inclusive, and innovative industrial ecosystem will be formed in the Synbio+Biomed field with the achievement of SDG#9.
Figure 4.2. The field-trip, communication and feedback collection in Imstem Biotechnology Company.
·Biosysen
As a representative of a synthetic biology company in the Greater Bay Area and having completed two rounds of financing, Biosysen can reflect the successful model of synthetic biology industry incubation in this region.
Ms. Liu Yujia, as the director and representative of Biosysen, during the communication and field trip, told us the experience of synbio company and industry development from her perspective. When we asked about the pathway to SDG#9 and our own goal, she gave us the feedback that many companies similar to them in Shenzhen and many of their leaders are also initiating their synbio idea of industrialization from iGEM. She suggests that we can consider iGEM as a springboard and use the successful synbio company in our field in which we are interested as a model, to develop the sustainable industry in the field we target for SDG#9 achievement.
Finally, she said that she admired the idea that we wanted to promote industrialization at the intersection of synbio & medical sciences and thought it was a brave and determined attempt. She believes that even if our current technology pathway is not mature enough, if we have the courage to continue to improve it after the end of the 2024 iGEM race, and in one day get the opportunity to translate our CavengerX project, we can also be an excellent example for the sustainable industrialization, innovation, and infrastructure building of our field like the companies she mentioned, and in the future become the 'model' in the future for many others to follow, which will be a quantum leap towards SDG#9.
Figure 4.3. The field-trip, communication and feedback collection in Biosysen, Shenzhen.
SDG Sub-project Research Current Result and Discussion
To further sublimate our understanding of SDGs and provide other iGEMers or even general public a convincing material to encourage them do some deeper thinking, UM-Macau is conducting research analyzing the potential of the iGEM Therapeutic project to mitigate the indirect economic burden of disease and promote sustainable development goals since 2020 based on the GBD database. We design the research as 2 parts, calculation and interview, which will be combined to get our result
1. Calculating the whole potential indirect economic burden of disease.
We are going to compute the indirect economic burden of disease through human capital approach, the model of which can be briefly described as below:
Figure 5.1. Model of calculating indirect economic burden of disease.
a) Selection of diseases:
We first collected the iGEM Therapeutic project from 2020 to 2023, which won a silver or gold medal. After that, we compared the data with Global Burden of Disease (GBD) (2019) to clear away data of disease which are not contained in the GBD. At last, there are 43 diseases left. Because of limitation of time and database content and volume, the following 4 significant diseases are not included in the research until wiki deadline, but we will contain them in future research: Antimicrobial resistance, COVID-19, high LDL cholesterol, and Pernicious Anemia (PA).
b) Classification of data using Socio-demographic Index (SDI).
The Socio-demographic Index (SDI) is a composite indicator of development status strongly correlated with health outcomes. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) is a time-based measure that combines years of life due to premature mortality (YLLs) and years of life lost due to time lived in states of less that full health, or years of healthy life lost due to disability.
We use SDI as the classification standard, DALYs as measure, to estimate the influence of different diseases in different places. Regions are classified into 5 categories: Low SDI, Low-middle SDI, Middle SDI, High-middle SDI, and High SDI according to GBD, and ranking of DALYs of diseases in each type of regions are shown by color depth in units in the heat map.
Through the heat map, we can find that no matter the regions, Urinary tract infections and interstitial nephritis, Lower respiratory infections/Upper respiratory infections, Diabetes mellitus, Depressive disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer are the most serious diseases.
Figure 5.2. Ranking of Total Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALYs) of Diseases Appearing from 2020-2023 in iGEM in Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study by Quintile of Sociodemographic Index (SDI).
c)Calculation of indirect economic burden of disease indirect economic burden of disease:
We want to calculate the indirect economic burden of disease using the following formula:
Indirect Economic Burden of Disease = GNP per Capita * DALYs * Labor Weight
We compute the GNP per Capita with classification of SDI. The formula of which can be described as follow:
GNP per Capita in the region = Total GNP in this region / Total population of this region
Labor weight is collected through paper reading. We find that in China, labor weight is the data listed as follow:
Figure 5.3. The labor weight of productivity in different age groups.
However, because some scientists from other countries think the announcement of division of labor weight may be understood as discrimination for people from different ages, we haven’t found any data about global labor weight standards.
Until now, we haven’t finished the data cleaning of calculation of indirect economic burden of disease, and we will continue conducting our research in the future.
d) Recent findings
We use the data of iGEM Therapeutic project from 2020 to 2023 to draw two word cloud graphs to see the appearance frequency of diseases and the participation frequency of countries in iGEM competition.
Figure 5.4. Word Cloud of countries where iGEM teams come from by number of teams.
Figure 5.5. Word Cloud of diseases appearing as iGEM topics by number of appearances.
For participation of teams from each country, among all the iGEM teams who attended the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 competitions, Chinese teams occupy the most proportion of participants, the number of which is 67. The region which accounts for the second percentage is the USA, which has 24 participating teams. India and Germany both have 12 teams attending, ranked the third jointly.
We compare the iGEM’s team composition with the composition of countries of 2023 global biomedical invention and patents ranking, and we find that there’s a great difference between these two indicators. In reality, there’re the most inventions and patents in the USA, which accounts for 47%, compared to the 22% among iGEM participants; China occupies 13% of the total invention and patent, but in iGEM, Chinese teams occupy 63.8%.
Figure 5.6. Tree map of global biological patents distribution.
For appearance frequency of diseases, we compare the word cloud with the heat map. From the word cloud, we can find that cancer (total cancer) is the hottest research topic in iGEM therapy village from 2020 to 2023, with 25 teams choosing. Antimicrobial resistance ranked the second, with 16 teams choosing, and breast cancer is at the first place.
Comparing the topic frequency in iGEM with their DALYs referring to GBD (Global Burden of Disease) database, we also find gaps. The top diseases with highest DALYs are cancer (total cancer), Urinary tract infections and interstitial nephritis, Lower respiratory infections/Upper respiratory infections, diabetes mellitus, depressive disorder, cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, but they are not the hot topics of iGEM project except cancer.
These gaps indicate that the iGEM competition may play a role in cultivating students in synthetic biology, as well as raise their awareness to take on responsibility to promote sustainability, integrated human practice, and education, but can rarely reflect the real world and practically solve problems. From the perspective of cash flow, the money invested into the iGEM competition does not result in any return in reality, in other words, they are wasted. If this money can be used in other charity fields, such as providing food for the homeless and inventing new technology to produce clean water, SDGs can be better achieved. In conclusion, even though the purpose of iGEM is to come up with new ideas to pursue SDGs, it actually hurts SDGs and may not be good for stable economic development.
1. Interview with other iGEM teams in China (including China, Hong Kong and Macau)
To find out whether the iGEM projects have potential in being transferred to a patent or product, and whether iGEM can really have an impact on biomedical development.
We would like to first define a variable: feasibility rate, the computation of which can be described as follows:
feasibility rate = Total number of projects transferred to patents divided by Total number of projects appearing in the iGEM competition.
We interviewed 5 teams for their expectation on the iGEM projects and recent status of previous iGEM projects. We learned that including the 2024 projects, there are approximately 30 projects (We could not track some of the projects, so we ignored them). There was only one project which was further developed and was used as the foundation for a start-up. But according to the team members, they don’t know the latest status of the start-up. So from our latest data, the feasibility rate is about 1/30.
The reasons that why they might give up the projects were also asked, and the main reasons are listed as follows:
a)High transferring cost: It may take more than 10 years to successfully develop a complete medicine, and students can not stand the long time. Besides, it will be hard for teams to find stable money sources for research, which can directly cause the research to shut down.
b)Lack in the project itself: After months of research, teams find that the projects themselves have some unconvertible disadvantages. However, considering the large sunk cost of changing the project, they decided to continue conducting them.
c)Little trial for safety: The basic research can only be conducted in laboratories, which means that no safety testing can be done without support from the local government and universities.
d)Legal compliance cost: It takes a long time for a now medicine or therapy approach to be legally supported
e)Fast development of technology: There’re far better research being done by famous companies and labs at the same time. If the iGEM projects can be promoted in the future, we can still not guarantee that it won’t be replaced in a very short period.
3. Suggestions:
After discussion, we would like to give some suggestions to closing the gaps and promoting better sustainable behavior in iGEM competitions
a) Emphasize sustainability in iGEM’s guideline: Give an extra chapter to stress the importance of sustainability in the official website. It’s better if some examples of sustainable behaviors of conducting synthetic are provided.
b) Emphasize the importance of background survey before choosing the project topic, which is beneficial for participants to identify real problems and generate solutions.
We know that these improvements cannot make a big difference, but it may play a small part in promoting iGEM.
·Effort and Impact of Our work with Further SDGs
SDG#1-No Poverty
The Problem We Face
For many years, cancer patients have not only endured the severe physical suffering caused by tumors but also faced overwhelming financial burdens due to the high cost of treatment. During our interview with Prof. Ren Jian from Sun Yat-sen University, he shared that the minimum annual revenue for a single bed at his Cancer Prevention and Treatment Centre is as high as 870,000 RMB. This figure highlights the significant financial barrier for cancer patients in developing countries to access the most advanced and reliable treatments. For many families, this cost is unbearable and often leads to financial ruin, pushing them back into poverty.
Cancer is a universal threat to humanity, causing not only the loss of life but also the loss of workforce participation and driving families into poverty. The economic burden of cancer treatment directly undermines sustainable economic and social development. Subgoals 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5 of SDG#1 emphasize the protection of vulnerable populations and their economic resilience in the face of adversity. However, the high cost of cancer treatment exacerbates the vulnerability of these patients and their families, creating a major obstacle to achieving SDG#1.
Figure 6.1. Target 1.3, 1.4, 1.5.
Our solution and positive impact of CavengerX
To achieve SDG#1 (No Poverty) through our project, we focused on controlling the cost of CavengerX while ensuring its therapeutic efficacy. Stakeholder feedback guided us to prioritize enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of the product in targeting tumors and selecting the optimal platform carrier. This focus was crucial to achieving both therapeutic effectiveness and affordability.
Under the guidance of experts in cell biology and precision medicine, we shifted from injecting engineered cells to using exosomes as the core delivery system. This decision allowed us to pursue a scalable industrial production method that meets GMP standards while minimizing costs. We also incorporated synthetic biology techniques to modify HEK293T cell lines for the mass production of exosomes in vitro, avoiding uncertainties in vivo.
Additionally, our exosomes are activated by ultrasound once inside the patient's body—a well-established medical practice that lowers treatment barriers. This approach significantly reduces treatment costs, making it more accessible compared to traditional methods like radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Furthermore, CavengerX aims to overcome the limitations of traditional treatments in terms of efficacy and the high costs associated with emerging therapies such as CAR-T and immunotherapy. By doing so, we help alleviate the financial burden on cancer patients, advancing the goal of SDG#1.
Feedbacks from our related stakeholders
·Dr. Jason He
Dr. Jason He is one of the chief technologists of IMSTEM BIOTECHNOLOGY's R&D department, and has an in-depth understanding of the development and commercialisation of novel cell-based therapies.
Based on Dr. He's description to us and the feedback on our project when we had not yet decided on the final calcium overload platform carrier. He gave us a very clear account on the cost of treatment for the different methods - compared to CAR-T, which is one of the most popular method at the moment, the treatment cost is around 1 million RMB, while if non-autologous MSCs or T-MSCs are used as the engineered chassis, the cost can be reduced to around 500,000 or 100,000-200,000 RMB. Although Dr. He's research is stem cell oriented and we did have a pre-determined decision on whether or not to use stem cells as the engineered chassis, Dr. He still recommended us to use exosomes from a rational and safe point of view and this could further reduce the cost of treatment for patients which can help our team achieve the purpose on the realization of SDG#1.
Figure 6.2. The interview and feedback collection from Dr. Jason He.
SGD#4-Quality Education
The Problem We Face
The promotion of SDG#4 (Quality Education) together with our team mission faces significant challenges due to the general lack of foundational knowledge, differences in values, and the serious inequality in the distribution of educational resources within society. Educating the public about oncology and synthetic biology, as well as addressing widespread misconceptions in these fields, will be critical to advancing SDG#4.
Reflecting on the work of UM-Macau and more than half of other iGEM teams in recent years, it becomes evident that long-standing stereotypes in educational methodologies have limited the accessibility and inclusiveness of knowledge. These barriers hinder the dissemination of information related to synthetic biology and cancer prevention, posing an additional challenge to achieving the goals of SDG#4.
Figure 6.3. Target 4.7, 4.b.
Our solution and positive impact of CavengerX
Synthetic biology is not only an advanced technology but also a tool that can help shape people's vision of a healthy and sustainable future. However, to make synthetic biology accessible to a wider audience and enable them to apply its knowledge toward sustainable development (subgoal 4.7), effective educational methodologies are crucial.
For our team, we have integrated a precise and refined educational cycle model 'cognition building - hands-on practice feedback collection - long-term effect' into all of our education-related projects. This model has been applied to diverse audiences, including high-risk cancer groups, school-age youth, and the general public. We’ve also developed peripheral educational tools such as card games, SDG brochures, and other souvenirs to enhance engagement. Additionally, we established a two-way dialogue between educators and learners, using audience feedback to continuously refine our educational approach and project itself. This method ensures that we can instill correct understanding of synthetic biology, SDG principles, and cancer prevention while reducing misconceptions and minimizing cultural and social barriers to the adoption of this technology.
Figure 6.3.1. The Model of our education work to promote the goal of SDG#4 Quality Education.
The photographs of our Synbio workshops, summer camp and nursering house cancer prevention week events.
Figure 6.3.3. The card game “cell battle” we design to deepen our education effect in our audience group at the last senario of our educational cycle.
Moreover, our efforts aim to break down educational resource inequalities by providing access to cutting-edge technologies, even in less developed regions. We strive to inspire school-age youth with a passion for science, empowering them to address regional development imbalances (subgoal 4.b). To this aim, in collaboration with HKUST, BNUZH-China, and the "Yi Xin Education Support Program" in Sichuan Province, we’ve launched an outreach teaching project. Through engaging lectures, face-to-face communication, and synthetic biology-related games, we have helped students in remote areas grasp the basic concepts and practical applications of synthetic biology, igniting their interest in this field.
Figure 6.3.4. The photographs of our Outreach Teaching Project at Sichuan, Daofu.
Feedbacks from our related stakeholders
·Mr. Wang Dapeng
Mr. Wang Dapeng is a vice director of the China Popular Science Writers Association. As a researcher of the China Popular Science Research Institute, Mr. Wang has conducted in-depth research on the method and practice of science popularization, science popularization in social media, and the relationship between scientists and the media.
After knowing that our team has firmly integrated the core elements of SDG#4 with our 'cognition building - hands-on practice - long term impact - feedback collection' cycle in the education process, Mr. Wang expressed his deep recognition and evaluation of our efforts. At the same time, Mr Wang provided us with a series of feedback based on our information - “The scene naturally consists of popularization of science, and the popularization of science naturally carries the scene, which will make the audience feel immersed in the scene”. He said that the best way to do science popularization is still to let people experience it, which become a precious advice we take in our educational practice to popularize the synthetic biology through add this kind of experience like lab practice in the summer camp and “PROfound” workshop into our cycle to enhance our audiences’ sense of participation.
Last but not the least, he said to us that in the process of doing science popularization, we must put ourselves on the same level as the target audience, not to be condescending, and not to fail to acknowledge the possible mistakes in our science popularization.
Figure 6.4. The online interview and feedback collection from Mr. Wang Dapeng with BNUZH-China and HKUST.
·The Detailed We Do During the Education
SDG brochure we use in our education project.
Negative Interaction
·SDG#10 - Reduced Inequalities
While CavengerX aims to make exosome-based calcium ion overload treatments for cancer more accessible, the complexity of these high-tech therapies and the uneven distribution of biotechnology infrastructure may exacerbate global health inequalities. Developed regions with advanced infrastructure and technical expertise will likely adopt these treatments more quickly, while many developing countries may lack the necessary resources, infrastructure, or skilled personnel to implement CavengerX in the early stages. This disparity could widen the global health gap, as underdeveloped regions struggle to access these cutting-edge therapies, further entrenching existing inequalities over time.
·SDG#11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
If the CavengerX project’s resources and implementation are concentrated in large cities or economically developed areas, it could exacerbate the unequal distribution of healthcare resources between urban and rural regions. Rural and remote areas may struggle to access advanced cancer treatments like CavengerX, further widening the health disparity between urban and rural communities. This unequal access could hinder the sustainable development and equity of communities, creating a growing divide in healthcare provision and overall well-being.
·potential long-term social, environmental, and economic impacts
·Potential long-term social impact
CavengerX has the potential to greatly improve the quality of life for cancer patients by providing a less invasive, more affordable, and accessible treatment option. By reducing the side effects and high costs associated with therapies like chemotherapy and CAR-T, patients can live longer, healthier lives. This would not only improve emotional and social well-being but also reduce the feeling of loneliness and hopelessness often faced by cancer patients, allowing them to reintegrate into their communities and maintain a higher standard of living.
·Potential long-term environmental impact
CavengerX’s focus on synthetic biology-based treatments offers a more sustainable approach to cancer therapy. Unlike traditional methods that often involve extensive use of chemicals and energy-intensive processes (especially the industrial chain behind the clinical use), the project’s use of engineered exosomes and synthetic biology to produce the exosomes minimizes negative environmental impact. By reducing the reliance on resource-heavy treatments, CavengerX supports a greener healthcare system, lowering waste and emissions while contributing to the long-term goal of more environmentally conscious medical practices
·Potential long-term economic impact
CEconomically, CavengerX has the potential to significantly reduce the financial burden on cancer patients and healthcare systems by offering a cost-effective treatment solution. By utilizing scalable synthetic biology techniques, the project can lower treatment costs, making advanced therapies more accessible in developing regions. This will not only help patients avoid financial ruin due to medical expenses but also promote economic stability by allowing individuals to remain productive members of the workforce, ultimately contributing to overall societal economic growth.
·SDG#17-Partnerships For the Goals
·Goal Identification and why SDG#17
The main target of SDG#17 is to all for cooperation between government, the private sector and civil society, ensuring that no country, no matter developed or developing country, is left behind in sustainable development. For iGEMers, SDG#17 means collaboration between different teams to jointly think, act, communicate and solve synthetic biology problems and promote iGEM and its spirit to the public.
·Our leadership and collaboration in iGBA
During this year’s iGEM project, UM-Macau focused on building a sustainable communication platform and strengthening collaboration among iGEM teams, particularly within the Hong Kong-Macau-Guangdong Greater Bay Area (GBA). Last year, UM-Macau was the first team to propose the idea of creating a platform and knowledge bank for iGEMers in the GBA. This year, we continued to lead by organizing the 2nd iGBA Forum, co-hosted with teams HKUST, BNUZH-China, and SUSTech-Med, as well as inviting stakeholders from human practice, industry, and research sectors.
At the forum, UM-Macau led the "SDGs & iGEM" workshop, bridging the information gap on SDGs for all participants. Through Q&A sessions and discussions of exemplary iGEM projects, we facilitated knowledge exchange on how iGEM projects can contribute to achieving SDGs. By providing feedback on the platform we developed, UM-Macau positioned ourselves as an information provider, enhancing the understanding of how iGEM’s impact on sustainable, inclusive development can be optimized. Meanwhile on the workshop we also recommended our future iG20 Meetup, a broader, more SDGs impact-focused networking event, to the teams that expressed interest in promoting SDGs after the workshop.
Figure 8.1. Photographs from iGBA Forum and the “SDG & iGEM Workshop” part led by UM-Macau.
·Our leadership and collaboration in iG20
Together with iGEM teams BNUZH-China, NWU-CHINA-A, and SCUT-China-S, and inspired by the global G20 summit—a platform that emphasizes partnerships to drive economic growth—we established a new platform aimed at fostering collaboration between iGEM teams to achieve SDG goals. We hosted an online conference, the “iGEM iG20 SDG Meetup” where we shared the core SDG values embedded in our projects.
During this event, Dr. Bao Yuhan, the iGEM officer overseeing global human practices communication, and Mr. Isaac Nana Kofi Asare, a representative from Macau Institute for Corporate Social Responsibility in Greater China (MICSRGC) involved in SDG promotion in Macau SAR, engaged with over 10 iGEM teams. These stakeholders provided valuable insights and feedback on SDG promotion to every team and shared their SDGs promotion part in their own project, helping all of us refine our approach to ensuring positive, sustainable impacts through iGEM and beyond.
Figure 8.2. Photographs from iG20 SDG Meetup
· 11th Conference of China iGEMer Community，CCiC
The 11th Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) of the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) was held at Xijiao Liverpool University from 12 to 14 July. Nearly 1,000 iGEMers attended the conference. 89 teams from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University and other universities and 35 teams from high schools such as the Affiliated High School of Renmin University of China shared and presented their iGEM projects, exchanged ideas in depth with experts or stakeholders from academia, industry, and stimulated innovative sparks.
At this year's CCiC, UM-Macau shared our CavengerX project, moved from being a passive recipient of information to being an active information provider, using the event to spread our thought about SDGs to at least 20 teams, and had the honour of sharing our expectations for advancing the SDGs with the iGEM Human Practice Project Officer, Mr. BAO Yuhan, and received a lot of feedbacks from him on how to establish a far-reaching connection between projects and SDGs (including whether the number of projects connected to SDGs should be as many as possible, and the depth of the exploration of SDGs, etc.), which have further helped us to go further on the road of promoting SDGs during the last half progress of this year’s competition.
Figure. Photographs of UM-Macau from 11th CCiC Conference./p>
·Collaboration and Feedbacks
To prepare for the sub-project studying iGEM’s impact on decreasing the indirect economic burden of diseases, we have been conducting interviews with other iGEM teams about their expectation on their project and the possibility that iGEM will encourage them to take up a career in synthetic biology to achieve long-term cooperation. 5 interviews have been done until now, the interviewee of which are SZPU-China, JLU-NUUMS, BNUZH-China, HKUST-GZ and web lab & dry lab members from our own teams UM-Macau. We are happy to find that all the interviewed teams appreciate team spirit and show an open attitude to share their experience to other teams, and all of them are willing to continue the project and eventually complete the whole cycle design in the future if condition permits. Regarding their career planning, obviously iGEM has a great impact on it. For iGEMers who are not in the biology-related major, iGEM offers them a chance to apply their major knowledge to another field, which is beneficial to broaden their horizon and cultivate their creativity of using their ability in a variety of industries. For iGEMers who are in biological major, iGEM is definitely a precious opportunity to practice and strengthen their capabilities.
iGEMers are students who may play an important role in promoting synthetic biology and sustainability in the future, working not only in labs, government, but also firms, and common places. iGEM effectively builds a society to gather these students at one place, networking them, cultivating their awareness of sustainability, which help to promote the partnership in the future.
However, terrible facts of the information from what other teams share about previous projects also appear. We find that it’s really hard for iGEM projects to survive after the competition. The detailed information is included in our SDG Sub-project Current Result and Discussion research part.
Acknowledgements: Support for this interview was provided by SZPU-China, JLU-NUUMS, BNUZH-China, and HKUST-GZ. We sincerely express our great appreciation for their participation in our interview.
·Conclusion and Further Suggestion
In this year’s effort, CavengerX has been a meaningful exploration of how synthetic biology and cancer therapy development can contribute to sustainable development. Focusing on critical global challenges of cancer treatment, our project aligns closely with key SDGs such as SDG#3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG#8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG#9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). Through our efforts, we have demonstrated the potential of cutting-edge biological therapies to address economic burden, healthcare disparities and industrial shortages, and create more equitable access to advanced treatments.
Not only just dig as deep as we can for our values in our core SDGs, but also to further sublimate our understanding of SDGs and provide other iGEMers or even general public a convincing material to encourage them do some deeper thinking, focused on the core SDGs we conducted the sub-project to induce all iGEMers includes ourselves to rethink our position and true targets for doing iGEM from the social and developmental perspectives.
Our work extended beyond the core SDGs by fitting the goal of poverty eradication to the technical lines of our project (SDG#1), incorporating education (SDG#4), at the quantitative and methodological level, we tried a series of things we hadn't thought of before. Meanwhile, we built tough partnerships (SDG#17) through collaborative platforms like iGBA and iG20. We engaged with stakeholders, shared knowledge on SDG impacts, and fostered a community of iGEM teams focused on creating a more sustainable future
Looking ahead, we encourage future iGEMers to build on what we have done this year by continuing to integrate SDGs into their projects. By focusing on collaboration, innovation, and community engagement, future teams can further amplify the impact of synthetic biology on global challenges, ensuring their projects contribute not only to scientific advancement but also to social improvement.
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