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Synthetic Biology in One Thousand and one nights

VOSB( The Voice of Synthetic Biology) world service, I’m Jessica Williams. Welcome to our broadcast “Synthetic Biology in One Thousand and one nights”. Well, before we start tonight’s story, just close your eyes and imagine: You're now traveling to 2035 …

Section 1:

It’s an era of high-tech civilization. Termites are the cruelest killers of the Galaxy. Earth is their current prey, plundering all wood resources and eroding the planet. Presidential conference is proposed. The president trembles hands on the paper of nuclear missile launch. He knows clearly how the act will ruin the planet, but to burn and crash is the only choice to eliminate enemy and save people. In a pinch, a mystery man bursts in and tears up the document.

(P- president; M- man)

P: Who allows you to come in? (angry and despaired)

M: I’m coming to help avoid the tragedy and defeat the termites. We can absolutely crumble termites from within instead of confronting. The plan is based on the project of iGEM ZJU-CHINA 2015. ZJU iGEMers coated adapted soil bacterium Streptomyces, which secreted Abamectin to kill termites. In order to attract termites and to deliver Abamectin successfully only into intestine, they assembled cellulose nanocrystals as capsule shells. What is terrific is that termites love cellulose and workers will regard the cellulose as food and bring them to the queen and larvae in a non-defensive way. In this way, we could root out the whole nest gradually.

P: The plan sounds good perhaps, but I cannot let my people risk.

M: All right, I’ll show you a round our secret base：TERMITES’ TERMINATOR LAB.

Section 2:

The president follows into the lab.

M: The core technology of our factory could be dated to 2015. Five years later, in 2020 iGEMers successfully expressed the Avemectin in B. subtils, with modern gene editing and synthesis technology. This new breakthrough is essential to its future industrialization. After years of tests and verifications, TERMITES’ TERMINATOR shows its tremendous potential to control the termite and its eco-friendliness in the lab and semi-wild situation. In the summer of 2027, to achieve the factorization, we designed the equipment, installed and modified a series of new automated assembly lines to implement the mass production and cut down the cost for wider-spread use. Finally in 2029, we successfully applied the patent for the technology. During the following four years, making full use of the economic benefit, we made numerous experiments both in factory and field. Thus the team acquired first-handed data to modify the product and achieved technical improvement and innovation. And now, the core technology has been totally open to benefit our society.

These days, we have a large range of products killing locus, flies, mosquitoes, etc. Based on the invention, we enable the openness of synthetic biology. 2035, give synthetic biology a chance to save the world!

P: I promise that people will remember you brilliant guys for ages! But I’m considering that large dose use might ravage the ecosystem.

M: The Abamectin is a safe anti-insect product, so it does little harm to people and nature. Furthermore, the cellulose shell prevents Abamectin from directly releasing to environment. Double insurance guarantees that the product is eco-friendly. Even more, a standard gene transfer prevention mechanism was utilized. The biobrick is freely gained from Parts registry.

P: That sounds legendary! I’ll hold the worldwide press conference as soon as possible!

Section 3: (on the press conference)

P: My fellow citizens, I stand here today humbled by task before us, the termite disaster. Thank God! Now ZJU-CHINA iGEM 2015 has created one such technique to curb the spread of these insect pests. Termite, known for its damage to buildings and other wooden structures, now comes its flourishing age. No valid modes have been found to automatically, efficiently and specifically kill this universal insect. But today, the task can be perfectly solved by TERMITES’ TERMINATOR!

That is how the Terminator to save the world. And, it is just a beginning…

Section 4:

Aiming at controlling and eliminating pests, ZJU-China’s TERMITES’ TERMINATOR uses modified bacterium to produce insecticide. In order to attract termites successfully, deliver the packed and carried by chemical agents. This novel way of insecticide delivery create an eco-friendly model to eliminate pests and can be directly applied to other pest control projects.

As our purpose is to control termites which do great harm to people’ houses, we can bring the result of the project into production. The business outlook is considerably broad because our project is environmentally friendly and closely associated with people’s daily life. Those who have suffered from termite invasion might accept the product easily for the dramatic insecticidal effect and non-ecological influence.

We take advantage of synthetic biology to improve the drug production, cut the industrial cost of the drug and even save the purification process, which will make it more convenient for utilization of the drugs. We offer not only a whole system for killing pests, but also a referable model that uses nano size chemicals to pack bacteria for biomedicine, food manufacturing and cosmetic industry.

Will the Termite Terminator finally win the war? For the ending, please focus on IGEM 2015 Jamboree! Thanks for your listening of tonight’s story. See you next time!

Gene machine and engineering are changing our life in a significant and better way. However, these modified things, from the subtle to the gigantic, can never hide their abruptness and artificiality in front of our mother nature.

We also pursue to accomplish a project, which in the contrast comes from the nature and may finally go back admirably and peacefully, becoming a part of the nature. Just like that the artificial heart or prosthetic devices, being a part of the flesh and blood fused in the body, are unceasingly driving and propelling the entirety, the idea “from nature, for nature” is somehow lying in this way.