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Our integrated human practice embodies a journey of identifying social needs and challenges, devising appropriate solutions, engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders, and continuously refining our project in response to their insights and feedback. This transformative approach guides our project from a theoretical idea within the confines of the lab to a solution that is both effective for real-world issues and ethically sound.

To enhance the structure and clarity of our human activities, inspired by a previous INSA Lyon project, we used the onion method story-telling to observe all the environment's dimensions around an engineering tool and analyze the links and impacts between them. The entire frame work, depicted in layers, from inside to outside, are Engineering, Economics, Society/Politics, Imaginary, respectively, which are also essential elements of a complete iGEM project. This methodology enables us to gain a holistic and systemic understanding of the entire project, including the technical part, and also wider economic, social and imaginary framework.

Engineering

In addressing the core Engineering problems, we engaged in a series of human practices. These practices involved comprehending the issue, exploring the possible materials and biological pathways for the solution, constructing the synthetic system and validating the anticipated functions with further, iterative improvements. Surrounding the core is the Economy layer, which is the specific economic environment that our technical tool fits in. In this aspect, we researched companies involved in synthetic biology and current drugs for IBD, including their strengths and weakness, to get a comprehensive view of market viability. We also conceived a lot on commercial translation, managing to improve the aesthetic charm and also lower the expense of our product.

Society/Politics

Outside is the Society/politics layer, where we considered the social relationship and impact of our project. Specifically, for therapy development, we focused on clinical application, doctors’ opinions, patients’ experience, biosafety and ethical concerns.

Imaginary

The outmost layer is the Imaginary. It is about the motive that drives the people to opt for a specific type of product, economy, and policy. The decisions made by each society are influenced by their unique perspective on the world, which in turn molds their perception of the role of humans in the global ecosystem. The imaginary part runs through the whole project, from background research, concept design, to human activities, we always take this part into consideration, and it also comprises the unique feature of our project.

Conclusion

A significant number of people have participated in our process of engineering, economy, society/politics and imaginary. We can categorize them into four types: Expert, Entrepreneur, Partner, User.

Intriguingly, when we initially were brainstorming, we started from the imaginary and social need-the traditional culture of burning incense and its miraculous effects, and a call for long-term, non-invasive, patient-friendly drug administration. We designed our synthetic system based on our goal. And when we were implementing our project, going from engineering to economy, society/politics and imaginary, we kept reflecting on our engineering design and improving it through the information we collected, finally resulting in a product that integrated lab concept and social reality. Also, by deploying the onion method, we can have an organized view of how we integrated knowledge from different fields into our project, ensuring a true understanding of the project and its interaction with real world from a comprehensive perspective.

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