Team:BNDS China/Human Practices
I．The Summer Palace Interview
We interviewed the Junrong Min, the head of lacquerware repairing in the Palace Museum, and obtained more knowledge on raw lacquer and the severe hypersensitive draw our attention. By investigating the details of the hypersensitive reaction, we found that it is urushiol, one of the main components in raw lacquer, that binds with keratinocytes on human skin, which can be recognized by the immune system as the non-self-antigen. Due to the safety limits of iGEM competition, we were unable to utilize biological way to reduce the hypersensitive reaction. Therefore, by contacting our alumni in Peking University, we knew that adding oxalic acid to the urushiol might be a possible way to reduce the rate of reaction, as the hydroxide group that bind with keratinocytes are occupied by oxalic acid. Nevertheless, this method is hard to operate for us as secondary school students, hence we are not sure if oxalic acid will work in the reality, and we will work on to test this way in the future. < img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2019/6/60/T--BNDS_China--hp.jpeg" alt="pic" width="300" height="300">
II. The Xi’an Lacquer Research Institution
We communicated with Xi’an Lacquer research institution, one of the largest lacquer research institutions in China. We spoke with Mr. Li Dongxu, a researcher at the Institution. During the interview, Mr.Li introduced the fundamental components for manufacturing raw lacquer, which contains urushiol, laccase, water, and gummy substance. Urushiol is the substrate of oxidizing polymerization reaction carried via laccase, which form the rigid film on the surface of lacquerwares. Gummy substance, a mixture of collagen and xylan, provide extra strength for raw lacquer, while increasing the rate of film formation by form threads surround urushiol molecules. The information we acquired from Xi’an Lacquer research institution equipped us with necessary knowledge for further research and project design in the future.
III. The Capital Museum
We consulted experts in the Capital Museum about their attitudes toward the utilization of biosynthesized materials, especially raw lacquer, in cultural relics repairing. After the discussion, we realized their positive attitude and an open mind to newly developed materials if they are proved as non-invasive to cultural relics. However, the ensure of new materials always require ten or more years, that is hard for us to demonstrate. Receiving the advice from the experts, we determined not just apply our biosynthesized raw lacquer in the region of cultural relics repairing, but also in wider areas including the lacquering of furniture. This shift of focus influenced our design of experiment, that we did not fully copy the components in natural raw lacquer. We only synthesized urushiol and laccase via E. coli in our project that is easy to be industrialized. < img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2019/d/df/T--BNDS_China--hp12.jpeg" alt="pic" width="300" height="300">
IV. National library
In April 2019, the expert from the National Library Song Yue visited our team. Song showed us that due to the uninformed communication among the different institutions in ancient China, it was very difficult for conservators to figure the composition of a certain dying color in the ancient epoch, and the fixed chemical composition of a certain dying color was normally undocumented. However, she indicated that carmine as a documented red dye since Qing dynasty. The major component of carmine, carminic acid, is the most stable and has the most unique red color among all red dyes. Acknowledged with this information, we decided to design a combined project with lacquer to create an integrated program aims to produce red lacquer.
III. Visit undergraduate student
We noticed people’s worries about synthetic biology and the urushiol from the WeChat Official Account and other public engagement activities. To determine these problems, we went to Peking University and asked for their advice. The student for the Peking university solved the problem of hypersensitivity by suggesting that the oxalic acid could help to solve the problem, in which oxalic acid has the chemical property to react with the OH in the compound. As they mentioned, the oxalic acid could be treated as one of the methods to solve the problem of the hypersensitivity of the urushiol.