Interview | 源于课堂的想法，在省赛生根发芽

蛋白质短缺，是目前国内外都面临的一个困境。现存的常规蛋白质摄入途径，不足以应对未来可能出现爆发式增长的人口数量。同时，昆虫具有营养价值高、繁殖速度快、生产成本低、适于工业化生产等多种优点，是蛋白质的绝佳来源。但却因为大部分消费者对食用昆虫的天然恐惧，无法大规模推广。

团队负责人，2017级学生曾育颖和张浩铭在生物技术创业课上，敏锐地发现了这一痛点。并在授课教授Harold Corke的帮助下，逐步完善了这一想法。他们认为，如果能够利用自己生物技术与食品工程的专业背景，将昆虫蛋白质提取出来，与对应行业，如保健品、食品、甚至药品进行对接，将昆虫蛋白直接添加到对应产品里，消费者因为昆虫外形而产生的抵触心理便能迎刃而解。这一做法，能将昆虫的营养价值和商业价值最大化的体现出来，项目的雏形也因此敲定。

虽然定下了大致框架，但面对世界上3000余种可食用昆虫，应该如何进行选择成为困扰他们的难题。在综合考虑了昆虫的习性、蛋白质含量等因素后，他们决定将蛋白质占比高达70%的蝗虫定为项目的蛋白质来源。

目前市面上，昆虫蛋白质提取主要依靠的是碱法和盐法，但这些方法会产生丙氨酸等有毒物质，对环境造成严重的污染。且这两种方法对反应设备的要求较高，不利于进行工业化生产。

在查阅相关资料并请教专业教授后，团队决定采用超临界流体二氧化碳萃取技术，用二氧化碳代替传统的有机试剂进行萃取。利用这种技术，萃取过后的物质不含化学试剂，百分百纯天然，萃取效率更高，成本更低，安全性也更好。

随着项目的逐步推进，2018级的黄宸维同学也被项目的巨大前景所吸引，小团队逐步壮大起来。虽然三人都来自同一专业，但每个人都拥有不同的知识结构、经验阅历和个性特征，团队合作还是难免产生“小摩擦”。

谈及如何应对这一问题，他们提到最多的一个词是“沟通”。对他们而言，这种“摩擦”，反而是团队进步的推动力，通过有效的沟通和真诚的交流，实现集思广益，发挥出每位队员的长处，推动项目向更好的方向发展。

项目指导老师Harold Corke教授利用自身的实践经历给予了团队很大的帮助。在项目定价阶段，他敏锐地发现了蝗虫蛋白质的定价偏低，难以实现项目的收支平衡。为了解决这一问题，他指导团队进行成本核算，重新定价，为项目未来的商业化奠定了良好的基础。项目负责人曾育颖的导师Yigal Achmon教授也无私地向团队分享了自己课题组参加“广东高校科研成果商业化路演大赛“的相关经验。

除了本专业的教授，化学工程系副主任孔博助理教授也给予了项目很多指导。“孔博老师不仅为PPT的修改和比赛的注意细节提出了很多独到的见解，还从自身的专业背景出发，站在一个全新的角度，在原料的制备等方面给予了我们很多相关知识。”曾育颖在接受采访时称。除此之外，学校研究创新与产学研办公室经理黄增煜博士在项目展示及演讲技巧方面也向他们传授了自己的独到技巧。在这些老师们的协助之下，团队成员对蛋白质全球短缺困境及国外相关行业的发展现状有了更加深入的了解。

大赛赛程长，比赛场次多，临近毕业本就学业繁忙的两位团队负责人牺牲自己的休息时间，利用周末和假期准备比赛，不断往返于赛场与学校之间。正是团队成员们的通力协作，促成了项目在高手云集的大赛中披荆斩棘、历经层层选拔，最终获奖。

“在比赛期间，我们接触到了不同领域中很多优秀的人和优秀的项目。对农业食品的看法也从学生的视角开始跳转，更全面地看待行业现状。”谈及大赛的收获，团队负责人曾育颖总结道。作为一个稚嫩的学生团队，无数场比赛的压力促进了他们快速的成长。

从一个简单的想法，到一个可供实现的商业项目，这其中包含着各方面的共同努力，而团队成员们也在这个过程中，精进自己的专业能力、表现能力和组织协调能力，彼此间的友谊，也因为这场比赛变得更加紧密。

谈及项目未来的发展，他们表示，项目有极大的商业化价值及落地的可能性。虽然这个领域，在国内市场还处于起步阶段，但在国外市场已经展现出良好的发展前景，在法国及以色列都有成功的案例，提取出的蛋白质在动物饲料及食品领域都有不错的表现。

并且，除了商业价值外，这个项目也有助于乡村振兴的实现。中国农村拥有非常丰富的昆虫资源，如果将这一产业在农村地区进行推广，可以带动乡村人口就业，拉动农村经济快速发展。

但曾育颖也坦言，项目的启动资金较高，且规模较大，以团队目前的能力还无法驾驭，但团队从未放弃过这个项目。目前，团队两位负责人正在攻读硕士学位，他们将继续向这个方向努力，提高自己在技术方面的能力，为项目争取更美好的未来。

Students Team Leaders

The shortage of protein resource has been a global issue. The conventional protein intake ways are not enough to cope with the explosive growth of the population in the future. At the same time, insects have many advantages, such as high nutritional value, fast reproduction speed, low production cost, and are suitable for industrial production. They are an excellent source of protein. However, most consumers have a natural fear of eating them, so the insects are hard to be promoted.

The team leaders, Zeng Yuying and Zhang Haoming from Class 2017, were keenly aware of this pain point through the biotechnology entrepreneurship class. With the help of Professor Harold Corke, they improved this thought. They believed that if they could use their professional background in biotechnology and food engineering to extract insect protein, collaborate with corresponding industries, such as health products, food, and even pharmaceuticals, and add insect protein directly to the products, the resistance caused by the appearance of the insect can be easily solved. This approach can maximize the nutritional and commercial value of insects; therefore, the prototype of the project has been decided.

Although a general framework has been set, there are more than 3000 edible insects in the world. Then, how to choose the insects has become a difficult problem for them. After comprehensively considering factors such as the insects’ habits and protein content, they decided to choose locusts, which have up to 70% of protein, as the protein source for the project.

Currently, insect protein extraction mainly relies on alkaline and salt methods, but these will produce toxic substances such as alanine and cause serious environmental problem. Moreover, these two methods have high requirements for the reaction equipment, which is not conducive to industrial production.

After consulting relevant information and asking professors, they decided to use the supercritical fluid carbon dioxide extraction technology, using carbon dioxide instead of traditional organic reagents for extraction. By using this technology, the extracted material does not contain chemical reagents. The extraction efficiency is higher, the cost is lower, and the process is safer.

As the project proceeded, Huang Chenwei from Class 2018 was also attracted by the huge prospects of the project. Although they are from the same major, each of them has different knowledge structure, experiences and personal characteristics. Thus, there were some inevitable  "small conflicts" in teamwork.

When it comes to how to deal with this problem, the word they mentioned the most is "communication". This kind of "conflict" is the driving force of team progress. Through effective and sincere communications, each team member's strengths can be discovered and used to promote the development of the project in a better direction.

The project instructor, Professor Harold Corke, used his own experience to help the team. During the pricing stage of the project, he keenly discovered that the price of locust protein was too low and it was difficult to achieve a balance between the project's revenue and expenditure. In order to solve this problem, he guided the team to conduct cost accounting and repricing, laying a good foundation for the future commercialization of the project. Professor Yigal Achmon, the tutor of  Zeng Yuying, also selflessly shared his experience of participating in the "Guangdong University Scientific Research Achievement Commercialization Roadshow Competition".

In addition to the guidance from the professors of their major, Assistant Professor Kong Bo, the deputy head of Chemical and Engineering Program, also gave great help to the team. "Prof. Kong Bo not only put forward a lot of unique insights of the PPT contents and the details of the competition, but also gave us a lot of relevant knowledge in the preparation of raw materials in a brand new perspective based on his own professional background," Zeng Yuying said. And Dr. Victor Huang, Research Innovation and Gradute Studies, also helped them with presentation skills. With the assistance of these teachers, the team gained a deeper understanding of the global shortage of protein resource and the development status of related industries overseas.

The two team leaders who were busy with their graduation projects sacrificed their rest time and used weekends and holidays to prepare for the competition. The concerted efforts of the team members helped the project to overcome obstacles in the competition and after the strict selections, the project was finally awarded.

"During the competition, we met many outstanding people and projects in different fields. Our views on agriculture and food began to jump from the perspective of students to professional, and this helped us to see the industry more comprehensively," talking about the reward of the competition, Zeng Yuying concluded. As a young student team, the pressure of competitions promoted their growth.

During the five months, the team members stood on the stage again and again, recommended their projects to unfamiliar experts, and improve their project according to experts’ feedback. From a simple idea to a commercial project, it involves the joint efforts of all aspects. In this process, the team members improved their professional ability, performance ability, as well as their organization and coordination ability. The friendship between each other has become closer.

Talking about the future development of the project, the team members said that the project has great commercial value and the possibility of grounding. Although this field is still at an elementary stage in the domestic market, it has shown good potential in foreign markets. There have been successful cases in France and Israel and the extracted protein has a good performance in the animal feed and food fields.

Moreover, in addition to the commercial value, this project also contributes to the rural revitalization. China's rural areas have very rich insect resources. If this industry is promoted in these places, it can drive rural population employment and promote the rapid development of the rural economy.

However, Zeng Yuying also admitted that the project has a relatively high start-up capital and a large scale, which cannot be controlled by their current ability. But the they have never given up on this project. Currently, the two team leaders are studying for their master's degree, and they will continue to work for this direction, improve their technical capabilities, and seek for a better future for the project.