# From Biological Gene to Functional Gene: Revolutionizing Product Innovation Design
## 4 Research on the Application of Functional Gene
### Application of Functional Genes  
Functional genes are widely used in product design and can effectively improve the efficiency of knowledge reuse in the design process. Combining with gene manipulation techniques such as biological gene recombination can help generate innovative and high-quality solutions.  
The efficiency of new product design plays a crucial role in the survival of enterprises [91,92]. The application of functional genes in product design can overcome the difficulties of knowledge reuse and improve product design efficiency. [PERSON] et al. [21] proposed a product innovation process model based on functional gene extraction and construction. They used a functional similarity algorithm to retrieve product functional  
Figure 6: (**a**) Functional gene chain structure; (**b**) Functional gene network structure.  
genes, spliced them together using flow relations, and transcribed and translated them to obtain design solutions. [PERSON] [83] believed that constructing a method for selecting and transcribing functional genes can clarify relevant information during the design stage, reduce blindness in the design process, shorten the product design cycle, and improve the efficiency of product design. This was validated through the design of a shared bicycle parking device, as shown in Figure 7a. [PERSON] et al. [43] took the design of a sports water bottle as an example and standardized the functional, principle, and structural information in a design resource database. By searching for similar designs in the resource database to recombine functions, they improved the efficiency of customized product design, and achieved rapid development of customized products, as shown in Figure 7b.  
Product innovation helps companies quickly occupy technological high ground [93; 94]. Combined with gene recombination technology based on functional genes, a wider range of problem-solving approaches have been developed [95]. [PERSON] et al. [96] introduced the concept of product function hybridization and used TRIZ tools to solve the problems encountered in the hybridization process. They verified the feasibility of the model by using a new type of tree-planting machine, as shown in Figure 7c. Applying hybrid design theory to product design from the perspective of function is conducive to accelerating the integration of enterprise product resources and improving market competitiveness [97]. [PERSON] [84] used physical description gene reasoning to construct a product technology system and combined it with biological gene variation to carry out variant designs of products, taking the home-use Chinese medicine cooking machine as an example. Compared with traditional variant design, introducing the gene thinking approach demonstrated greater systematic and improved product innovation level, as shown in Figure 7d. [PERSON] et al. [50] took the unmanned planetary exploration vehicle in the aerospace field as an example, and copied, broke, crossed, and connected the genes through recombination to expand the gene set. They then evaluated and selected multiple design solutions transcribed and translated from these genes, showing that gene crossbreeding increases product innovation.  
In summary, the application of functional genes mainly focuses on two aspects. Firstly, by using existing functional genes to construct a complete functional gene set, and then transcribing and expressing them to obtain design solutions to improve product design efficiency. Secondly, by using cross-domain design knowledge and gene manipulation techniques such as gene cutting and recombination, the diversity of functional gene information can be expanded to enhance product design innovation.  
Figure 7: Examples of functional gene applications. In the figure: (**a**) is a shared bike parking device; (**b**) is a sports water bottle; (**c**) is a new tree planting machine; (**d**) is a Chinese medicine cooking machine.