Difference between revisions of "Team:Slovenia/Integrated Practices"
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myId.innerHTML = '<h4>Patients</h4><p>Above all, we wanted to talk to the final users of our project, the patients who could potentially be using it in the future. Since they will be the ones to actually live with it every day, their opinion is paramount as the negative attitude of the end users towards medical application of synthetic biology would make the efforts to develop applications vain. \ | myId.innerHTML = '<h4>Patients</h4><p>Above all, we wanted to talk to the final users of our project, the patients who could potentially be using it in the future. Since they will be the ones to actually live with it every day, their opinion is paramount as the negative attitude of the end users towards medical application of synthetic biology would make the efforts to develop applications vain. \ | ||
According to the WHO, the number of diabetics has risen to 422 million by 2014. While we might not realize in everyday lives, diabetics are our friends, our grandparents, our uncles, our doctors, our postmen, our clerks, our hairdressers… As persons who do not suffer from a chronic disease, we cannot completely ourselves from our privileged position, as being a part of the community requires the experience of the life and hardship the members face. But we wanted to be allies to this community. Allyship is about being a humble guest in somebody else’s struggle, listening and learning from it, and doing what you can to help. For this reason we decided to get to know people living with diabetes and learn what we could from them, at the same time introducing our research efforts, not as a device that will at once end all their difficulties, but as a small beacon of hope. In the name of medical information confidentiality we omitted naming them or showing their pictures. \ | According to the WHO, the number of diabetics has risen to 422 million by 2014. While we might not realize in everyday lives, diabetics are our friends, our grandparents, our uncles, our doctors, our postmen, our clerks, our hairdressers… As persons who do not suffer from a chronic disease, we cannot completely ourselves from our privileged position, as being a part of the community requires the experience of the life and hardship the members face. But we wanted to be allies to this community. Allyship is about being a humble guest in somebody else’s struggle, listening and learning from it, and doing what you can to help. For this reason we decided to get to know people living with diabetes and learn what we could from them, at the same time introducing our research efforts, not as a device that will at once end all their difficulties, but as a small beacon of hope. In the name of medical information confidentiality we omitted naming them or showing their pictures. \ | ||
| − | Having lived with a chronic disease for most of their lives, the patients were perfectly willing to try another method that could help. More than anything they were excited over the possibility of not having to prick themselves with a needle several times a day. While we mostly presented the potential foundational advantages of the system and explained that arriving to the final working device might take years, they were kind enough to highlight some of their concerns connected to the system and suggestions we could integrate in the design. Understandably, they were mostly interested in safety and the way the device would be integrated into the body. They wanted to know in what ways their bodies would be protected from the modified cells and in how the cells in the device would be protected, as well as how we would make sure the system is not triggered randomly. While years from a possible final device, we paid attention and tried to find the solutions to their concerns. To separate the modified cells in the device from patient’s unaltered ones, we suggest microencapsulation of cells in alginate capsule, which do not trigger the immune system and were proven to work by many researchers in their publications and also by the 2012 Slovenian iGEM t[link]eam. In that project students already introduced several safety mechanisms, which still seem effective. To make sure the system is not induced randomly, by walking under a blue light at a party or being examined by ultrasound, we realized that we could use the logic operations | + | Having lived with a chronic disease for most of their lives, the patients were perfectly willing to try another method that could help. More than anything they were excited over the possibility of not having to prick themselves with a needle several times a day. While we mostly presented the potential foundational advantages of the system and explained that arriving to the final working device might take years, they were kind enough to highlight some of their concerns connected to the system and suggestions we could integrate in the design. Understandably, they were mostly interested in safety and the way the device would be integrated into the body. They wanted to know in what ways their bodies would be protected from the modified cells and in how the cells in the device would be protected, as well as how we would make sure the system is not triggered randomly. While years from a possible final device, we paid attention and tried to find the solutions to their concerns. To separate the modified cells in the device from patient’s unaltered ones, we suggest microencapsulation of cells in alginate capsule, which do not trigger the immune system and were proven to work by many researchers in their publications and also by the 2012 Slovenian iGEM t[link]eam. In that project students already introduced several safety mechanisms, which still seem effective. To make sure the system is not induced randomly, by walking under a blue light at a party or being examined by ultrasound, we realized that we could use the <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Slovenia/Protease_signaling/Logic">logic operations</a>, so two different inputs are needed for activation, which strongly decreases the possibility of an unwanted activation. Alternatively, one of the inputs can be used to recognize the correct type of cells or cell state and the other to recognize when it should be induced.</p>'; |
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<figcaption><b>Figure 1: One of our brainstorming meetings</b><br/></figcaption> \ | <figcaption><b>Figure 1: One of our brainstorming meetings</b><br/></figcaption> \ | ||
</figure> \ | </figure> \ | ||
| − | </div> <p>iGEMers, be it students or advisors, together with researchers, form the base of our star. iGEMers are the individuals who imagine a design and make it come to life; the ones who put in the theoretical and practical work and therefore best understand the outline of their specific project, it’s unique possibilities, requirements and limitations. iGEMers do not know everything there is to know about the field and themselves only one of the impactors on the idea of the project, but can know more and be inspired trough conversation and idea exchange with their colleagues, mentors and peers. With this in mind we decided to write down our ides and brainstorm very early in the project, after the first discussions with researchers who inspired us to work on our project | + | </div> <p>iGEMers, be it students or advisors, together with researchers, form the base of our star. iGEMers are the individuals who imagine a design and make it come to life; the ones who put in the theoretical and practical work and therefore best understand the outline of their specific project, it’s unique possibilities, requirements and limitations. iGEMers do not know everything there is to know about the field and themselves only one of the impactors on the idea of the project, but can know more and be inspired trough conversation and idea exchange with their colleagues, mentors and peers. With this in mind we decided to write down our ides and brainstorm very early in the project, after the first discussions with researchers who <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Slovenia/Notebook/Proposals">inspired us</a> to work on our project <a href = "#fig2">Figure 1</a>. </p> <p style = "clear:both;"></p>'; |
myId.data = "iGEMers"; | myId.data = "iGEMers"; | ||
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</div> \ | </div> \ | ||
<p>Researchers are scientist concerned with the basic idea of the project, with the possibility of execution of it, with the proof of the concept - in short, people who advise if the effort is even feasible/worth it. They do not need to necessarily be synthetic biologists as the teams are encouraged to search among other fields as well. Medical doctors, mechanical and electrical engineers, biologists, biotechnologists, (bio)chemists, computer scientists and many others have great and important ideas and considerations to contribute to the field. \ | <p>Researchers are scientist concerned with the basic idea of the project, with the possibility of execution of it, with the proof of the concept - in short, people who advise if the effort is even feasible/worth it. They do not need to necessarily be synthetic biologists as the teams are encouraged to search among other fields as well. Medical doctors, mechanical and electrical engineers, biologists, biotechnologists, (bio)chemists, computer scientists and many others have great and important ideas and considerations to contribute to the field. \ | ||
| − | With the aim of designing foundational technology that could be some day applied to treatment of disease such as the Parkinson’s disease and diabetes we searched for appropriate experts in the field. We consulted prof. dr. Marko Živin, MD who deals with damage, plasticity and regeneration of nerves and muscles and his junior researcher, Kaja Kolmarič. They were extremely receptive to our idea of threating neurological disease with release of therapeutic protein from patient’s own cells, but suggested that optogenetic approach might be too invasive for an organ as sensitive and crucial as the brain, while chemical inducers of dimerization might have many side effects. It was their own research with ultrasound that inspired us and led to a shift in the emphasis of our project and resulted in ultrasound stimulation (US) becoming the focus of it. After exposure to the ideas on the potential use of ultrasound, team members returned to the drawing board and each came up with a project idea mainly tailored to ultrasound stimulation but still incorporating our initial idea of fast response | + | With the aim of designing foundational technology that could be some day applied to treatment of disease such as the Parkinson’s disease and diabetes we searched for appropriate experts in the field. We consulted prof. dr. Marko Živin, MD who deals with damage, plasticity and regeneration of nerves and muscles and his junior researcher, Kaja Kolmarič. They were extremely receptive to our idea of threating neurological disease with release of therapeutic protein from patient’s own cells, but suggested that optogenetic approach might be too invasive for an organ as sensitive and crucial as the brain, while chemical inducers of dimerization might have many side effects. It was their own research with ultrasound that inspired us and led to a shift in the emphasis of our project and resulted in ultrasound stimulation (US) becoming the focus of it. After exposure to the ideas on the potential use of ultrasound, team members returned to the drawing board and each came up with a project idea mainly tailored to ultrasound stimulation but still incorporating our <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Slovenia/Notebook/Proposals">initial idea of fast response</a> <a href = "#fig3">Figure 1</a>. </p><p style = "clear:both;"></p> '; |
myId.data = "researches"; | myId.data = "researches"; | ||
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Revision as of 20:57, 18 October 2016
Integrated Practices
Various extraordinary synthetic biology projects can be depicted as boats and ships, seeking the safety of a harbor in the wide ocean, their main purpose finding the final destination.
No matter how different or fascinating the boat is, its main purpose is to safely arrive to the harbor. Before there were modern GPS systems, sailors had to rely on using natural events and signs. One of the main was the lodestar, the most shining star, which is always a good orientation point.
Similarly, many research projects can struggle no matter how fascinating they are. They might lose the feeling of reality and just travel for the sake of travel.
In order to give the right coordinates, which showed to be of high importance in our case, we developed a new symbol for future iGEM teams who might apply their projects to the medical field – community oriented lodestar. No matter if the team is competing in the foundational advance or medical application section, maximization of benefit to society should be the number one priority.
For content click on THE star
Consequently, if ever lost, teams should just find the shining star and orient in respect to it. By thorough discussions and careful implementation of ideas
provided by all the participants involved in dialogue, iGEM team should be able to present at the Giant Jamboree the most of the project –completely analyzed project
in real life. It’s not only the idea that influences the minds and thinking of individuals involved, but the relationship is reciprocal. The people involved have a great
deal of influence over the idea itself as well. The concept will be explained on our example. While we are competing in the foundational advance track we have considered
many possible medical applications of our project, particularly diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and hemorrhagic diseases, since medicine is the field of study of several
students and other students and mentors have a soft spot for this direction. .
