NUDT_CHINA’s Human Practice Tour

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MAP

(click figures to view details of our HP)

This year we expanded our project to Human Practice in three places: Hospital&Health Center, Market and the Public. In each expansion we held meaningful activities closely related to our topic, and this turned out to be a nice interaction between the project and the practice.

Arrows in the map show our practice work in two directions.

Forward Arrows:What the project contributed to the world---a new medical application for Hospitals&Health Centers, a potential handy, low-cost early cancer detection method in the market, and cancer knowledge spreading&surveys and publicity conducted to the public.

Backward Arrows:What we obtained from the world---we did consultation, sample collection and surveys in medical organizations, made a cost evaluation and market demands analysis in the market and got valuable feedback and suggestions from the public on the project.

As a conclusion, we expanded the project to the practice to better serve the world with our creation, and at the same time search for suggestions from the world that could enhance our project. With the interactions between our project and the world, we felt the iGEM work this year was a big issue that influenced not only us, team NUDT_CHINA, but also people around us.

SCHEDULE

:) Click boxes above to see our project & the practice.

This is a specific guide of our practice work this year, listed with the time they were conducted. With our project starting and ending, the HP went on.

PART I

COLLABORATIONS WITH HOSPITAL & HEALTH CENTER

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Considering the fact that our project this year had a close relationship with cancer, and the aim of our project was to create a novel clinical application---handy, low-cost blood-microRNA detetion system, we attached great importance to medical professionalism. Thus we turned to doctors from First Xiangya Hospital affiliated to CSU, Second Xiangya Hospital affiliated to CSU and Health Center of NUDT as our medical professional consultant in the whole process of the project.

Interviews with Doctors

1.Dr.Li Wenjin, Hematology Department, First Xiangya Affiliated Hospital of CSU

(1)Procedure of Current Cancer Detection

Dr.Li mentions the procedure of current cancer detection,including extracting DNA from blood cells, amplifying it with PCR and then getting its sequences.Detection varies from diseases and gene chip(detection for all genes) also could be applied with enough money.However, only some genes are of necessity to be detected for individuals.

(2)Gap Exists Between Clinical Application and Basic Research

There was distance between clinical application and basic research in early detection of cancer. For instance, some means of early cancer detection still had a long way to go before proved efficacious---commonly 5-10 years experimental validation phase is integral to clinical application.

(3)Stability of MiRNA in Blood is Doubted

Dr.Li shows her concern about the instability of miRNA when the topic is involved with miRNA and its potential application in early detection of cancer.However,she also mentions that as a clinical doctor,she doesn’t have much research time so that she is not expert in miRNA field.Meanwhile,Dr.Li says that they clinical doctors usually pay more attention on developed technology instead of the developing one and her knowledge about miRNA comes from papers.

(4)Efficiency of MiRNA Detection is Not Guaranteed

Dr.Li says that they clinician commonly assess the severity not only by the gene detection,but also by patients’ clinical symptoms,chromosome. The oncologists even need to do the Immunohistochemical checker and pathology section to make sure.So they suspect a bit about the efficiency of early cancer detection due to the lack of pathological symptoms and currently so-so specified biomarkers in patients’ early stage.

(5)Prospect of MiRNA Is Expected

Dr.Li hopes that the team of NUDT_CHINA would find a way to detect cancer, with much greater specificity and fewer side effects, so that more targeted medicine could be invented to kill cancer tumors. She also figures that early cancer detection could help people carried with household hereditary disease factors.Additionally, the index of miRNA could help alert people to pay more attention to their living habits and health condition as well.

2.Dr.Hou Tao, Oncology Department，Second Xiangya Affiliated Hospital of CSU

(1)Current situation of tumor biomarker test

We asked Dr.Hou about some details about current tumor biomarker test the hospital usuallly suggested patients to take. And this helped us learn more about the current situation of tumor biomarker test.

a.Biomarker tests in health exams

In a normal health exam, there is an optional choice of tumor biomarker test including tests for 12 biomarkers of most frequent cancers, which is called ‘set 12’ by doctors. Talking about taking the biomarker tests, Dr.Hou said that the popularity of biomarker tests was increasing in oncology department in hospitals in China. And with more people getting familiar with tumor biomarker test, it was gaining increasing attention, and a great number of healthy people requested tumor biomarker test in their health exams, especially the elder. Tumor biomarker tests are gaining increasing attention from the crowd.

b.Details of a normal biomarker test in health exams

Contents of ‘set 12’ biomarker test in a normal health exam:

Cost of the test for 12 biomarkers, or the ‘set 12’ is ￥500, including biomarkers of breast cancer, liver cancer and so on. Dr.Hou also told us that the validness of biomarkers was not so optimistic, thus could only work as a reference for diagnosis of cancers.