From interviews with cataracts patients, ophthalmologists, veterinarians, polls from residents in Taipei and our school community, we learned that cataracts are prevalent and have a huge impact on everyday life. Now we wanted to raise awareness through education. We started by informing teachers and students of various grade levels about the severity and causes of cataracts, and how our project could tackle these problems.

Then, in our community, we handed out pamphlets, taught people how cataracts form, and simulated a cataract experience by wearing goggles of varying cloudiness. Finally, we wanted to make a global impact. We joined the international BioBuilder Club community and connected with 23 other synthetic biology high school clubs to discuss our project and ideas. We held fundraising events to benefit people who have cataracts in underdeveloped nations. Below are a list of activities and programs that we did in outreach.

Kindergarten Science Experiments

We designed some easy experiments so that Kindergarten students could explore some common science concepts. The kids (and our team members) loved it! Some of the experiments included how to use the microscope, why light reflects through prisms, and how static electricity works.

7th Grade Introduction to Synthetic Biology

For 7th Graders we decided to introduce the concepts of synthetic biology, since they had just be introduced to DNA in their science classes. Aside from teaching a general idea of what synthetic biology is, we also introduced them to some basic laboratory techniques essential to synthetic biology. We made up scenarios and asked them to solve these problems using different combinations of standardized parts (promoter, RBS, different ORFs, etc.). They also learned how to use micropipettes and run a gel!

International baccalaureate 11th grade

We presented our project to 11th grade IB students. Since they were learning about genetic engineering concepts, we gave a presentation on the details of our project to gain feedback.

This is a photo of a lower school student at our booth, playing our interactive game and learning about what it is like to have cataracts.

During Spring Fair we conducted a survey to gather public opinion and designed an interactive game to raise awareness of cataracts. In the survey we asked questions regarding people’s opinions on genetically modified organisms, cataract surgery, and our project. For the game we taped parafilm onto lab goggles and asked people who came to our booth to play the “piano tiles” app with those goggles on, and thus experiencing a real life simulation of the effects of cataracts on vision.

Club

The iGEM Club was established 3 years ago, and the purpose of is to raise awareness of synthetic biology in the TAS community. Club activities allow underclassmen to experience iGEM-related activities and develop potential team members.

Taipei Cataract Awareness Day

Our team went on an excursion to five different landmarks in Taipei and passed out flyers containing information on cataracts to the general public. We explained the formation of cataracts and the basic concepts of our project to local crowds and asked them to fill out our survey to get a wider sample size.

Collaborations with Other iGEM Teams

We collaborated with two iGEM teams, National Yang Ming University (NYMU) and American School in Japan (ASIJ). We mentored the ASIJ-Tokyo high school iGEM team, which is a new High school iGEM team this year. We taught them how to start and structure a new team, what lab and online resources to use for experiments, and how to set up a lab notebook. In return, they helped us test our nanoparticle calculator by running simulations from the standpoint of a patient, doctor, and manufacturer.

We also continued our long standing partnership with National Yang Ming University (NYMU_Taipei). Three students from our team have been interning on the NYMU-Taipei team (they are members to both teams) to learn about synthetic biology and some basic lab techniques. Two of these students will be presenting for the NYMU_Taipei team presentation. NYMU-Taipei also hosted a summer camp for our team members, where they taught us about different aspects of iGEM. In return, we helped them increase the efficiency of their model using equations from their literature research and ran simulations using their experimental data. Finally, they also gave tremendous advice on troubleshooting our cloning procedure during the summer months when we ran the majority of our wet lab experiments. We really value the relationship we have with NYMU and look forward to more collaborations in the future.

These collaborations not only created opportunities for us to help each other with problems, but also allowed us to exchange ideas and stimulate creativity. It is also fun to share stories about lab work, successes, and even failures.

Global Engagement

Biobuilder

23 high school teams from around the world joined the BioBuilder Club, which is run by the BioBuilder Educational Foundation. This club held online meetings once a month so the teams could brainstorm synthetic biology project topics, project design, and collectively troubleshoot problems encountered by each team. The club held a final assembly in Boston at Lab Central, and we were excited to present our poster in absentia from Taipei.

Fundraising

Lastly, we wanted to make a real impact in people’s lives who were experiencing cataracts. Despite our project’s goal of delivering cataract relief non-invasively, we realize that surgery is currently the most effective way to eliminate cataracts. So, we held fundraisers (in the form of bake sales and club fairs) in order to donate to those who don’t have funds or access to surgery. We raised enough money for 14 surgeries through the Himalayan Cataract Project, which serves underprivileged cataract patients.