Difference between revisions of "Team:Cardiff Wales/HP/Silver"
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During a casual conversation with a retired social worker about our project, she raised some concerns about home testing kits for STIs, particularly HIV. This developed into a formal interview, in which she delved into the dangers of people burying their results, spreading infections, not receiving the support they need, and the potentially unmonitored effects on suicide rates.</p> | During a casual conversation with a retired social worker about our project, she raised some concerns about home testing kits for STIs, particularly HIV. This developed into a formal interview, in which she delved into the dangers of people burying their results, spreading infections, not receiving the support they need, and the potentially unmonitored effects on suicide rates.</p> | ||
| − | <p>This discussion led me to further investigate the issues raised by home testing kits for STIs, especially HIV, for which a self testing kit was approved in the UK in April 2014. BioSure is the only company that is legally allowed to sell HIV home testing kits in the UK. I wanted to learn what the general advantages and disadavantages were, how they had been taken into account to result in such a legislation, and the general public awareness of and attitudes towards various issues raised by a self testing kit. | + | <p>This discussion led me to further investigate the issues raised by home testing kits for STIs, especially HIV, for which a self testing kit was approved in the UK in April 2014. BioSure is the only company that is legally allowed to sell HIV home testing kits in the UK. I wanted to learn what the general advantages and disadavantages were, how they had been taken into account to result in such a legislation, and the general public awareness of and attitudes towards various issues raised by a self testing kit. |
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<li>We consulted the (take it from my HP summary) | <li>We consulted the (take it from my HP summary) | ||
</ul> | </ul> | ||
| + | </p> | ||
<p>At the Science Cafe talk, I distributed my survey to gather the opinion of the audience, the vast majority of whom thought self-testing kits should be available for everyone, and were not concerned about people burying results. At the end of the second half of the presentation, after having gathered the results in the break, I brought up the issues raised in our investigation on self-testing kits.</P> | <p>At the Science Cafe talk, I distributed my survey to gather the opinion of the audience, the vast majority of whom thought self-testing kits should be available for everyone, and were not concerned about people burying results. At the end of the second half of the presentation, after having gathered the results in the break, I brought up the issues raised in our investigation on self-testing kits.</P> | ||
Revision as of 01:45, 20 October 2016
Human Practices - SILVER
Initial meetings
From initial group meetings, we seemed headed towards a Chlamydia home testing kit. After some discussions with our PIs, we decided that this was too specific, and branched it out to cover STIs in geneal. Since we had a luciferase specialist with access to thermostable luciferase as our secondary PI, Dr Amit Jathoul, we decided to focus on luciferase as our fluorescent marker for our biosensor. We then incorporated this into the basis of a CRISPR/cas9 based diagnostic kit.
Initial advice on reducing false positives, and final product design
We approached Dr Patricke Hardinge for initial advice before designing our project, as he is a researcher working on a diagnostic that also uses luciferase, and depends on a light reaction, but is currently in the market (Lumora).
He emphasised two points:
We applied his advice on improving the fidelity of our diagnostic when designing our guide RNAs.
Biological Safety Advisor- GM regulations and 'containment use'
After being denied the ability to take out GM plates for a demonstration at Techniquest, as they are not based in a GM registered building, we decided to interview Rachel Coombe, the Biological Safety Advisor at Cardiff School of Biosciences on GM regulations related to her work. She explained GM regulations set by the HSE, and terms like 'contained use', 'safe', and 'deliberate release', as well as the involvement of the regulatory bodies, which she suggested we investigate further for more specific advice related to our project. She also specified that cell-free systems are preferred from a GM regulatory viewpoint because they are simpler to license.
Further advice from MHRA, and wider social implications
After implementing this, we decided to investigate the importance of regulations and safety in diagnostic tests by asking the MHRA some questions about their importance in regulations. We decided to further explore the importance of reducing false positives: this was done by consulting MHRA on the regulatory process and by looking deeper at the human impact of testing 'positive' for a disease by consulting a retired HIV specialist social worker. This eventually led to our investigation into self-testing kits.
Investigation into home testing kits for HIV
During a casual conversation with a retired social worker about our project, she raised some concerns about home testing kits for STIs, particularly HIV. This developed into a formal interview, in which she delved into the dangers of people burying their results, spreading infections, not receiving the support they need, and the potentially unmonitored effects on suicide rates.
This discussion led me to further investigate the issues raised by home testing kits for STIs, especially HIV, for which a self testing kit was approved in the UK in April 2014. BioSure is the only company that is legally allowed to sell HIV home testing kits in the UK. I wanted to learn what the general advantages and disadavantages were, how they had been taken into account to result in such a legislation, and the general public awareness of and attitudes towards various issues raised by a self testing kit.
- We conducted a survey to get the opinion of the general public.
- We asked the MHRA some questions about the regulatory process
- We consulted the (take it from my HP summary)
At the Science Cafe talk, I distributed my survey to gather the opinion of the audience, the vast majority of whom thought self-testing kits should be available for everyone, and were not concerned about people burying results. At the end of the second half of the presentation, after having gathered the results in the break, I brought up the issues raised in our investigation on self-testing kits.
