Team:Lethbridge HS/Integrated Practices
Interviews
"This year, a major aspect of our human practices were the interviews that were conducted by members of our team. We had the chance to interview Dr. Ed Pryzdial, who is a scientist from the Canadian Blood Services, Dr. Bruce Ritchie from the hematology department from the University of Alberta, as well as an expert from St. John’s Ambulance."
Canadian Blood Services
"We were able to get in touch with Dr. Ed Pryzdial, a scientist with Canadian Blood Services and the Associate Director for the Centre for Blood Research at the University of British Columbia. Aside from his work with Canadian Blood Services, some of his specializations are in coagulation and blood proteins. His knowledge would provide us with insight into any potential problems we might run into. We received comments about the design of our construct from him. He told us that using the whole fibrinogen molecule would result in issues when it is used in combination with the snake venom component due to the size differences between the two. This input lead us to find a small, four amino acid fibrin peptide chain to combat this problem. He also gave us comments about the safety of our system. He thought it might be interesting if we tried to engineer our protein, Cerastocytin, to turn it off. He thought that a solid matrix might be useful to prevent diffusion of the venom outside of the wound. Like Dr. Ritchie, he commented that creating a fusion protein with human and snake components might result in an immune response and the formation of antibodies. If antibodies did form, this would cause issues for repeat use of our product. This information made our team realize how our product could only be used on a one time basis. However in serious situations, our product would still be useful if it meant saving a life. Overall, Dr. Pryzdial’s comments gave us many things to consider in the design of our construct and any issues that we might have to troubleshoot. He believes that our project is an interesting exploration in the blood clotting area."
University of Alberta Hematology Department
"We gained valuable insight in the development of our project design from Dr. Bruce Ritchie at the University of Alberta. Dr. Ritchie focuses on Bleeding disorders and Thrombosis and has also synthesized “recombinant blood clotting proteins, both in E.coli, and in human tissue culture cells”, while completing his post-doctoral fellowship in Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia. He supports our proposal, especially since many other competing companies producing blood coagulants (Tisseel, Duraseal, FlowSeal) utilize components of human blood. Nonetheless, he also provided us with further suggestions to consider in our design. Specifically, he raised his concern that “the venom proteins are likely to be immunogenic [,] caus[ing] an antibody response that will be a problem for re-treatment”. However, antibodies usually take 10-14 days to form, meaning that, since our goal is to prevent excessive blood loss in an emergency situation, the formation of antibodies is not as problematic in the acute phase. His advice did however lead us to infer that our product could only be used once per person because of the high chance of an immunogenic response from the body. Although we had considered designing our blood coagulant in a bandage and/or gel form, Dr. Ritchie also suggested another application method that we could consider. This would take the form of a pre-filled syringe that could be used to apply the product to the wound when needed. This application method is already being used by Pfizer’s blood coagulant, Xyntha, which “is preloaded in a syringe as a dried powder and a liquid solvent (typically water) that mix when the plunger is pressed”. Using the knowledge he provided, we eventually decided on using a pre-filled syringe containing our construct followed by a bandage for sealing it in place. Additionally, Dr. Ritchie suggested that our product design should be easy to remove from its packaging and apply, in addition to stressing the importance of storing and applying our blood coagulant in a sterile fashion. Overall, Dr. Ritchie’s expertise in the hematology field proved to be very beneficial in aiding with the design of our blood coagulant."
