Team:Tel-Hai/Integrated Practice

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iGEM Tel-Hai 2016

Integrated Human Practices

We took part in multiple different projects throughout the last few months, and throughout them all, we maintained close contact with the Israeli CF Foundation, who founded and operates 6 multi-disciplinary CF clinics located in hospitals throughout Israel.

Education

• European Researchers’ Night
• Lecture at the Pub
• Youth Excellence Program
• Open Days at the Tel-Hai College

Special Encounters

• Israel’s Minister of Education, Naftali Bennet.
• Israel’s Minister of Finance, Moshe Kahlon.
• Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Dan Shechtman
• Prof. Batsheva Kerem
• Meeting with the CEO of the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
• Meeting With the CF Patient Behind the Disease
• Meeting with MK Zehava Gal-On
• Meeting with MK Yael Cohen-Paran
• Meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Prof. Jacob Vaya, Tel-Hai College

Activities

• Volunteering at the Child Health Center at Ziv hospital, Safed.
• Arranging a Soccer Game Dedicated to the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
• Fundraising for the CFF

A statewide Campaign

• 65 Roses
• 5 Nobel Laureates Participating in Our Campaign
• Collaboration With Other iGEM teams in our Campaign

Bioethics

• Prof. Asa Kasher
• Prof. Hanoch Slor
• Dr. Efrat Ram-Tiktin

Media

• National Union of Israeli Students
• Interview about Our iGEM Team and our 65 Roses Campaign
• T.V Show “Outside of the Bubble”
• Meidaon-8
• Times of Israel

A statewide Campaign

65 Roses - #SixtyFiveRoses

Probably the largest project we undertook over these past few months has been the 65 Roses campaign, which is the first ever made in Israel, that came in mind due to the fact the 2 CF clinics cannot stay open because they lack necessary funding for operation (around 1.2 million NIS). The story behind this project comes from a little boy, named Ricky Weiss, who in 1965 overheard his mother talking about the disease and earnestly endeavor to raise funds for research, and confused the name for 65 Roses. Ever since, the international symbol for the disease has been the red rose, and hence, we asked 65 famous personalities, including 5 Nobel Laurates, politicians, actors, singers, Olympic athletes and Science research figures from all over the world to help us, by taking photos of themselves holding a red rose in hand, and posting the photos on Facebook, instagram, and any other social media they could think of, including TV, with the aim of reaching a larger crowd and raising awareness for the disease and its strong impacts on the patients’ lives and their communities.

Other Igem teams as well partook in the project, and sent us group photographs with a rose in hand. We thank everyone for their time and generosity, and we wholeheartedly believe that with their support, we can help raise awareness and eventually, help the CF patients breathe.

The figures that participated in our campaign come from very eclectic backgrounds and from all different fields - ranging from Olympic athletes, art, politics to Nobel Prize Laureates.

5 Nobel Laureates Participating in Our Campaign

Prof. Ada Yonath
Nobel Laureate

Prof. Aaron Ciechanover
Nobel Laureate

Prof. Michael Levit
Nobel Laureate

Prof. Robert Aumann
Nobel Laureate

Prof. Dan Shechtman
Nobel Laureate

Education

European Researchers’ Night

We took part in the Researcher's night as well. Every year, throughout all of Israel and abroad, one night at the end of September is dedicated to promoting science amongst young Israelis. This year, our group organized the event in the Northern Galilee along with the MIGAL research center, where children from the ages 4-18 participated in activities at all different fields, ranging from ice cream made of liquid nitrogen, to extracting DNA from plants and much more in between. The beauty of physics, chemistry and biology were shown and performed in creative ways and there were shows and activities for people of all ages. In addition, there was collaboration with the iGEM groups from the Technion institute and Danciger high-school likewise, and we were thrilled that they joined us at this exciting event, of which more than 3000 curious children and adult participated at this event.

Lecture at the Pub

From the researcher’s night, we continued and aimed to reach even a larger crowd and planned an event which Prof. Rachel Amir from the MIGAL institute came to lecture to people about the stereotypes regarding genetic engineering, what it means today and how it affects our lives. The heated subject was discussed in a homey, comfortable environment and the benefits and fears were beautifully addressed.

Youth Excellence Program

We see it as a privilege to teach and expose teens from Kiryat Shmona to the fields of Biotechnology, entrepreneurship and iGEM. Hence, we met with the youth excellence program group of the Tel-Hai College, and exposed them to the new and fascinating world of synthetic biotechnology.

Open Day at the Tel-Hai College

While applicants came to our college, we explained to applicants interested in the fields of science about the idea of iGEM and synthetic biology and what they can do in the nearby future to be part of it. Likewise, we raised awareness to the CF disease, about our collaboration with the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and our statewide campaign.

Special Encounters

Israel’s Minister of Education, Naftali Bennet

We had the pleasure of exposing our project and the world of synthetic biology to the Minister of Education.

Israel’s Minister of Finance, Moshe Kahlon

We had the pleasure of exposing our project and the world of synthetic biology to the Minister of Finance.

Meeting with the MK Yael Cohen-Paran

We had the genuine pleasure of meeting and sharing our project with the Member of the Knesset Yael Cohen-Paran, an Israeli environmentalist and politician, and co-chair of the Green Movement. She is currently a member of the Knesset for the Zionist Union.

Meeting with MK Zehava Gal-on

We Met MK Zehava Gal-On, an Israeli politician and a member of Knesset for Meretz, known for her liberal and pluralist views.

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Dan Shechtman

The fascinating and inspiring story of Prof. Dan Shechtman motivates us every time. We had the pleasure of meeting him face-to-face and interviewing him about his life and what it takes to be a good scientist. Prof. Shechtman was called a quasi-scientist, meaning someone who pretends to be a scientist by one of the most important chemists at that time, Laureate Prof.Paulin. Nevertheless, Prof. Shechtman continued with his research and proved his hypothesis. He told us: Find a topic that you like, and do all you can to be the best at this field of expertise, because when you do things you love, you will succeed as a scientist.

Prof. Batsheva Kerem

We had the genuine honor of meeting Prof. Batsheva Kerem, a member of the Department of Genetics at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has played a pioneering role in the discovery and characterization of the gene responsible for Cystic Fibrosis and in the development of screening methods to prevent the disease. Likewise, we learned so much from her experience as a scientist and what it takes to be one.

Meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Prof. Jacob Vaya, Tel-Hai College

We presented our project at different stages to the Dean of our Faculty of Sciences in order to enrich our knowledge regarding lab work, and in order to learn about his experiences regarding managing projects similar to ours.

Meeting with the CEO of the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

We took part in different projects simultaneously since we began with our project and throughout the whole time, we maintained close contact with the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, who founded and operates six multi-disciplinary CF clinics located in hospitals throughout Israel. Due to the fact that the Israeli CFF operates and funds all the CF clinics in Israel by itself and it lack the necessary funding for operating those clinics, we saw it as a moral obligation to help them help the CF patients breathe and we are proud of our fantastic collaboration with the Israeli CFF. We already have plans for future collaborations with them as well.

Meeting with the CF Patient Behind the Disease.

On paper, we have learned tremendous amounts about the disease: mechanism, statistics, treatments and so on, but behind all that, there is a person suffering and dealing with the disease on a daily basis. Hence, we organized an encounter with a CF patient that is a student just like us, in order to understand what science has not yet accomplished, in order to ease life with CF.

Activities

Volunteering at the Child Health Center and the Pediatric ER at Ziv hospital, Safed.

There is nothing more beautiful than smiling and making others smile, especially when they are in distress, and one of our team members is a medical clown. We visited at the Child Health Center and the Pediatric ER, wishing to make the children happy, even if only for a moment. Some spoke Arabic, some Hebrew and all smiled widely when they saw the balloon animals that awaited them.

Arranging a Soccer Game Dedicated to the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

With collaboration with Hapoel Robi Shapira Haifa, we organized a soccer game dedicated to raising awareness for Cystic Fibrosis, for the CF patients and for the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It was a moving event, as a 6-year-old CF patient kicked the kick-off ball of the game, after his father gave a speech to the audience regarding the disease and the reason why their support is so important. Afterwards, after 65 minutes from the start of the game, we gave 100 red roses to the audience to raise up. Moreover, the soccer team members came to the soccer field dressed with the Israeli CF Foundation cloths, that we sold to the audience, and other awareness products on behalf of the CF Foundation. All of the money raised went directly to the CF Foundation. The iGEM idea was also spread outside of the stadium before and after the game.

Fundraising for the CFF

The first project we did, was selling awareness products on behalf of the Israeli CF foundation (from bracelets to desk decorations) to students and applicants that came to apply for the upcoming academic year. All of the money raised went directly to the Israeli CF Foundation, to fund medical care for the CF patients in Israel with the disease. We continued selling these products at different events as well.

Bioethics

“Science cannot stop while ethics catches up, and nobody should expect scientists to do all the thinking for the country.” (Max Born) Since our project is about gene editing, we realize how important it is to interview and ask the hard ethical questions regarding our novel project. Therefore, we met and interviewed some of the most prominent bioethicists in Israel.

Prof. Asa Kasher

An Israeli world-renowned philosopher, bioethicist and linguist, working as a professor at Tel Aviv University, and at Shalem College.

Prof. Hanoch Slor

Bioethicist

Prof. emeritus Hanoch Slor, from the Human Molecular Genetics department at Tel Aviv University. Worked as a Cancer and the XP disease researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who likewise founded the department of Biotechnology at Tel-Hai College, and currently works on multiple scientific projects as the chief scientist, and a lecturer on bioethics.

Dr. Efrat Ram-Tiktin

Bioethicist

A bioethicist consultant and a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary department at Bar-Ilan University, specializing in distributive justice in health care.

To read more about ethics - click here

Media

Walla News

National Union of Israeli Students

The National Union of Israeli Student published our “65 Roses” campaign, our team, project and the iGEM competition.

Interview about Our iGEM Team and our 65 Roses Campaign

A well-known website dedicated to exposing the academic fields to applicants and students in Israel interviewed us regarding the story behind the campaign, our iGEM team and our project and of course, synthetic biology.

T.V Show “Outside of the Bubble”

This show gives the genuine opportunity for the People of the Periphery to talk and share their problems caused by the lack of funding and facilities to those areas.

One of our team members was interviewed, and asked about genetic engineering, the iGEM competition and our team.

Interview in Meida-8

We were interviewed by a local newspaper and questioned about the iGEM competition, our project and the field of synthetic biology.

Times of Israel Blog

We wrote a blog about our campaign, in a well-known online newspaper, published in English, Arabic, French, Chinese, and Persian which covers "developments in Israel , the Middle Ease and around the Jewish world".