Team:Jilin China/Human Practices
INTEGRATE OUR
PRACTICES
Human Practices
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INTRODUCTION
With the initial interest of learning the relationship between RNA-structure and gene expression intensity under different temperatures, our project this year has participated in the basic research study. Actually, a laboratorial achievement should go through a long way to apply into various kinds of fields. There are many issues should be considered during the long-term scientific transformation process. After the tour of fermentation factory, we were aware of those considerations as well. A research of views about current investment and transformation situation in China guided our further HP activities. Ultimately, we took eyes into developing our collection as a Scientific Tool and create a Decade Work Flow.
SEE OUR JOURNEY
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1. TOUR TO INDUSTRY
From the beginning of our Human Practices, we would like to find some potential users. Because temperature is essential in industry, we took our eyes on temperature regulation in different fields of manufacture. We asked some of the teachers and relevant staff, and got a series of temperatures of many different types of products. Then we found out that our toolkit may fit to yogurt fermentation, so we went to Ground Diary for further research.
The technists there suggested us to focus on the intensity and sensitivity, not just temperature, while they were satisfied with temperature sensing range we set. Interestingly, they said that our thermosensors can help conserve energy and bring economic benefit if we can lower down the fermentation temperature.
Based on the suggestions, we improved our initial Toolkit to SynRT Toolkit 1.0.
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2. CURRENT SITUATION & PUBLIC VIEWS OF TRANSFORMATION
On the basis of our research in industry, we have realized that there are truly some problems in transformation these days.
To learn about technology transformation situations in data and public views, we read Statistical Yearbook of Science and Technology of China and Do A Questionnaire. After that, we made a research report to analyze and summarize the results.
In summary, we decided to turn our focus on finding medical output while visiting relevant institutions. Also, we need to have a better understanding of investment situations due to the results from Yearbook and Questionnaire.
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3. TOOLKIT DEVELOPMENT
Due to the results of our previous research, we decided to turn our focus on medicine output of our toolkit. After visiting Institute of Translational Medicine in Jilin University and Changchun BCHT Biotechnology Company, we knew that it could take a long time for a foundational project to apply into clinical research. Also, according to what Prof. Jiang in BCHT said, controlling low temperature in pharmacy is a essential factor, we decided to perfect our toolkit into a more stable and multi-functional tookit. Then Toolkit 2.0 and Toolkit 3.0 were born! As our potential users in current stage, some researchers joined in our toolkit evaluation. According to their suggestions, we designed an expression vector.
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4. MORE EXPLORATION
To complete our investigation, we put more efforts in exploring the current situations from more specific views. We asked the questions about transformation issues with Nobel Prize Winners, Hartmut Michel and Dan Shechtman, Dean of College of Life Sciences, Prof. Yu Xianghui and Mr Zhao Lu, CEO from TAIMEI TECH.
The Nobel Prize Winners focus more on the research itself while they believe that applications also should be considered when there’s a new discovery. For investment, Prof. Yu, she told us that the government is the largest department to give finical support to research, however, they refuse venture capital most of time. And Mr Zhao, as an entrepreneur, thinks that potential market value is the most important when a company choose to support a basic or applied research. Fortunately, Mr Zhao showed great interest in our project, so this year, he decided to be our sponsor this year hoping our SynRT Toolkit can realize potential value in medicine someday.
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5. DECADE WORKFLOW
As a foundational RNA-based temperature sensor toolkit, we have tried our best to find some potential users and relevant output. Our toolkit would be applied in some fields in the future potentially. However, there are still too much to be considered if we want SynRT Toolkit widely used and marketed. It is a good vision for us to build a Decade Work Flow to make plan for our future work and perfect the SynRT Toolkit while benefiting the world. From a recent view, we hope that the Decade Work Flow can inspire the other iGEM teams in the long-term scientific research.