Difference between revisions of "Team:NYMU-Taipei/Human Practices"

 
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<h1>INTEGRATED HUMAN PRACTICE</h1>
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<div class="paragraphs">
 
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<h1 style="color:#638695;">Hair To Stay:</h1>
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<h1 style="color:gray;">Human Practices</h1>
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<h1 id="1" class="subtitle"> The Birth of Our Project </h1>
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<br>
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<p>Finding a proper project is always a long and frustrating experience. We all felt that we had learned too little, and hard to transfer our thoughts into feasible ideas. Hoping to get some help, we decided to visit a cohort of experts.</p>
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<div class="protocols">
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<div id="1t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Hsinchu Food Industry Research and Development Institute(FIRDI)
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--The skill of experiment and project design
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<div id="1d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/b/ba/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-FIRDI.jpg" style="box-shadow: -20px -20px  #4B727B;">
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<p>Initially, we have two project ideas. The first topic is about the detection of brown root rot in trees. Since brown root rot is usually very serious once it is discovered, we hope to design an Escherichia coli. This E. coli will release the signal when it detects brown root bacteria, allowing us to detect Phellinus noxius early. The second topic is about the preservation of food. Food spoilage is usually caused by microorganisms, so we want to use the characteristics of bacterial quorum sensing to inhibit the reproduction of bacteria.</p>
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<p>We went to FIRDI in January twenty-first. Visiting three experts, research scientist Guey-Yuh Liou, senior research scientist Hing-Yuen Chan, and associated research scientist Li-Wen Yu, and discussing with ideas and topics we generated. Since it is not convenient to use trees as experimental objects, it takes a long time to perform experiments related to shelf life, so the feasibility of these two topics is not high. They taught us some potential projects. Though we still did not know which project to choose, this special journey let us have confidence in project design.</p>
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<h1 style="color:#f1f1f1; background-color:#638695; font-size:70px; width:1000px;"> Interviews and Visits </h1>
 
  
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<div id="2t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Red Imported Fire Ants(RIFAs) with Professor Chin-Cheng Yang
<h2 class="subtitle" id="1">2018/1/26 FIRDI</h2>
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--Safety of the experiment
<p>In the early morning of Jan 26th, we hurried from Taipei to Hsinchu to visit Food Industry Research and Development Institute(FIRDI). Under the guidance of senior researchers in the institute, we came to know the importance of microorganisms in food industry and the institute’s dedication to preserving biological resources in the past 50 years.</p>
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<p>More importantly, we discussed with three experts, research scientist Guey-Yuh Liou, senior research scientist Hing-Yuen Chan, and associated research scientist Li-Wen Yu, ideas and topics we generated last year in hopes of diminishing the obstacles we were faced with. The experts thought through the ideas with us and suggested possible problems and potential market demands of the topics. With the help of the experts, we acquired numerous inspirations and new directions. </p>
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<div id="2d" class="detail">
<p>We are thankful for the help from the experts in FIRDI and Dr. Chou Tzu-Ho, who led this visit to the institute. What we have learned  will continue to foster our ideas and projects.</p>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/b/bf/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-RIFA.jpg" style="box-shadow: -20px 20px  gray;">
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<p>With so many candidate topics, RIFAs became one of the most possible projects. RIFAs have already threatened many people in different area, so we wanted to eliminate this problem through synthetic biology.</p>
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<p>We visited professor Yang, whose profession is relevant to the topic, in Kyoto through skype on April 13th. He generously shared with us knowledge related to RIFAs and potential direction. However, he also told us about the importance of safety, since the distinguish of RIFAs also hurt our environment and make an unpredictable result. Besides, we learned that although RIFAs are invertebrates, keeping them in the lab still requires a higher biosafety level for that they are hard to wipe out. Due to its high biosafety level, our wet lab may not be able to use RIFAs as a project, but we still thank professor Yang a lot for teaching us so much.</p>
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<p>After this visit, we recognized that a mature project is not only creative but also available and safe.</p>
 
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<div class="paragraphs">
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<div id="3t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Visit Dr. Wen-Chuan Kuo
<h2 class="subtitle" id="2">2018/4/28 prof. Wen-Chuan Kuo </h2>
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--The use of OCT and the animal experiment
<p>After a long period of brainstorming, we have finally determined our topic to be curing hair loss. We figured that it might be a good idea to use follicle growing cycle as an index for success of hair loss prevention. We also hope to manipulate OCT in observing follicles so as not to harm the follicle as in biopsy.</p>
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</div>
<p>We visited professor Wen-Chuan Kuo of National Yang-Ming University, Institute of Biophotonics. She kindly analyzed the pros and cons of OCT scan and showed great interest and support in our project. Although due to changes in our plan, it is unlikely that we will make use of OCT scan, we still appreciate Dr. Kuo a lot for her support.</p>
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<div id="3d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/3/39/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-pWCK.jpg" style="box-shadow: -20px 20px  #094857;">
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<p>After a series of brain storming, we decided to deal with androgenetic alopecia. At first, we wanted to make a simple device that can observe the hair follicle. Therefore, we visited Dr. Wen-Chuan Kuo on April 28th. Dr. Kuo have abundance experience in using OCT, which is a kind of hair follicle observing device. Dr. Kuo taught us how to use OCT, but she also mentioned that we should use mice as an experiment object of OCT. However, our competition has time limit, and none of our members are able to get the qualification in animal experiments. We needed to find a new project.</p>
 
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<div id="4t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">1st Time With Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen
<h2 class="subtitle" id="3">CRISPR</h2>
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--Project decision
<p>Recently, CRISPR has appeared as a new technology for gene editing. Although it is powerful, the cost is also enormous. We wonder if CRISPR would be a useful tool in constructing a cell model for the selection of androgenetic alopecia drugs, which is our project direction. Hence, we invited professor Tsai-Yu Tzeng from National Yang-Ming University VYM Genome Research Center to discuss with us the techniques required for constructing the model. Professor Tzeng patiently explained the pros and cons of various techniques on gene editing, including CRISPR, virus infection, and others, enabling us to think further about what technique fits our need the best. “what you need is the fittest technology, not the hottest!” professor Tzeng reminded us.</p>
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</div>
<p>We are thankful for professor Tzeng’s advices. They will help us make better decisions between economic concerns and technologies. </p>  
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<div id="4d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/2/24/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-pCCC1.jpg" style="box-shadow: -20px -20px  #4B727B;">
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<p>The process of project design was frustrating. To avoid animal experiments, we decided to change our project and try to heal Androgenetic Alopecia(AGA). To know more about the social demand in this area, we visited Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen of Taipei Veterans General Hospital in the morning of May 4th. Dr. Chen introduced the mechanic of hair growth, and taught us the difference in hair follicle between mice and human. That is the reason why we cannot find a good object in AGA test, and hard to prove the efficacy of candidate medicine. To solve this problem, we decided to use synthetic biology to design a medicine screening system for curing AGA.</p>
 
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<div class="paragraphs">
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<h2 class="subtitle" id="4">2018/4/13 RIFA</h2>
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<p>While carrying on and improving our experiments, we did not forget that our project is not only for the iGEM competition but to serve the people suffering from hair loss. To fully understand their needs, we visited experts, interviewed them and discussed with peers.
<p>Thanks to our instructor Dr. Chou Tzu-Ho’s recommendation, we discussed our candidate topic of terminating the Red Imported Fire Ants(RIFAs) with professor Chin-Cheng Yang, whose profession is relevant to the topic, on April 13th. This is our first time to use the renovated dry lab area. We had a nice smooth table and lots of gecko stools with us.</p>
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</p>
<p>We visited professor Yang in Kyoto through skype. He generously shared with us knowledge related to RIFAs. In the process, we gradually understood the possibilities and the obstacles in terminating RIFA. We broached many recent ideas and professor Yang also gave us an abundance of replies. For example, we learned that although RIFAs are invertebrates, keeping them in the lab still requires a higher biosafety level for that they are hard to wipe out. In Taiwan, there are only National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica that have the ability to keep artificially reproduced colonies, so they are quite difficult a subject to study. As a result, we had more insights into RIFA and we are also having a better view of future direction.</p>
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<p>We are grateful for the help from professor Yang.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle" id="5">2018/5/4 Dr. Chen</h2>
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<p>We visited Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen of Taipei Veterans General Hospital in the morning of May 4th to consult him on our recent topic of curing hair loss, in particular androgenetic alopecia. Dr. Chen is an expert in hair loss. He dedicates himself to not only curing androgenetic alopecia but also other types of hair loss.</p>
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<h1 id="2" class="subtitle">Project Improvement</h1>
<p>The visit was very informative and helpful. Aside from providing information and answering our questions on androgenetic alopecia, Dr. Chen shared with us many novel ideas. Hence, we were able to understand our topic better and to produce new directions and ideas. For example, we realized that many limitations exist on the path to study human hair growth due to lack of mouse model and the difficulty in tissue culture. Yet, we also saw some possibilities in cell culture and will dedicate our path toward the direction.</p>
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<br>
<p>Dr. Chen remained in contact with us after the interview and was eager to offer more help. We are very thankful for his contribution.</p>
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<div class="protocols">
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="5t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">2nd Time With Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen
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--Project framework design
 
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<div id="5d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/c/c0/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-pCCC2.jpg" style="box-shadow: 20px -20px  #013946;">
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<p>After coming up with a prototype for the screening system, we arranged for a second meeting with Dr. Chen on the 23rd of May, to make sure it is practicable. Dr. Chen suggested that we should divide our project into two subparts, which we carried out simultaneously because of our short on time. Also, to let us practice our cell culture technique, Dr. Chen provided a lot of dermal papilla cells for us, and we are very thankful for him.</p>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="6t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Visit Dr. Chao-Ling Yao
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--Eukaryotic cell culture related study
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</div>
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<div id="6d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/9/9d/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-prof-yao.png" style="box-shadow: -20px 20px  gray;">
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<p>To learn how to culture eukaryotic cells, we arranged a video conference with Dr. Chao-Ling Yao, an expert in stem cell research who specializes in dermal papilla. Thanks to the experiences he shared with us, we improved our experiment design and saved our project from unnecessary twist and turns.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="7t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Visit Dr. Tsair-Yuh Tzeng
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--Gene editing technique instruction and suggestions
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</div>
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<div id="7d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/3/32/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-CRISPR.jpg" style="box-shadow: 20px -20px  #013946;">
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<p>Since the gene editing technique CRISPR has been popular, we considered using it to design a unique cell that can express the efficacy of the different drugs. We changed our mind after visiting Dr. Tsair-Yuh Tzeng at the NYMUVYM Genome Research Center, who told us that CRISPR is not only expensive but also not suitable for every project. Though the idea was a failure, the tour Dr. Tzeng gave us at the center was invaluable, and it opened a whole new world of research for us.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="8t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Visit Dr. Yi-wen Tsai
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—Understanding the practicability of questionnaires
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</div>
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<div id="8d" class="detail">
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<p>As the practicability and safety of the project have reached a certain extent, we designed a set of questionnaires to make sure that our project reflects the true needs of the community. The questions include their use of medicines for hair loss and their suggestions for future medications. We showed our questionnaire to NYMU Institute of Health and Welfare Policy’s Dr. Yi-wen Tsai, who told us that even though we have a good intention, issuing the questionnaire would be a big problem, since we do not have access to the major crowd. Also, she pointed out that questionnaires can only give us a general view instead of the whole picture. Hence, to achieve higher credibility and effectiveness, we gave up the questionnaire and interviewed patients instead.</p>
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="9t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Interviewing with patients
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--Understanding the experience and needs of patients
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<div id="9d" class="detail">
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<p>With the help of Dr. Chen, we contacted four of his patients with experiences of using anti-balding products on the market. They came to Dr. Chen because they received not only little effect after long-term use of the products, but also side effects that affected their daily lives. During the interviews, they shared with us inspirational opinions such as there should be more kinds of medications for them to choose from or even personalized ones. </p>
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="10t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference in Chung Hsing University
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--Exchange ideas and receive advice for improvement
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</div>
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<div id="10d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/a/a8/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-NCHUmeetup.jpg" style="box-shadow: 20px -20px  gray;">
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<p>We attended the 2018 6th Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference, held by National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, from July 30th to August 2nd. At the conference, we shared our project with other teams and received useful advice. For instance, someone pointed it out that some of our candidate drugs can affect the fluorescent protein, which would cause misdetection of our system. It’s such a shame that the conference was only held for four days, we received wonderful feedback and enjoyed our time very much. </p>
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<div class="protocol">
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<div id="13t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">
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Tokyo tech
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--Sharing an idea across the world
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<div id="13d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/e/e2/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-tokyotech.png" style="box-shadow: -20px 20px  gray;">
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<p>We have long been in a good relationship with our neighbouring country, Japan, who is one of our targets for sharing ideas iGEM projects. Fortunately, we have a Japanese in our team and he would like to spend his summer vacation in Japan with synthetic biology. Thus, he, as a representative of our team, travelled back to his hometown to build up a relationship with Tokyo tech iGEM team.</p>
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<p>Tokyo tech is the largest institution for higher education in Japan dedicated to science and technology. With that, we decided to pay a visit to share interesting ideas with them. We are really elated to their warm welcome. Since the clock ticks fast in summer, Tokyo tech and us could only hold a short meeting in Tokyo tech and give a brief presentation to summarize our ideas.</p>
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<p>Their topic this year is to devise a highly specific method to detect dengue fever from the patient without the use of or even surpassing ELISA. Japan is not seriously concerned with dengue fever according to the low number of reported cases. However, Tokyo tech has pondered for a solution to lower the cost of detecting dengue in tropical regions. With early detection of dengue fever becoming highly applicable, more and more people’s lives can be saved.</p>
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<p>Our project also involves detection techniques used by Tokyo tech this year. While Tokyo tech and we use the techniques to build quite different things, we have the common goal of eliminating the use of ELISA in the domain of interest for that Elisa is a detection technique too expensive to be widely applied.</p>
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<p>Both of our teams have common in finding another countermeasure rather than using Elisa. We both wish the best for our projects’ performances in iGEM competition. But most of all, we hope our idea impact globally and improve our lives in our future.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle" id="6">2018/5/23 Dr. Chen</h2>
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<p>We learned a lot of hair-growth-related knowledge and yielded many thoughts from our last visit to Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen, who is an expert in hair loss and serves at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Dr. Chen has been in contact with us since then. After simmering our thoughts for half a month, we decided that a second visit to Dr. Chen is necessary. Hence, we arranged another meeting with him on 23rd May.</p>
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<h1 id="3" class="subtitle">Future Plan</h1>
<p>This time, the scope of our discussion is more focused and specific. Dr. Chen gave us not only instructions on the cautions and feasibility of our new project but also suggestions on how to complete our project in what little time we still have. Under his instructions, we decided that our project would have multiple subprojects developed simultaneously in order to spread the risk and expand the content of the project. </p>
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<br>
<p>As always, we are grateful for the help from Dr. Chen and we will do our best to complete our project.</p>
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<div id="11t" class="trigger"onclick="detail(event)">
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LaunXP Biomedical
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-- Understanding how our system can be put in practical drug development use
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<div id="11d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/5/53/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-launxp.jpg" style="box-shadow: -20px -20px  #4B727B;">
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<p>As our drug screening system will be applied most in the pharmaceutical industry, we visited the LaunXP Biomedical in Taichung. Dr Jay Hsieh, their director of the office of research and development (R&D), mentioned that the trickiest part during the long process of drug development is the screening. First, there needs to be a database to perform the screening on. Second, there needs to be hardware to analyze the mechanisms of hair loss in the human body, and to simulate the effect of the combination of pathway-related proteins and the drug. Dr Hsieh also reminded us to make sure that our system must not only be able to increase the screening efficiency but also decrease the cost. His advice was very constructive, but LaunXP specializes in cancer drugs, for more detailed suggestions, we must visit a company that aims medications for hair loss.</p>
 
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Brion Research Institute
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--Discussing future use with potential users
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<div id="12d" class="detail">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/7/78/T--NYMU-Taipei--hp-brion.jpg" style="box-shadow: -20px 20px  #4B727B;">
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<p>We wanted to make sure that our project meets the actual need of potential users and some suggestion on further application. Therefore, we decided to have a discussion with Brion Research Institute which had developed a hair regrowth product B401. (Brion Research Institute is the R&D department of Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Co., the biggest Chinese medicine and herbal product manufacturer in Taiwan.) </p>
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<p>They do face the same challenge of lacking appropriate screening system for hair loss treatment and give affirmation to the effort we made. They questioned that whether the reporter would be blocked by pigments or other molecule, and whether it’s better than current method such as ELISA and western blot. They also suggest that we could establish a stable cell line via viral transduction or lipofection as future plan since pharmaceutical company would prefer a cell line that could be reuse much longer.
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<h2 class="subtitle" id="7">2018/6/26 Prof. Yao</h2>
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<p>In the afternoon of June 26th, we discussed our project with prof. Chao-Ling Yao through a video conference. Prof. Yao is an expert in stem cells and has conducted researches on dermal papilla cells in the previous years. Getting advice from prof. Yao would be very helpful to our project.</p>
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<h2 id="4" class="subtitle"><a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:NYMU-Taipei/Public_Engagement">Education and Engagement</a></h2>
<p>Prof. Yao gave us some insights into cell culture. This enables us, who are totally new to cell culture, to see possible limitations and problems in carrying out cell culture of the new species of cell line. He even generously offered us the option of using his lab’s resource in culturing the new cell line.</p>
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<p>See more on our <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:NYMU-Taipei/Public_Engagement">Education and Engagement</a> page</p>
<p>Thanks to prof. Yao, we learned a lot more about the materials for our project in this interview. This is going to assist us in refining our designation for future experiments.</p>
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Latest revision as of 03:49, 18 October 2018




INTEGRATED HUMAN PRACTICE

The Birth of Our Project


Finding a proper project is always a long and frustrating experience. We all felt that we had learned too little, and hard to transfer our thoughts into feasible ideas. Hoping to get some help, we decided to visit a cohort of experts.


Hsinchu Food Industry Research and Development Institute(FIRDI) --The skill of experiment and project design

Initially, we have two project ideas. The first topic is about the detection of brown root rot in trees. Since brown root rot is usually very serious once it is discovered, we hope to design an Escherichia coli. This E. coli will release the signal when it detects brown root bacteria, allowing us to detect Phellinus noxius early. The second topic is about the preservation of food. Food spoilage is usually caused by microorganisms, so we want to use the characteristics of bacterial quorum sensing to inhibit the reproduction of bacteria.

We went to FIRDI in January twenty-first. Visiting three experts, research scientist Guey-Yuh Liou, senior research scientist Hing-Yuen Chan, and associated research scientist Li-Wen Yu, and discussing with ideas and topics we generated. Since it is not convenient to use trees as experimental objects, it takes a long time to perform experiments related to shelf life, so the feasibility of these two topics is not high. They taught us some potential projects. Though we still did not know which project to choose, this special journey let us have confidence in project design.

Red Imported Fire Ants(RIFAs) with Professor Chin-Cheng Yang --Safety of the experiment

With so many candidate topics, RIFAs became one of the most possible projects. RIFAs have already threatened many people in different area, so we wanted to eliminate this problem through synthetic biology.

We visited professor Yang, whose profession is relevant to the topic, in Kyoto through skype on April 13th. He generously shared with us knowledge related to RIFAs and potential direction. However, he also told us about the importance of safety, since the distinguish of RIFAs also hurt our environment and make an unpredictable result. Besides, we learned that although RIFAs are invertebrates, keeping them in the lab still requires a higher biosafety level for that they are hard to wipe out. Due to its high biosafety level, our wet lab may not be able to use RIFAs as a project, but we still thank professor Yang a lot for teaching us so much.

After this visit, we recognized that a mature project is not only creative but also available and safe.

Visit Dr. Wen-Chuan Kuo --The use of OCT and the animal experiment

After a series of brain storming, we decided to deal with androgenetic alopecia. At first, we wanted to make a simple device that can observe the hair follicle. Therefore, we visited Dr. Wen-Chuan Kuo on April 28th. Dr. Kuo have abundance experience in using OCT, which is a kind of hair follicle observing device. Dr. Kuo taught us how to use OCT, but she also mentioned that we should use mice as an experiment object of OCT. However, our competition has time limit, and none of our members are able to get the qualification in animal experiments. We needed to find a new project.

1st Time With Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen --Project decision

The process of project design was frustrating. To avoid animal experiments, we decided to change our project and try to heal Androgenetic Alopecia(AGA). To know more about the social demand in this area, we visited Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen of Taipei Veterans General Hospital in the morning of May 4th. Dr. Chen introduced the mechanic of hair growth, and taught us the difference in hair follicle between mice and human. That is the reason why we cannot find a good object in AGA test, and hard to prove the efficacy of candidate medicine. To solve this problem, we decided to use synthetic biology to design a medicine screening system for curing AGA.

While carrying on and improving our experiments, we did not forget that our project is not only for the iGEM competition but to serve the people suffering from hair loss. To fully understand their needs, we visited experts, interviewed them and discussed with peers.

Project Improvement


2nd Time With Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen --Project framework design

After coming up with a prototype for the screening system, we arranged for a second meeting with Dr. Chen on the 23rd of May, to make sure it is practicable. Dr. Chen suggested that we should divide our project into two subparts, which we carried out simultaneously because of our short on time. Also, to let us practice our cell culture technique, Dr. Chen provided a lot of dermal papilla cells for us, and we are very thankful for him.

Visit Dr. Chao-Ling Yao --Eukaryotic cell culture related study

To learn how to culture eukaryotic cells, we arranged a video conference with Dr. Chao-Ling Yao, an expert in stem cell research who specializes in dermal papilla. Thanks to the experiences he shared with us, we improved our experiment design and saved our project from unnecessary twist and turns.

Visit Dr. Tsair-Yuh Tzeng --Gene editing technique instruction and suggestions

Since the gene editing technique CRISPR has been popular, we considered using it to design a unique cell that can express the efficacy of the different drugs. We changed our mind after visiting Dr. Tsair-Yuh Tzeng at the NYMUVYM Genome Research Center, who told us that CRISPR is not only expensive but also not suitable for every project. Though the idea was a failure, the tour Dr. Tzeng gave us at the center was invaluable, and it opened a whole new world of research for us.

Visit Dr. Yi-wen Tsai —Understanding the practicability of questionnaires

As the practicability and safety of the project have reached a certain extent, we designed a set of questionnaires to make sure that our project reflects the true needs of the community. The questions include their use of medicines for hair loss and their suggestions for future medications. We showed our questionnaire to NYMU Institute of Health and Welfare Policy’s Dr. Yi-wen Tsai, who told us that even though we have a good intention, issuing the questionnaire would be a big problem, since we do not have access to the major crowd. Also, she pointed out that questionnaires can only give us a general view instead of the whole picture. Hence, to achieve higher credibility and effectiveness, we gave up the questionnaire and interviewed patients instead.

Interviewing with patients --Understanding the experience and needs of patients

With the help of Dr. Chen, we contacted four of his patients with experiences of using anti-balding products on the market. They came to Dr. Chen because they received not only little effect after long-term use of the products, but also side effects that affected their daily lives. During the interviews, they shared with us inspirational opinions such as there should be more kinds of medications for them to choose from or even personalized ones.

Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference in Chung Hsing University --Exchange ideas and receive advice for improvement

We attended the 2018 6th Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference, held by National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, from July 30th to August 2nd. At the conference, we shared our project with other teams and received useful advice. For instance, someone pointed it out that some of our candidate drugs can affect the fluorescent protein, which would cause misdetection of our system. It’s such a shame that the conference was only held for four days, we received wonderful feedback and enjoyed our time very much.

Tokyo tech --Sharing an idea across the world

We have long been in a good relationship with our neighbouring country, Japan, who is one of our targets for sharing ideas iGEM projects. Fortunately, we have a Japanese in our team and he would like to spend his summer vacation in Japan with synthetic biology. Thus, he, as a representative of our team, travelled back to his hometown to build up a relationship with Tokyo tech iGEM team.

Tokyo tech is the largest institution for higher education in Japan dedicated to science and technology. With that, we decided to pay a visit to share interesting ideas with them. We are really elated to their warm welcome. Since the clock ticks fast in summer, Tokyo tech and us could only hold a short meeting in Tokyo tech and give a brief presentation to summarize our ideas.

Their topic this year is to devise a highly specific method to detect dengue fever from the patient without the use of or even surpassing ELISA. Japan is not seriously concerned with dengue fever according to the low number of reported cases. However, Tokyo tech has pondered for a solution to lower the cost of detecting dengue in tropical regions. With early detection of dengue fever becoming highly applicable, more and more people’s lives can be saved.

Our project also involves detection techniques used by Tokyo tech this year. While Tokyo tech and we use the techniques to build quite different things, we have the common goal of eliminating the use of ELISA in the domain of interest for that Elisa is a detection technique too expensive to be widely applied.

Both of our teams have common in finding another countermeasure rather than using Elisa. We both wish the best for our projects’ performances in iGEM competition. But most of all, we hope our idea impact globally and improve our lives in our future.

Future Plan


LaunXP Biomedical -- Understanding how our system can be put in practical drug development use

As our drug screening system will be applied most in the pharmaceutical industry, we visited the LaunXP Biomedical in Taichung. Dr Jay Hsieh, their director of the office of research and development (R&D), mentioned that the trickiest part during the long process of drug development is the screening. First, there needs to be a database to perform the screening on. Second, there needs to be hardware to analyze the mechanisms of hair loss in the human body, and to simulate the effect of the combination of pathway-related proteins and the drug. Dr Hsieh also reminded us to make sure that our system must not only be able to increase the screening efficiency but also decrease the cost. His advice was very constructive, but LaunXP specializes in cancer drugs, for more detailed suggestions, we must visit a company that aims medications for hair loss.

Brion Research Institute --Discussing future use with potential users

We wanted to make sure that our project meets the actual need of potential users and some suggestion on further application. Therefore, we decided to have a discussion with Brion Research Institute which had developed a hair regrowth product B401. (Brion Research Institute is the R&D department of Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Co., the biggest Chinese medicine and herbal product manufacturer in Taiwan.)

They do face the same challenge of lacking appropriate screening system for hair loss treatment and give affirmation to the effort we made. They questioned that whether the reporter would be blocked by pigments or other molecule, and whether it’s better than current method such as ELISA and western blot. They also suggest that we could establish a stable cell line via viral transduction or lipofection as future plan since pharmaceutical company would prefer a cell line that could be reuse much longer.