Difference between revisions of "Team:USTC/Human Practices"

Foreword

China’s tobacco industry ranks first in the world, with the production and sales of cigarette in China taking the first place in the world. Meanwhile, China come naturally to have the largest population of smokers, and the topic of cigarette always has a high degree of attention. The unfortunate reality is that even the tobacco industry do not realized the potential value of tobacco waste, for so much chemical substance in it may be useful for medicine. This year, our project aimes at transform the nicotine to prodrug ——SP.

We tried to use the pure nicotine at first, but we changed our mind after investigation to the tobacco factory. By using the the waste tobacco, not only we have a large amount of material, but also could help to solve the pollution of burning the tobacco dusts. After that, we made a questionnaire about the social hot issues of tobacco and the knowledge about tobacco waste, which gave us more understanding about tobacco industry so we can revise our project according it. Besides, we make more people know about iGEM and synthesis biology, educate them the harm of smoking by distributing questionnaires, giving a lecture in local high school. We also play a role in the “ Science Open Week” of our university to share the the beauty of science with visitors all over the country. When we communicate with high school students, we put forward to helping them to establish a high school iGEM team. At the same time, we took part in two seminar of iGEM, sharing the experience with other iGEMers.

In the Questionnaire, Education, Community Propagation, Help of building new iGEM high school teams section, we constantly propagate the iGEM and synthetic biology knowledge, and help people understand correctly the tobacco industry through discussions with the public. In the investigation, Questionnaire and communication with iGEMers selection, our HP work help us deepen our understanding of the subject and guide our subject to the right direction, and finally we found that a new field can develop a downstream production line for the tobacco industry to produce drugs.Therefore, we think we are qualified for the Human Practice silver and Gold medal.

Achievement

1. We have been to three tobacco factories (Hefei Cigarette Factory, Zhangzhou Cigarette Factory and Wuhu Cigarette Factory) to research our project. We know a lot about tobacco and tobacco waste, and we have a fresh understanding of pathway of producing the prodrug.

2. For the purpose of collecting the community’s views about tobacco and propagating iGEM synthetic biology, we designed a questionnaire and have collected hundreds of results.

3. In the “ Science Open Weekend ”, we opened the lab for thousands of people to visit.

4. We finished a lecture in high school to publicize iGEM and synthetic biology knowledge.

5. Actively communicate with local high schools and give them help of founding new iGEM high school teams.

6. We attended the Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference and Central China iGEM Consortium with iGEMers all over the world.

7. Communication and cooperation with some iGEM teams.

Silver & Gold

With the work of General Human Practices, we are qualified for the Human Practices Silver. And with the work of Integrated Human Practices, we are qualified for the Human Practices Gold.