Difference between revisions of "Team:NAU-CHINA/Human Practices"

Revision as of 15:38, 1 October 2018

1. 6th Asia-Pacific Conference
• We have taken part in many conferences, gained many experiences and made lots of friends from another team all over the world.
  The largest scale of conference we have ever participated in is the Asia-Pacific Conference held by National Chungsing University from 30th July to 3th August. There are about 20 teams from China, Taiwan and Japan took part in this magnificent conference.
  During this five days' meeting, all teams present their projects by PowerPoint slides and show us their posters. We are deeply impressed by several novel, innovate projects of some teams, such as BioWatcher by NCHU-Formosa, and launched several collaborations with them. We also did our best to present our project to judge, professor Que, and received many sharp but beneficial guidance opinions.
  Besides projects presentation and collaborations with other teams, hanging out and having fun are also important part of this conference. We had a pleasure night with iGEM Fudan, iGEM XMU-China, NCHU-Formosa and other teams, we shared funny stories and difficulties we faced during the presentation.
  It was a precious experiment for us to present our project to so many Asia-Pacific iGEM teams. We also learned a lot from their projects and obtained many fresh opinions. So harvesting four days!
2. Interview Citizens of Nanjing City
• At the end of July, several members of us came to the public in Xinjiekou Business District, Xiamafang Park, Nanjing South Railway Station and other places where have high flow of people. We interviewed them about the public's views on cancer and cancer treatment.
  After many days of interviews, team members who participated in the interview received a lot of information. First, most of the public in the lower ages (under 25 years old) have no clear concept of cancer and cancer treatment. They don't know the difference between cancer and tumors, and they have no acquaintance with the lasted cancer treatment. Second, as people age growing, there will appear people around them who have cancer, and their knowledge about cancer will grow. Finally, as the number of interviews continues to expand, we found that middle-aged and older people have more knowledge in this area.
  During these days of interviews, we met the public who are curious about the project of our team. They asked the details about the current lasted cancer treatment methods, and asked the tasks and works of our team and gave us affirmation and encouragement. A school teacher who was interviewed said: "Your project is beneficial to the whole mankind. This society is able to advance because some people like you. I accept your investigation and support you with my own actions." All team members were greatly encouraged when they heard the interviewees and they thought that this was a powerful driving force to make us work hard.
  
3. Interview Principle Investigators of Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences
• In late July, we interviewed several principle investigators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, all of whom are engaged in research of cancer-related fields. The team members asked the respondents about cancer, cancer treatment, new therapies, immunotherapy, and the rationality of the pricing of cancer treatments in the current society. The researchers gave detailed answers to us. We harvested a lot about knowledge related to the background of the subject and gained so many guidance opinions. Through interviewing them, we finally formulated our project and make it better continuously. The following is a selection of interviews.
  1. Q: What is cancer?
  Prof. Wang Hongyan: Cancer, also known as tumors, is divided into benign and malignant tumors, the latter called cancer. The damage to the body of a malignant tumor lies in its metastasis. In addition to the damage to the original part of the original lesion, it will cause damage to that place if it is transferred to any place.
  2. Q: How is cancer metastasized?
  Prof. Wang Hongyan: Tumor cells exist in a microenvironment, cell secretory mediators, such as hydrolase and cytokines. These microenvironments can rapidly proliferate tumors; secrete factors that cause lymphatic vessels and blood vessels to form. When tumors grow up, they can Through the formation of blood vessels, fresh blood enters, brings nutrients, grows tumor cells, and opens up a new path for tumor cells to metastasize. During the metastasis process, the tumor will "domesticize" the immune cells into "friends" of the tumor cells, making the tumor cells more convenient to transfer.
  3. Q: What are the current methods of cancer treatment?
  Prof. Meng Feilong: First of all, surgery. Some can't do it. For example, after the spread of cancer, it is difficult and has certain damage to the human body. Secondly, chemotherapy and radiotherapy: side effects are serious, threatening normal cells and producing resistance. Thired, targeted therapy. It will bring drug resistance and doctors may not be able to find a suitable target. Nowadays, immunotherapy are developing fast. Although the efficacy is excellent, it is still limited. Maybe it is the future direction of development.
  4. Q: How is basic research translated into clinical treatment?
  Prof. Yang Chenghua: Basic research 3-5 years, development of drugs for 3-5 years, the total time is about 20 years. The antibody drug is relatively fast, and it can basically be marketed in about ten years. There are currently some common targets that use these targets to do some medicine.
  5. Q: What do you think is the best cancer treatment?
  Prof. Chen Jianfeng: Personalized treatment, based on the different cancer symptoms of each patient. In the future, because cancer is not a problem of cells or genes, but a systemic disorder, it is good to hope that the system of the human body will be restored to normal by disorder.
  6. What do you think about the current relatively high cost of cancer treatment?
  Prof. Ji Hongbin: Treating a disease is not an individual's behavior and requires government involvement. For the cost of treatment, the individual has to bear part of it, the state has to bear a part, and the insurance has to bear part of it. The research and development of drugs is imperative. China must increase the intensity of drug research and development, and it cannot rely solely on import and imitation. We must look at this society from a development perspective. Over the past decade or so, China’s basic scientific research and drug research and development have made great progress and leap. I believe that in the next decade or so, China will certainly have great development.
  
4. Science Popularization Activities
• Through the preliminary search on the Internet and the investigation of the public, we learned that the public has insufficient knowledge about cancer and cancer treatment, and there are many misunderstandings. In order to spread the knowledge about cancer and cancer treatment to the public, eliminate the public's misunderstanding of cancer, and let the public establish a correct understanding of cancer, we decided to conduct science popularization activities.
  First of all, we have integrated the relevant knowledge collected in the previous period. Our sources of information include relevant literature, interviews with relevant information obtained by researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and authoritative medical institutions. We repeatedly verify the information to be displayed to ensure the authenticity, scientificity, reliability and authority of the information and to avoid misleading the public. At the same time, we have also optimized the language of the materials to make them more interesting and popular, so that the public can understand at a glance. Next, we will make the organized information into a display board and a brochure. In addition, we designed the activity process in detail, prepared a few small games to attract the public fun, for which we also prepared related gifts, but also made a clear division of labor. Finally, we selected the event venue in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Scenic Area, mainly considering the favorable audience factors such as huge traffic flow, wide age distribution and balanced education. At the same time, we got in touch with the Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment of Nanjing Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Administration and obtained permission to hold activities in Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Scenic Area.
  On July 27th, from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, we held a publicity campaign in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. The team members will arrange the event venues and publicize the science through forms such as exhibition boards and brochures. The content covers cancer common sense such as cancer causes, cancer treatment methods, etc., and also introduces synthetic biology and the iGEM team of Nanjing Agricultural University. The whole science popularization activities are rich and colorful, not only simple introductions, but also questions and answers about cancer common sense. The questions mainly focus on "what is cancer, the way cancer is treated, and the attitude toward the promotion of new cancer treatment methods".
  After a day of popular science promotion activities, we have popularized a large number of scientific knowledge about cancer, cancer treatment, new therapies, immunotherapy, etc., eliminating the public's misunderstanding in the field of cancer treatment, and also knowing a lot of people. From the perspective of cancer, we are increasingly aware that such science popularization activities are imperative. Through this activity, the team members applied the expertise acquired in the laboratory to practice and benefited the public.
  




5. Nanjing iGEM exchange activities
• At the end of May, we participated in an exchange meeting hosted by Nanjing University. The meeting was attended by Zhang Haoqian as a keynote speaker, and representatives from Nanjing University, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing Foreign Languages School, and Nanjing Agricultural University participated.
  At the beginning of the exchange meeting, representatives from Nanjing University gave an opening speech and invited Mr. Zhang Haoqian to unveil the theme of the exchange. Mr. Zhang Haoqian introduced us to “Synthetic Biology”, “What is the current research field of synthetic biology and frontier progress”, “What is iGEM” and “Experience in guiding iGEM in previous years” around synthetic biology and iGEM.
  Afterwards, they entered the reporting stage of each team. Several participating university representatives gave speeches in turn, and reported on their topics. Teacher Zhang Haoqian asked questions and answered questions. Among them, Mr. Zhang puts forward practical considerations for our original project ideas, and believes that the path we design will have certain problems of reducing practicability, which will benefit a lot. Therefore, in the later experiments, we carried out the improvement of the subject, and pointed out the research direction of our subject in terms of practicality.
  At this point, the Nanjing iGEM exchange meeting has come to a successful conclusion!