Revision as of 17:27, 22 August 2018

OriginALS

<!DOCTYPE html> OriginALS

InteLab

It all began in the summer of 2017, the newly recruited iGEM-BGU team was tasked with choosing a topic for our iGEM project. Many ideas were proposed but one idea resonated with us. Liat Tsoran, one of our team members, told us her personal story. Liat’s father, Nir Tsoran, was diagnosed with ALS when Liat was only eleven years old. For seven years (longer than the average patient’s survival rate), Liat witnessed her father’s health, deteriorates from a fully functional adult to a man trapped inside his body. Throughout his ordeal, Nir did not let his disease prevent him from being an exemplary father and advocate. He served as the CEO of IsrALS, an Israeli non-profit organization committed to supporting ALS patients, their families, and promoting ALS research in Israel. Nir took this budding non-profit and the very small Israeli ALS scientific community and turned it into an influential strong local movement. Since her father’s diagnosis, Liat has been dedicating her life to understanding the disease and hopes, to one day contribute to finding a cure. Once we heard Liat’s story, the whole team enlisted to join her efforts. We suddenly understood that the “Ice Bucket Challenge” was not just a fun activity but a necessary step in bringing awareness to a devastating disease which has not received the exposure required to promote significant research for a cure.

Introduction

It all began in the summer of 2017, the newly recruited iGEM-BGU team was tasked with choosing a topic for our iGEM project. Many ideas were proposed but one idea resonated with us. Liat Tsoran, one of our team members, told us her personal story. Liat’s father, Nir Tsoran, was diagnosed with ALS when Liat was only eleven years old. For seven years (longer than the average patient’s survival rate), Liat witnessed her father’s health, deteriorates from a fully functional adult to a man trapped inside his body. Throughout his ordeal, Nir did not let his disease prevent him from being an exemplary father and advocate. He served as the CEO of IsrALS, an Israeli non-profit organization committed to supporting ALS patients, their families, and promoting ALS research in Israel. Nir took this budding non-profit and the very small Israeli ALS scientific community and turned it into an influential strong local movement. Since her father’s diagnosis, Liat has been dedicating her life to understanding the disease and hopes, to one day contribute to finding a cure. Once we heard Liat’s story, the whole team enlisted to join her efforts. We suddenly understood that the “Ice Bucket Challenge” was not just a fun activity but a necessary step in bringing awareness to a devastating disease which has not received the exposure required to promote significant research for a cure.

ALS race and IGEM on the bar

From this point we were ready to enter the lab phase of our project. In addition, we began planning our human practice activities. As we were aware of how sensitive it may be to present preliminary research to ALS patients and their families, we decided against presenting our project to this community. Rather, we would show our support through volunteering and participating in the annual isrALS fundraising race. Still we felt strongly about promoting awareness about ALS and Synthetic Biology. We realized that science, specifically synthetic biology projects, can only be implemented efficiently if there is a public support. Therefore, the first step is to promote awareness and understanding of such a project. This is why we hosted “iGEM on the Bar”. We invited our peers, colleagues, and the public to an evening at a local pub, with a small entrance fee, where we presented our project and invited our guests to donate or join the annual ALS race. All proceeds from this event were donated to the ALS community.

ALS conference

As we mentioned previously, the community of ALS research labs in Israel was very limited until recently. Still, as this is a small country, the budding community is still rather small, yet impressive. We were touched by how this community embraced us when we began our project. Any lab we talked to was more than happy to help point us in the right direction, teach us new tools, or provide access to equipment. We were compelled to do something in return, so we organized the annual ALS Research Conference at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (our University). The conference was a great success! Not only did we hear from the leading experts in ALS research, we were able to present our project for the first time in a scientific setting. Our presentation received encouraging responses. The community seemed truly excited by our idea and the questions we received were not about the viability of the idea, rather they were insightful thoughts regarding research methods. Many researchers offered their inputs and assistance to aid us in proceeding with our project. One of these researchers, was Dr. Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski‏ from Tel-Aviv University.

Dino

Around the time of convention, we faced a major lab roadblock. We were having trouble infecting our cells with the plasmids we had designed, due to their size and the sensitivity of the CNS cell lines. Without the ability to insert our plasmids, we had no way of implementing our system. This is when Dr. Friedmann stepped in. Dr. Friedmann heard about our struggles and offered a project-saving solution. Her research group works with plasmids which implement knockdown of genes in the NFkB pathway and delivers these plasmids with viruses. Dr. Friedman was instrumental in teaching us infection techniques and providing us with plasmids from her lab. This collaboration meant, that even if we did not succeed in implementing our designed plasmids before the competition, we would still be able to achieve a proof of concept.

host a group of high-school

Our project would not have succeeded without our Human Practices. Our goals and implementation were all a result of involvement in the communities around us and sharing our ideas through discussions with experts. Science cannot proceed unaided and cannot succeed without public support. As a final gesture, we were delighted to host a group of high-school students in our lab. We had a great time explaining to them about iGEM, our project, and our lab. Although we ourselves as undergraduate students are only at the beginning of our scientific careers, it was wonderful to transfer the knowledge we have gathered to a new generation.