Human Practices

From the beginning, we knew that we wanted to develop a project that had a great positive impact in Mexico and all around the world. Keeping this aim in mind, we decided to analyze some of the issues that our society faces. After brainstorming and trying to identify the most relevant aspects of each proposal, we all agreed that burn injuries, representing the third cause of infant mortality in Mexico, was an issue begging to be worked out. In the first place, burn injuries embodied a challenge beyond the instant menace to health. The complexity of the concern lies in the complications it causes not only for the victim but for the people around them. Even though we were not fully aware of the consequences that arise from a burn injury, we presumed that the risk of infection, complications, physical and psychological aftermath, cost of treatment, among others, were some of the aspects in which our project could intervene. Looking back to the first moments of TecTissue, we can tell that the project has evolved thanks to all the people who enriched our perspective and broadened our panorama to consider some aspects that, otherwise, we would never have thought of. It was then that we realized of the importance of integrated human practices; in short, they made us understand that Tec Tissue was no longer a project for a competition but the hope of thousands of people who believe in us.

Development of new drugs for wound healing conference by PhD. Gerardo Leyva Gómez from the faculty of chemistry, UNAM.

We attended a lecture about the applications of novel polymers in skin regeneration, which was given by Gerardo Leyva Gómez, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry by the UNAM and with experience in the field of therapeutics. We discussed several doubts regarding our project’s scaffold and obtained valuable information for the development of it. It made us realize about key factors such as pore size, applications of nano-encapsulation for skin regeneration and experimental techniques for characterization of the scaffold, among others. This conference helped us to completely create a notion about the necessary parameters for the design of our scaffold.

LEI Course.

We had the opportunity to have a course of the appropriate techniques for cell culture and ISO 9001 norms. The course was imparted by the biotechnology engineer Manuel Jaime Rodriguez from the Specialized Immunologic Laboratories. We obtained valuable information the first day of ISO 9001 norm that helped us to have a good register of our reactants and equipment using a binnacle. The next day we were taught the aseptic technique and how to take care of the cell lines. This course helped us to have a strict order and program to archive our aims and to know exactly how can we do cell line essays, without risk of contamination.

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Ph.D. Fernando Osobampo and Ph.D. Pablo Rodríguez Ferreyra

The objective of our project is to aid people that have suffered from burn injuries and during the process, doctors have helped us with the understanding of the medicine involved. That's why we visited the physician Ph.D. Fernando Osobampo, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who treats burned people in the Traumatology and Orthopedics Hospital and also Ph.D. Pablo Rodriguez Ferreyra, which is in charge of Burnings Unit of General Hospital of Toluca. We presented them our project and got some feedback with the purpose of improving it. Being plastic surgeons have given them an up-close approach. They know about the pain that patients experience during his healing process. With this in mind, they gave us some advice on the best application method, focusing on the growth factor concentration to induce the correct proliferation and the way of administration. They informed us about the main problems in patients besides the pain. One is that the treatment is very expensive due that recovery requires a lot of care, time and materials, this situation often gets worse and way more expensive because of the lack of knowledge of the nurses attending the patients properly. Also, both doctors shared with us the statistics of the cost of treatment and duration. Additionally, they suggested focussing in just one kind of injury, in order to have better results. Finally, Ph.D. Osabampo & Ph.D. Pablo Rodríguez gave us his approval and congratulated us because of the impact this project could have on the life of the patients. Thanks to the meetings, we decided to focus on second-degree burns, reduce the leptin concentration and the way of administration to be topical.

Ph.D. Aurora Antonio Perez.

In synthetic biology, the expression and purification of recombinant proteins can be very complicated. The protocols used needed to be evaluated to get the best results possible. That is why we contacted Ph.D. Aurora Antonio Perez, a specialist in recombinant proteins and enzymes. She helped us with our problems and made us change several protocols and then we succeed in obtaining the results we wanted.

iGEM Meet-Up Latin America

This activity can be seen on the collaborations page. This event helped each assistant team to obtain feedback from experts to improve our projects. In our case, it made us define exactly the type of burn we wanted to treat and to reject some bad approaches we thought could solve the problem.

Rino Q.

On July, 5th, and 6th, we had the opportunity to visit Rino-Q, which stands for “Integral Rescue of the Burnt Child” in Spanish. It is a foundation in charge of the overall rehabilitation of kids and adults who have suffered burns. We had to book a hotel since we come from the State of Mexico and traveled to San Luis Potosi. We arrived and got a brief tour of the facilities. After that, we had a meaningful conversation with the director of the foundation, Gerardo Manuel García Lozano and his wife, Beatriz Eugenia Hernández Contreras. They explained to us the complications of treating with burned people as well as the costs it implied. One of the most important aspects to consider when addressing the problem is the amount of time patients remain hospitalized due to their burns. This represents one of the main opportunities for our project. The next day we taught a group of kids who were part of the foundation about synthetic biology and prepared some activities to reinforce what they learned through games and interactive dynamics. In the end, we approached the parents and families of the kids so that they could talk about their experiences and testimonies. After the visit, we realized that, in addition to the statistics and technical information regarding burned people and their treatment, we have a moral commitment with the kids and society in general because we have the possibility and therefore the duty to help.

Rino Q app:

As a token of our gratitude for the collaboration with the foundation Rino-Q, we designed and gave them an app that contains information regarding burn injuries in terms of prevention, treatment, and contact information for assistance in case of emergency, among others. We designed the app with an objective in mind: helping people in need. This app could generate a positive impact in Mexico since it gathers information from several resources and displays it in a brief understandable way. The interface is meant to be user-friendly, dynamic, interactive and fast in order to provide valuable and timely information or advice depending on the case. Additionally to the previously mentioned advantages, we count on the fact that being a digital format can enhance the diffusion of the preventive culture Mexicans need. The app represents and reinforces our commitment towards Rino Q, the kids, and all the people that inspire us to move forward despite the adversities and encourage us to give our best. We hope the app can help people and prevent burn injuries or diminish the damage they cause, which in the end, is our final aim.

At iGEM we believe societal considerations should be upfront and integrated throughout the design and execution of synthetic biology projects. “Human Practices” refers to iGEM teams’ efforts to actively consider how the world affects their work and the work affects the world. Through your Human Practices activities, your team should demonstrate how you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your project is responsible and good for the world. We invite you to explore issues relating (but not limited) to the ethics, safety, security, and sustainability of your project, and to show how this exploration feeds back into your project purpose, design and execution.

For more information, please see the Human Practices Hub. There you will find:

• an introduction to Human Practices at iGEM
• tips on how to succeed including explanations of judging criteria and advice about how to conduct and document your Human Practices work
• descriptions of exemplary work to inspire you
• links to helpful resources
• And more!

On this page, your team should document all of your Human Practices work and activities. You should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, document any activities you conducted to explore these topics (such as engaging with experts and stakeholders), describe why you took a particular approach (including referencing any work you built upon), and explain if and how you integrated takeaways from your Human Practices work back into your project purpose, design and/or execution.

If your team has gone above and beyond in work related to safety, then you should document this work on your Safety wiki page and provide a description and link on this page. If your team has developed education and public engagement efforts that go beyond a focus on your particular project, and for which would like to nominate your team for the Best Education and Public Engagement Special Prize, you should document this work on your Education and Education wiki page and provide a description and link here.

Silver Medal Criterion #3

Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is responsible and good for the world. Document how you have investigated these issues and engaged with your relevant communities, why you chose this approach, and what you have learned. Please note that surveys will not fulfill this criteria unless you follow scientifically valid methods.

Gold Medal Criterion #1

Expand on your silver medal activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the purpose, design and/or execution of your project. Document how your project has changed based upon your human practices work.

Best Integrated Human Practices Special Prize

To compete for the Best Integrated Human Practices prize, please describe your work on this page and also fill out the description on the judging form.

How does your project affect society and how does society influence the direction of your project? How might ethical considerations and stakeholder input guide your project purpose and design and the experiments you conduct in the lab? How does this feedback enter into the process of your work all through the iGEM competition? Document a thoughtful and creative approach to exploring these questions and how your project evolved in the process to compete for this award!

You must also delete the message box on the top of this page to be eligible for this prize.