Team:NAU-CHINA/Human Practices
Education：
1. Science Popularization Activities
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.
2. On-campus science popularization activities
On-campus science popularization activities
On September 28, 2018, the iGEM team of Nanjing Agricultural University and the Science Association of the College of Life Sciences jointly organized the iGEM science popularization activities on campus. The whole activity focused on “going to the laboratory – the daily life of the school team” and “going close to the competition”. Themes of “Problems and Welfare” and “Going Close to Dreams – Recruiting Talents” will present the synthetic biology knowledge, iGEM competition profile and team composition, as well as the new topic of this year's iGEM team.
The gifts of this event not only have the "transport RNA" keychain designed by our iGEM team, but also the cooperation support of synthetic biology comics designed by OUC. Many students have come to look up and ask.
In addition, some of the basic equipment for molecular biology experiments on the site also attracted the attention of many schoolmates. Our members introduced them to some common laboratory equipment and important precautions.
What makes people laugh and laugh is that at around 12 noon, the weather in Nanjing once again staged a story called “Blue Sky, Clouds and Clear Sky, Sudden Storm”, and they were caught off guard. The on-site staff could only squash in the tent and could not tell.
Fortunately, in the afternoon, heavy rain stopped, and many students were attracted by iGEM this interesting game, and they chose to join iGEM to select the army!
（In order to better introduce synthetic biology to you in a fun way, and in order to enhance the cooperation and communication between the team and the team, we cooperated with OUC to carry out the synthetic biology comics they designed for the campus science popularization activities. Highlights. After we have made certain communication, we will submit the entire plan of the event to OUC for discussion and cooperation. After the event, we will report the activity records and photos to the OUC as a result.）
Public engagement：
1. Interview Citizens of Nanjing City
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.
2.问卷调查
3. Interview with professors and teachers, etc.
① Interview Principle Investigators of Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences
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.
②Interview with doctors from oncology
Interview with doctors from oncology
On August 29, 2018, Huang Zelan, an iGEM member of Nanjing Agricultural University, came to the Department of Oncology of the Third People's Hospital of Luoyang City, Luoyang City, Henan Province, and gave a simple interview with Dr. Guo Jianfeng, director of the Oncology Department. Dr. Guo first had a certain understanding of the iGEM topic, and then answered several questions about EGFR. (This record is the interviewer's later memories)
1.Q: What is the current application of EGFR in hospitals?
Dr. Guo: Targeted therapy for EGFR-sensitive mutations has developed rapidly in the field of cancer therapy, especially in the field of lung cancer, which has been applied clinically to third-generation drugs.
2.Q: What is the approximate cost of EGFR treatment in terms of medication?
Dr. Guo: For the first generation of anti-EGFR sensitive mutation therapy for lung cancer, the cost of drugs that need to be personally burdened is about 2,000 yuan per month (already included in medical insurance), and the cost is acceptable for most patients.
3.Q: How long does it take for a course of treatment for EGFR?
Dr. Guo: For lung cancer patients, 50% of the first-generation targeted drug therapy (median progression-free survival time PFS) occurs in the 11th to 13th month of the drug, and when the drug resistance occurs, it will be certain The adjustments to find new driving genes (targets) to select targeted targeted drugs.
At the same time, through the inquiry of cellular immunotherapy, it is learned that these treatments are mainly applied in tertiary hospitals with high scientific research level. At present, the clinical application is still not very extensive, and it is still in the experimental research stage.
Dr. Guo provided certain data to our team members, some of which are organized as follows:
EGFR can be detected in 80% to 85% of NSCLC patients, and their expression levels vary widely. There are currently three different methods for clarifying the EGFR status of tumor cells, including analysis of gene mutations, detection of gene copy number, and EGFR expression levels. The most common EGFR mutations are exon 19 deletion (E19del) and exon 21 L858R mutation, both of which result in activation of the tyrosine kinase domain, and both with tumor versus small molecule Tkls (erlotinib, gefitini) Ni) is sensitive to sensitivity. These mutations are seen in 10% to 15% of Caucasian NSCLC patients and 30% to 40% of Asian patients.
About 90% of EGFR mutations were seen in patients with tumor remission after erlotinib and gefitinib, while those without remission had no mutations. Subsequent retrospective studies have also demonstrated that patients with lung adenocarcinoma carrying EGFR mutations have an objective response rate approaching 80% after receiving monotherapy and a median progression-free survival of 13 months.
Cooperation and exchange：
1.Nanjing iGEM exchange activities
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!
2.Cooperation with OUC
Cooperation with OUC
In order to better introduce synthetic biology to you in a fun way, and in order to enhance the cooperation and communication between the team and the team, we cooperated with OUC to carry out the synthetic biology comics they designed for the campus science popularization activities. Highlights. After we have made certain communication, we will submit the entire plan of the event to OUC for discussion and cooperation. After the event, we will report the activity records and photos to the OUC as a result.
3.6th Asia-Pacific Conference
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!
4.5th Conference of China iGEMer Community
5th Conference of China iGEMer Community
By participating in the 5th CCIC Conference, we listened to many other team's projects and further thought about our own project. At the same time, we also listened to many masters' reports and gained a lot of valuable experience from them, which greatly broadened our vision.
We attended the 5th CCIC Conference held by ShanghaiTech University from August 28 to August 30. More than 50 teams from Chinese universities and high schools participated in the meeting. During the meeting, each team displayed its project through PPT, posters and other means, looking for problems and perfecting the project with the help of judges and other teams. We also gained many valuable suggestions from judges and other teams in the process of displaying our project. For example, the judges put forward some requirements for us in terms of digital models and other teams also put forward some questions about our digital models.
In addition to sharing and exchanging projects, listening to the master's report and the experience sharing meeting of IGEM's predecessors also benefited us a lot. Through the master's report, we learned about the current situation and future development direction of synthetic biology. The experience of IGEM predecessors such as Haoqian Zhang in participating in the competition is of great significance for us to participate in the competition in Boston.
During the CCIC meeting, we gained a lot of valuable experience, which will greatly improve our project. At this meeting, we got a lot of harvest.
Explore：
1. APP
Significance
Regarding the planning of this HP-related event, we have conceived a more unique idea - the development and production of iGEM's exclusive app.
1. At present, all the information about iGEM in China's participating regions comes from: QQ group, WeChat group, Post bar, Zhihu, iGEM official website, etc. The information about the events that these platforms can get is more scattered and in a certain The timeliness, authenticity, and referability of the information obtained on these platforms are not guaranteed.
2. The above-mentioned platforms have more participants, some of them are current and former teams or instructors, but there are also some groups that have little to do with the competition, which leads to the confusion of the entire source of information. As a result, the information that you want to obtain cannot be found effectively and targetedly.
3. Everyone lacks a platform to share resources. There are many teams in these platforms who want to acquire or purchase some resources, such as: a certain bacteria, a genetic sequence, etc. Some people want to contact some participating school teams; others will consult, for example, how to cultivate a certain bacteria; There will also be some teams that will post some of the relevant conference events they hold, etc., and invite other teams to participate. This reflects a problem, you need a reliable and specific platform to obtain or publish resources. This platform needs to be centralized and specific, and there is a need to simplify the various steps involved.
4. Getting information about the events of the past is cumbersome. Due to the official website setting of iGEM, the official website of the corresponding year can only be registered if it is registered, so that it is known that the entire detailed information of the participating teams in the same year and the characteristics of the team's topic are somewhat different. What are the disadvantages? What are the shortcomings? What can provide experience for future teams?
5. It is difficult for domestic teams to communicate with foreign teams. Many foreign websites or social platforms, domestic landing registration is more troublesome, and because of the different resources of each participating team, many teams rarely have the opportunity to exchange and learn with foreign teams, it is difficult to achieve a more international innovation. .
Features
1. Based on Android platform, support Android5.0 and above devices.
2. Receive official news, notices, etc.
3. Publish blog posts in the forum for all users to browse. Blog posts consist of image text.Bowen is divided into different parts, such as experiments, life and so on.
4. Comment or reply to a blog post posted by someone in the form of an image.
5. Remind users to view this blog post or comment via "@" "User Nickname".
6. Collect blog posts.
7. Search for blog posts by one or more keywords and sort the search results by time, page view and collection.
8. Focus on the team or user.
9. Create or join a team and become a team member to use their team space.
10. Introduce your team to others through team space, show team research directions and other information.
11. Post a blog post in team space, or view blog posts posted by team members.
12. Add an album to your team space or post a photo in an album.
13. Some gadgets developed using this application.
Outlook
The App we conceived can be similar to domestic knowledge, small red books, etc., can provide comprehensive information on the release of events, each team to register their own team home page, various activities related to iGEM, question answer and experience sharing , topic discussion, live video, experimental supplies, and more.
1. Publish event information: Be able to update all notifications and news about iGEM in a timely manner.
2. Registration of each participating team: Each participating team can have its own space. In this space, the team's dynamics can be released at any time. Whether it is experience, event photos, troubles, etc., the members of this shared space are members of this team. This space is a space shared by them. At the same time, other teams can come to visit. Of course, you can take privacy settings for some information that you don't want to disclose. The advantage of this space is to reserve resource information for future teams, and to create an environment for the participating teams to share memories. This team registration will be updated year by year, similar to a QQ number, which can be grouped by year or team name, which can facilitate future players to communicate with previous players. At the same time, other teams can also communicate more easily with the team they are looking for through this app. For other teams, other teams are similar to a QQ group, and they can choose the communication objects they want to find.
3. Related activities: For example, this year's Taiwan exchange meeting was organized by ZTE University in Taiwan. They distributed information to the QQ group, but as the number of chats increased and new members joined, the news gradually Being overwhelmed, it needs constant updates, it is very troublesome. This app can provide an event publishing platform for all teams similar to this, and can perform dynamic page flipping of the event on the homepage, and for those who want to know the latest activities, specials can also click directly to the event. "This function bar performs conditional screening and selects satisfactory activities to participate." Of course, the team that organizes the event can choose to send invitations and other forms of event notification invitations so that they expect the invited team to be informed in a timely manner.
4. Questions and Answers: A special brainstorming area where you can ask questions and even invite designated people to answer them. Of course, others can also discuss them. You can also post a topic on the latest iGEM related issues, discuss it, and more. (public)
5. Live video: Promotional videos, or interesting videos related to experiments, etc., can be released, of course, these require some review. You can watch, comment, and forward (to your own space, you can share the video you need in space for everyone to watch and learn) and so on.
6. Purchase of experimental related supplies and other resources: Provide a small platform similar to Taobao. You can purchase the necessary supplies for the relevant experiments. You may contact some related biotech companies in the later stage to provide them with platform-related experimental products. Sale. Or you can buy some of the strains, sequences, etc. that the team is selling. (provided that it is legal and capable of responding to biosafety)
Some of the current basic functional concepts are above, and improvements and innovations can be made later.