Team:ASIJ Tokyo/Human Practices
HUMAN PRACTICES
We have three aspects of human practices: integrated practices, collaboration with the other iGEM teams, and educational outreach.
For integrated human practices, Dr. Kagimoto, a founder of a biotech company, taught us about the recent development in gene editing and stem cell research. He also gave us insights on how these can be combined and applied to treat mutational diseases in the future in a way that would benefit the patients, inspiring us to choose this topic for our project this year. Dr. Seyama, a researcher at Jutendo University, enhanced our background knowledge on A1AT Deficiency, the specific disease we decided to target in our project to apply these methods. Furthermore, we were fortunate to receive advice on our construct design by Tokyo Tech and Bochan Lab, who suggested us to use a histidine tag to improve our protein purification process.
Throughout the project, our team was able to reach out to other iGEM teams such as the Lacas Biobots through video chat and the iGEM teams in East Japan at a meetup. Through these interactions with the other team, we were able to gain insight on each others projects and learn how the other teams apply synthetic biology in different ways.
Finally, we were able to implement education outreaching by leading a forensics lab during the ASIJ Summer Passport Camp program, leading a discussion with the GOA Medical Problem Solving Course regarding developments in genetic engineering, and finally presenting to ASIJ student parents during the High School Back-to-School Night.
Educational Outreach
DNA Fingerprinting with ASIJ Summer Passport Program
June 21st, 2018:
At ASIJ summer school, iGEM students helped to educate middle school students taking a forensic science course about utilizing fingerprints for crime investigation. We talked about the use of gel electrophoresis and explained the function of restriction enzymes and electricity for the experiment. Finally, we let everyone in the group use the scientific procedure to discover their unique fingerprints.
GOA Online Presentation
September 17, 2018
iGEM students talked to Medical Problem Solving I students on Global Online Academy (GOA) about future treatments with immunotherapy, gene therapy, and cell therapy with iPS stem cells. GOA is a collection of online courses that are in schools in over 24 countries, allowing us to reach a broad and multinational group of students. In our presentation, we implemented a case study with A1AD Deficiency to showcase our use of CRISPR editing in our iGEM project and future use of organ buds.
Back to School Night
September 20, 2018
Back to School Night is a day where parents come to school to meet their child's teachers. On this day, the iGEM team presented to a group of parents who were interested in learning about what we do as a club. We explained about our project and things we learned by being on the team.
Collaboration and Integrated Practice
Talking with Dr. Kagimoto
June 4th, 2018
The iGEM team met with Dr. Hardy Kagimoto, founder of the Japanese biotech company Healios. During our meeting with him, we learned about the possible future implications of iPS cell technology and the development of this new industry in the context of Japanese regulations. Specifically, we talked about how using these technologies to combat mutational diseases like A1AT Deficiency could improve the patients' physical, mental, and even economic burdens as it would completely cure the disease as opposed to merely suppressing the disease. This means that patients could be treated with one time treatment rather than having to constantly visit the hospitals during their lifetime. We were inspired by his work and wanted to know how we could also contribute to this field of research. The talk with him was our initial inspiration for starting this project.
iGEM Pakistan Video Call
June _____, 2018
During the summer portion of our lab work, we participated in a Skype call with the Pakistan high school iGEM team, known as LACAS Biobots. We explained our projects to each other, took virtual lab tours, and got to know another HS team and the different ways in which various teams work.
Tokyo Tech Meetup
August 8, 2018
During the summer, iGEM teams from across Japan attended a meetup held by Tokyo Tech University. KAIT, Bochan lab, Gifu University, Tokyo Tech, and ASIJ. Our team presented, along with the other teams, the progress we have made throughout the year. After each presentation, we had a QnA where many good suggestions were made, which everybody followed up on after all the presentations over snacks. Our team received a helpful suggestion from the Tokyo Tech and Gifu team about the use of a histidine tag to simplify and speed up the protein purification process, also making a more accurate result.
Feedback from Dr. Seyama
August 14, 2018
One of the iGEM students was able to contact Dr. Kuniaki Seyama in Juntendo University Department of Pulmonary Medicine, who researched A1AT Deficiency in the past. In addition to providing us professional perspective on our project, he informed us about the current medical treatment, the mechanism of the disease, and how it typically progresses in patients.