Team:NTHU Formosa/Human Practices

Conference

Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference

　 From July 30th to Aug 3rd, we joined the Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference hosted by iGEM NCHU Taichung in Chung Hsing University. More than twenty iGEM teams from Taiwan, China, and Japan gathered around and shared the incredible projects. Lively discussion surrounds all the time after team presentations and at posters sessions, where we gained many valuable advices from professors and other iGEMers.

　 In the evening, teams hung out, had dinner, visited night markets, while sharing funny stories and problems encountered during the preparation of Giant Jamboree. Mouth-watering chicken fillet and freshly made pearl milk tea sure brought us closer together. We had a great time, especially with iGEM Fudan-CHINA, iGEM NAU, and iGEM XMU-China, who kindly approached us looking for the possible cooperation further in the future.

　 It was a precious experience and practice for us to present our project in front of so many Asia iGEMers before Giant Gamboree. Great thanks to NCHU Taichung iGEM team for hosting such wonderful conference!!

Mini-seminar with Mingdao, NCTU_Formosa and NTHU_Taiwan

　 On July 23rd, four teams from Taiwan gathered together, presented our projects in turn and exchanged feedback with each others. Fresh, creative ideas made this conference not only inspirational but also unforgettable.

　 We were glad to be a part of this conference taking place in NCTU. It was thrilling knowing this conference is arranged and hosted by Mingdao High School team, which has been participating and obtaining good results in iGEM.for years. 20 minutes presentation and 10 minutes questions and answer times were yielded to each team.

　 Mingdao aims to build low-cost, rapid-screening and accurate diagnostic device of HIV, living mosquitos is involving in this portable device!

　 NCTU_Formosa introduced their system of balancing varieties of bacterial growth in the soil by applying corresponding amount of bacteriocin.

　 NTHU_Taiwan intends to regulate the population of bacteria Vibrio, which possess great potential of commercializing.

　 All projects are pursuing a better future for human or industries. This seminar helped all teams to re-examine the feasibility and conprehensive aspects of their projects for further improvement.

Questions about BioWatcher asked by other teams in this mini-seminar:

1. Bioluminescence is too weak to penetrate tissue?

　 The bioluminescence used in BioWatcher has an emission wavelength of 490 nm. Although the intensity of bioluminescence at this wavelegth is not as strong as a aprt of it will be absorbed by body tissue, experiments proved the successful bioluminescence penetration captured under imaging system. Besides,the fact that this mild intensity of this bioluminescence is invisible to naked eye can ease the users’ concern of turning into green-glowing lamp.

2. Concerns about applying engineered cells in human bodies

　 The application of our system can be widely used in detecting soluble and insoluble ligands in the enviroment, living organisms and,our ultimate pursuit, in human bodies which post serious concerns. In terms of deliverying engineered cells into human body, invasive and noninvasive measures, such as injection, nasal delivery and viral therapy, are considered.However, we faced our biggest challenge--choosing the proper cell to be applied. Several aspects need to be evaluated including life span of the cells, its amount in circulating system, possible immune rejection…etc. As hard as it is, existing cellular immunotherapy is keeping our hopes up. Undoubtedly, this project is still immature. However, white blood cells and mesenchymal stem cells are our candidates so far.

Industry

　 On July 16th, we visited Singular Wings Medical, a very successful award-winning biotech wearables startup, to learn about biotech industry and how our project--BioWatcher is perceived in industrial and commercial point of view.

　BioWatcher is a very novel and tentative idea, though; we believe BioWatcher has potential in the diagnosis industry. Entrepreneurship is the ultimate goal where biologists bring biotech into the real world and make the world a better place. Therefore, we presented BioWatcher to Singular Wings Medical, a very successful award-winning biotech wearables startup.

　While Singular Wings Medical was very impressed with our innovative idea, several interesting and important concerns and useful advices were proposed during the discussion.

Why watch?

　 It’s true that watch is not the only available option for bioluminescence detecting devices.As Singular Wings Medical suggested,manufacturing a portable handy bioluminescence detector for our project is a way easier approach than trying to alter current smartwatches or come up with new brand of watch to compete with the existing smartwatches on the market.

　 We totally agree that, at the developing stage of a company, launching a portable device instead of smartwatch will become great help to the company’s finance. However, the idea of BioWatcher was partly inspired by smartwatches and we are still aiming at this incredibly huge wearable markets. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), PMR and Gartner, in 2017 alone, there are 121.7 million shipments in wearable market, in which smartwatches took up half of the shipments. The predicted 2017-2021 CAGR of smartwatches and wristband combined is up to 24.9%, while their predicted 2021 market share is 89.7%, the highest among all wearables. "Smartwatches are on pace to achieve the greatest revenue potential among all wearables through 2021, reaching $17.4 billion," said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner. All in all, we are targeting a vast market and, hopefully, we can bring BioWatcher to the real life.

　 Being a successful startup owner, the manager of Singular Wing Medical, Mr. Lee, generously share his experience in starting a company. Transforming lab experiments into real product need to take up dozens of years. Even after we overcome all the biotechnology and ethic issues, hardware development will spend us quite awhile.

　 Therefore, he encouraged us to make plans gradually-- before our whole non-invasive real-time report blood test system become mature, we can take a step back by developing an improved and optimized blood test system and devices in the current diagnostic industry, such as micro-measurements or electrochemistry approach, to support the startup when developing our ultimate goal—BioWatcher.

　 We greatly appreciated this chance to learn a lot about the experience from a successful senior and we hope to have more discussion and mentor in terms of entrepreneurship.

　 Presentation skill is one of the most crucial parts of promoting ideas and attracting corporate sponsors. Before the meeting ended, the importance of delivering a good presentation is emphasized many times. Singular Wings Medical pinpointed the weak point of our presentation and devoted a great deal of time carefully teaching us how to make a brief persuasive pitch that catches the listeners’ attention. Lessons learned: logic, coherence, precision and painting a good story for our audience are vital. After this meeting, we revised our presentation for so many times and hopefully can bring our best show to the stage.

About Singular Wings Medical

　 Singular Wings Medical is a very successful startup known for its award-winning biotech wearable products–CardiNova, a series of smart cardiovascular symptoms detector/pocketsize ECG recorder for cardiovascular-related diseases prevention and prognostic follow-up by non-invasively detecting early signs of abnormality. All data can be tracked whenever and wherever the users want to. Due to the similarity between Cardinova and Biowatcher, our team contacted the company and set up a meeting, which is proved to be very valuable and helpful. We cannot thank Singular Wings Medical enough.

Academics

Academics

Meeting Doctor Chang,Hsing-Chih

　 The ultimate goal of BioWatcher is to apply this system on human to prevent late-stage cancers by early diagnosis. Therefore, we turned to Mr. Chung, a doctor who has PhD degree in molecular and cellular oncology in MD Anderson Cancer Center and currently works in Mackay Memorial Hospital for his experiences in clinical/cancer cases. What we discussed includes the potential and limitation of diagnostic biomarkers, the accuracy of diagnosis using biomarkers, and most importantly the design of BioWatcher.

1. What kind of cell is a suitable reporter cell candidate for modification?

ANS: Mesenchymal stem cells

A suitable candidate should possess properties listed:

1. Compatible with targeted human immune system

2. Can be easily modified

　 Prior to the meeting, white blood cell was on our list of choice. Yet, it was taken off list due to its inevitable interference with blood composition as the modified ones are introduced into humans’ circulating system. Dr. Chang suggested Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and Dendritic cells (DCs). Maturing of BioWatcher with time will give us more insight for the choice.

Known downside of MSCs-- its life span is not as long as we preferred—have us hesitate. However, regarding the immunoregulatory capacity of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and the fact that it has been widely used in many cell therapies, MSCs, in this case, become top choice for us. DCs are considered because of its antitumor immunity and the cases of Dendritic cell-based immunotherapy.

2. Mechanism for erasing all reporter cells in users is necessary.

　 Dr. Chang strongly recommended that we design a mechanism for wiping out the reporter cells introduced in user when we ignorantly think that the reporter cell is harmless and shortly mortal while overlook the importance of biosafety and the possible allergy responses in users. Therefore, we introduce AID, the auxin-inducible degradation system, in which targets are degraged in response to auxin, into the design of BioWatcher.