Team:GreatBay United/Human Practices

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• Project
  1. Background
  2. Description
  3. Design
  4. Contribution
• Wetlab
  1. Proof of Concepts
  2. Engineering
  3. Result
  4. Measurements
  5. Parts
  6. Safety
  7. Lab Notebook
• Drylab
  1. Hardware
  2. Modeling
  3. Proposed Implementation
  4. Supporting Entrepreneurship
  5. Sustainability
• Human practices
  1. Integrated Human Practice
  2. Education
  3. Education and Communication
  4. Excellence in Other Area
• Team
  1. Team
  2. Attibution
  3. Collaboration
  4. Partnership

• Human Practices
• Social survey and Questionnaire
• Interview with Ocean Park Conservation Foundation
• Integrated Human Practices
• Interview with doctors
• COP 15
• CCIC

Human Practices

Social survey and Questionnaire

In mid-July, our team released a questionnaire on the basic knowledge of bacterial infections and treatment on social media and encouraged the public to participate in the investigation. Most of the people who responded were students and their parents. By October 15th, 109 people had filled in the questionnaire. Many thanks to the people who supported our investigation!

In the questionnaire, we included questions about the basics of bacterial infections, such as their symptoms and simple treatment methods. We hoped to understand how well the public knows about bacterial infections and their treatment. From the survey results we got from the public, we found out that over 70% of people are not familiar with bacterial infections and basic knowledge on how to avoid bacterial infections. And only 9% of the people know about methods of the detection of bacterial infection methods.

Hence, we know that a publication of our project is important, as long as people get to know about bacterial infections, more people can be protected from the disease. It indicates that our project is beneficial and can be helpful for the public.

Interview with Ocean Park Conservation Foundation

In order to better carry out our human practice activities, GreatBay_United needed to know more about the current situation of horseshoe crabs and how professional organisations protect them. At first, we made phone calls to several aquariums and zoos to inquire about the horseshoe crabs living there. However, it was harder than we imagine since they have no idea what it is and one of them even asked if it was dolphin or somehow dolphin related that we were trying to find. However, OPCF was there to help.

We introduced our project to Dr. Judy, she greatly appreciated the work we had done. She believed that if our project was successful and could be known by more people, it would be an influential international project and she was shocked by how a group of high school students could come up with such a brilliant idea.

This meeting with Dr. Judy greatly encouraged us and we wanted more people to be aware of environmental issues and animal protection. What's more, we started to understand that if our project was successful, it would be really meaningful.

Integrated Human Practices

Interview with doctors

For the sections of testing methods, application, and impacts caused by artificial LAL, members of GreatBay_United organized online interviews with doctors and researchers who work in a laboratory. From the discussion, we recognized that the most common method for bacteria testing, cultivation, was time-consuming and involved huge amounts of repetitive work. As a result, it's important if we can develop a highly accurate and rapid artificial LAL.

They also gave us suggestions that we could improve our hardware by adding a temperature controlling device to the testkit. Soon after the interview, we updated our hardware by adding a heating plate to maintain the optimal temperature around 37 Degrees Celsius.

They acknowledged the importance of our project and encouraged us to do further experiments and investigations. They are looking forward to seeing our final application.

COP 15

COP 15 refers to the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The conference's theme is "Ecological Civilisation: Building a Community for Life on Earth," and it is the United Nations' first worldwide conference on the topic of ecological civilisation.

During the conference, GreatBay_United was invited to participate in the "COP 15 Biodiversity Exploration for Youth" held by CEEC. We presented our study to numerous iGEM teams, academics, and experts from other areas, and we addressed how synthetic biology might help with responsible innovation and biodiversity protection. We also looked at the UN Conference on Biological Diversity's pertinent talks, declarations, and spirit. Professor Guan from IUCN said that the conservation of horseshoe crabs requires multidisciplinary collaboration, and he was glad to see that emerging technologies such as synthetic biology can play a role. He also praised us for raising awareness of the conservation of horseshoe crabs through scientific popularization and publicity.

On the basis of preliminary discussions, a draft of the Declaration on The Protection of Biodiversity by Chinese Youth has been preliminarily formed.
It is considered one of the most unique experiences we have had during iGEM. We were all very grateful for having the opportunity to meet with experts excellent in their area and gain advice from them. We were also thrilled to have the chance to join the drafting of the declaration, and to witness one of the milestones made in biodiversity.

CCIC

For GreatBay_United, communication with professors and other iGEM teams is extremely essential. Therefore, we took the chance and participated in the 8th Conference of the China iGEMer Community (8th CCiC). During CCIC, we presented our project to judges and other iGEM teams. We first explained our experimental design, background research and progression on wet lab, dry lab and HP. Afterwards, we were asked by the judges and received professional suggestions.