Project Idea
During our journey towards MIKROSKIN, our project's aims and definitions have changed. We owe these changes to the feedback we have gotten both from experts and the public. Before choosing our project we asked the public for problems they thought we could solve with synthetic biology, through the 'Make your Impact' survey. We then analyzed the problems, and thought of possible solutions. Throughout this brainstorming process we got in contact with experts in respective fields, who were invited to the panel discussion where we chose our project: MIKROSKIN.
With a background in glycoscience, associate professor Lauren McKee helped us develop our project idea, which at this point in time entailed:
- Performing sequencing studies on healthy and unhealthy microbiomes by skin samples of voluntary participants
- Creating an aptamer based rapid test to detect imbalances in skin microbiota, targeting strains of S. aureus and C. acnes
- Creating a prebiotic
Project Initiation and Development
When initiating our project, we focused on the creation of our rapid test. For input on our protocols, we contacted SELEX expert Dimitri. For feedback on C. acnes cultivation we contacted XXX. Furthermore we contacted PhD student Darko Mitrovic, who introduced us to the potential uses of dry-lab operations, as well as the molecular dynamics softwares AMBERTools and GROMACS. Alexander blah blah title informed us on modelling of aptamers.
When approaching the idea of sequencing the microbiomes of volunteers, we noticed our lack of knowledge about the ethical implications. What responsibility do we have when it comes to informing the participants on the state of their microbiome? How do we justify storing their personal data? To answer these questions we contacted SynthEthics - an initiative founded by previous iGem teams, specializing in ethics regarding synthetic biology. During our SynthEtics workshop (insert link to event page about this here) we got specific feedback on how to tackle the ethical issues within our project. We ultimately decided against sequencing skin microbiomes, since the ethical implications of collecting and storing personal data surpassed the value this would bring to our project. However, since the implementation of our product entails handling skin samples, we needed to address this. We contacted Fredrik Blix, Associate professor in Cybersecurity with 25 years of experience in data protection (GDPR). Fredrik taught us the basics about GDPR and business planning in our 'From iGem to Entrepreneur' workshop (insert hyperlink to event page) and recommended we avoid handling personal data altogether. The contact with Blanka Novak and Erik Hartman from Synthetics and our contact with Fredrik Blix led to the formulation of our Ethics workplan (insert hyperlink).
During the project initiation we wanted to make sure there was a need for our product. We also wanted to get a better understanding of how skin conditions affect the individual. That is why we conducted the 'Skin Microbiota survey'. From the 154 respondents we learned that close to 80% experience skin problems, most of them struggling with acne. For 30% of respondents, the state of their skin leads to insecurity. We also learnt that 99% were open to learning if the state of their skin was linked to their skin microbiota, and that 98% were open to using a rapid test for this purpose. Multiple respondents stressed the importance of the rapid test being linked to a solution to their skin problem. This was eye-opening for us and made us consider possible applications of MIKROSKIN more closely. Our main focus was now providing a tool for dermatologists with which they could properly treat acne and atopic dermatitis - by monitoring antibiotic treatment of it or deciding against antibiotics and recommending pro/prebiotics if no imbalance in disease-causing bacteria was shown.
Focus Shift
To confirm that our focus on helping dermatologists treat acne was right, we contacted dermatologist and co-founder of the Swedish dermatology clinic 'Kirurgiskt hudcenter' Frida Bjornro, MD. In our conversations with Frida we learned more about the treatment of acne and it became clear that the implementation part of our project needed a focus shift - we needed to think broader. Instead of focusing on one skin condition we formulated the idea of a customizable high throughput test. Additionally, we shifted the focus in our business plan from dermatologists as our main customers, to researchers.
We presented our idea to Prof. and Dermatologist Kemeny Lajos and Dr. Kornelia Szabo of the Dermatological Research Group at University Of Szeged, who saw value in using MIKROSKIN in their own research. They assured us that our product could help establish the relationship between C. acnes and acne, as well as other skin bacteria and respective conditions. They also saw the possibility of a future clinical application in recommending pro/prebiotic treatment to atopic dermatitis patients, and stated that MIKROSKIN could be used to see how different topical skin products impact the colonization of S. aureus.
While listening to the public taught us that they would like to know the potential cause of their skin problems, listening to experts in the field taught us that there is a knowledge gap that needs to be bridged first. These conversations shifted the entrepreneurial course of our project and led to the formulation of our business plan (insert hyperlink) and our prototype (insert hyperlink).