Beginning
The Federal University of Latin American Integration (UNILA) is a new university founded in 2010, which seeks to bring together students from different parts of Latin America. That is, we are a genuinely Latin American university. The graduation course in Biotechnology was founded in 2015. And in this scenario, we face the initial challenges of creating new research areas in the Biotechnology field at our institution, such as the lack of infrastructure and reagents. However, the motivation of students and teachers work as gears to overcome barriers and promote quality teaching and research daily.
Synthetic biology arrived at our institution recently and inspired students to "make biology easier to engineer". This motivation came with the presentation and workshops of Guilherme Kundlatsch, Alina Rodrigues, and Marcelo de Souza in 2019. After all, how can you not get inspired knowing that it is possible to engineer a bacteria to produce spider silk?
At that time, the challenge of setting up a line of research or working in the area during undergraduation was far from being realized. It would require more people and resources. Therefore, we decided to go down a path where learning and execution would go hand in hand. At worst results, we would learn synthetic biology anyway, and at best, we could learn synthetic biology and encourage other students or even make synthetic biology for everyone. Then, we founded the SynFronteras.Team. (recognized here as UNILA_LatAm) our synthetic biology research group at UNILA, and the SynFronteras.Club, our space for discussion and synthetic biology presentations.
SynFronteras.Club
In 2020, the SynFronteras.Club was created to introduce Synbio to Biotechnology undergraduate students at the Federal University of Latin American Integration (UNILA). The Bachelor in Biotechnology - UNILA currently has 190 students from 13 Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala). Based on this composition, the Club's main objective was to discuss the advances of Latin American professionals and iGEM teams and highlight the different research contexts with biotechnology and synthetic biology in Latin America. Over time, the Club implemented two formats, the first with only meetings and debates. The second made it possible to record the classes and make them available on youtube for the general public, providing audiovisual material on synthetic biology in Portuguese and Spanish (See here). The meetings promoted debates around new tools, methods, and possibilities with synthetic biology. Among the listeners, we had students from UNILA and eleven other Brazilian and foreign institutions. In addition, the meetings allowed us to spread the word of synbio and to gather more members to the SynFronteras Team (iGEM UNILA LatAm). Check out some of the flyers of the meeting we had.
Survey
The SynFronteras team decided to develop a project linked to paratransgenesis and the control of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL) and chose to do a public research to investigate the level of awareness of the city of Foz do Iguaçu, state of Paraná, about this disease. Such data were essential to analyze how much the local population has been instructed about CVL, whether it knows the main means of disease transmission, and whether it is aware of the preventive care it requires, whether in humans or animals. The questionnaire was composed of nine questions, available in Portuguese and Spanish since our university is an institution based on Latin American Integration.
Here we have highlighted a brief summary of the survey main results:
Do you know what Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is?
Graph 1: You can see that more than half of the target audience of our research has knowledge about VL.
If yes, do you know any kind of prevention?
Graph 2: Those who were aware of VL were asked if they prevented themselves from the disease in any way. A total of 64.41% claimed that they prevented themselves, while 33.90% claimed that they did not prevent themselves even though they knew the severity of the disease.
Do you know who is the main responsible for transmitting VL?
Graph 3: According to the answers obtained, 70.11% of the participants reported knowing the vector responsible for transmitting VL, and it is important to highlight that 24.14% believe that this disease is transmitted through domestic animals, that is, many, besides not knowing the main vector of transmission of the disease, are mistaken about the transmitting source. This could trigger future problems, such as abandonment and mistreatment of animals.
Do you know that humans, dogs, cats, and other mammals can be infected with VL?
Graph 4: We also wanted to understand if people participating in our questionnaire were aware that Leishmania could infect both humans and domestic animals. 88.51% said YES, while 11.49% said they didn't know.
Do you think there is any difference between Human and Canine VL?
Graph 5: To complement the results presented in the previous graph, we wanted to understand if they knew how to differentiate Human Visceral Leishmaniasis (HVL) from Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL), 64.37% answered yes and the other 35.63% claimed they could not differentiate.
Which of the symptoms below are typical of an animal infected with LV?
1. Increase in weight, fur growth above normal.
2. Itching, thirst, cold, diarrhea and increased appetite.
3. Fever, weight loss, overgrowth of nails, kidney problems and fur loss.
4. Indisposition, itching, lost of appetite and trembling.
Graph 6: It was also important to analyze the participants' knowledge level regarding the symptoms that CVL can generate in the infected animal. To our joy, more than half of our audience could identify such signs.
In case your pet has been infected with VL, would you know what to do?
Graph 7: According to the results presented in the previous graph, it is possible to observe that even with proper awareness of the symptoms, 55.17% of people would not know what to do in case their animal had been infected.
In your country, have you ever observed any Awareness campaign regarding VL?
Graph 8: Regarding the Awareness Campaigns about VL in the municipality of Foz do Iguaçu, 63.22% of the participants claim they never had contact with one, which shows that these campaigns are not reaching the population or are not being remembered by much of it. 18.39% of these people claim to have seen information about CVL through folders and awareness booklets, another 14.94% through television or social media commercials and 3.45% claim to have had contact on this subject through lectures.
Through our research, it was possible to conclude a need for more public policies that highlight the importance, relevance, and awareness of VL throughout the region; And that the municipal government, together with its representatives, needs to start developing effective campaigns in schools, universities, health posts, veterinary clinics and even in local newspapers, regarding VL and the measures that should be taken in cases of suspicion or diagnosis of it. One of our team's goals in the area of Education & Public engagement is to demystify the idea that VL is transmitted by domestic animals, as many mistakenly think. Therefore, we sent an email to all participants of our questionnaire who agreed, a booklet of awareness in Portuguese and Spanish versions, correctly answering all the questions presented in our form. All the information contained in this booklet was prepared in a didactic way so that everyone could understand its content. Our secondary PI, Professor Kelvinson Viana, Ph.D. in parasitology with experience in the treatment of CVL, was responsible for the technical review of the information.
Solidarity Raffle
In addition to worrying about the local population's awareness level about VL, our team also wanted to positively impact our community and contribute to the animal protectors of our city. For this, we decided to assist one of the most important supporters of our project, the NGO Amigo Peludo (Furry Friend), through a solidarity raffle that raised funds to contribute to the expenses and care of animals supported by them. Currently, this NGO is responsible for more than 100 animals (some of them with LVC), and the cost to maintain them is extremely high.
Our raffle prize was a complete dog kit containing cookies, shampoo, cologne, toys, and a canine feeder. All these items were donations from pet shops that felt identified with the proposal and values of our team and wanted to help the animal cause. We want to thank everyone who helped us in the elaboration and purchase of the raffle. We reached R$705 in three weeks, exceeding our goal of R$500, and this amount was transferred directly to pet shops that are partners of the NGO and reverted to the purchase of animal feed.
The technical elaboration of the raffle counted with the collaboration of the USP-Brazil team through Maria Eliza Porto Pires. She helped us create the form (in which people fill in their personal information to participate), suggested which should be the raffle payment options, indicated websites to do the raffle draw, and even gave us tips on how to pay cheaper shipping. (Yeah, she's the best!).
The first meeting between the teams took place through google meet, in which Maria Eliza presented us the USP-Brazil raffle form and explained step by step how they achieved sales success. As we were building the structure of our raffle, several doubts arose, but Maria Eliza was always there to save us. But, this wasn't a one-way collaboration; we also helped team USP-Brazi in an amazing project they created, the Brazilian Synthetic Biology Olympiad. Team Members Giulio Braatz and Samuel Chagas, and our PI, Dr. Cristian Rojas, were very committed to creating two questions to be used in the Olympics. This collaboration between the two groups has further strengthened our admiration and respect, and, of course, we are honored to be part of this important achievement for our country.