Team:YiYe-China/Communication
Virtual Workshop about the background information of CRC.
On July 30th, our team and BIT hosted a virtual workshop, introducing iGEM、our teams, talking about some knowledge of CRC, and presenting our projects. Through Voov meeting and Bilibili, a Chinese platform, we had nearly 5000 audiences interested in our projects.
Figure 1.Invitation letter and Meeting flowchart for Virtual worshop
During the meeting, we talked about the epidemiology, some common early symptoms, the current diagnostic methods, and some diets helping to prevent the disease. After having some basic idea of CRC, we pointed out certain drawbacks of the present methods, such as side effects, discomfort during and after tests, expensive costs, etc. Such issues deter many patients from getting tested, which results in a high death rate of CRC. Therefore, our team and BIT hope to set up an easy and non-invasive testing system to make detection less uncomfortable.
To build a strong body to prevent from CRC, we pointed out the importance of a healthy diet and a good resting habit. Based on what Dr. Tong said, a variety of food is important, but we should consume more vegetbales and fruits and less fat and sodium, have less red meat (beaf, pork, lamb), and eat more whole grain food. We should also avoid nicotine or alcohol and exercise regularly. Since CRC is a genetic disorder, people have to be extra careful if someone in the family has it. Thus, we recommend people get tested every year if their family members have CRC. For those who don't have a family inheritance, it is still necessary to get tested regularly.
Our final part was the presentation of our projects. By combining CRISPER/CAS and RCA, BIT-China was able to detect miRNA efficiently under room temperature. To facilitate the testing, BIT involved the slip chips in covering the system and performing the detection. Moreover, along with the smartphones which are easy to carry, BIT strived to create the most convenient aided detection. On the other hand, our team hopes to detect cancer polyps through DNA methylation, along with a toehold switch that has a red florescent protein, mCherry, on its tail. We will see the protein glow through naked eyes if the DNA is methylated, which signifies the possibility of cancer.
Figure 2.Screenshots of the Worshop and comments from participants
Finally, during the Q&A section, the audiences posed many questions and shared their perspectives with us. There were also many valuable tips in the comments. But most of them expressed their appreciation for this workshop. They claimed that they were glad to join the meeting and that they learned many things from it. Indeed, one of the audiences left a message anonymously, telling us that her grandfather was diagnosed with CRC, and now the whole family has become very cautious as it could be genetic. She said after hearing our presentation, she had a much better idea of what CRC is, what the symtoms might be, and what should people do to prevent from it, and she promised us that she would recount the information to her other family members so that everyone gets a clear vision. Though it might be too late for her grandfather, at least her family could benefit from what they've learned.
Nowadays, as CRC has become the third leading factor of cancer death worldwide and the fourth most common cancer in China, it is important that people should pay more attention to the disease and to their diets. So, we were glad that our workshop achieved the desired effect of publicing CRC.
Public Campaign in Community
Figure 3. Our brochures, the prepared quizes, and little prizes.
On July 21st, our team hosted a public campaign publicizing our project in a Wuhan community. We distributed our team brochure, asked people to fill out a survey regarding our project, and prepared gifts and surprises for people. We hope that by doing so, more and more people could know certain knowledge about colorectal cancer as well as iGEM.
We brought along our poster, prizes, brochures, surveys, etc. and arrived at the community ahead of time. However, as the weather was blistering hot, we had few people in the beginning. To attract more crowds, we spread out to have more people’s attention. We could still recall that our first participant was an old kind lady, a former professor at Wuhan University. Though she is not young anymore, She remains curious and interested in acquiring new knowledge. She encouraged us to stay positive, "I am sure you will do great!"
Figure 4. Our team members asked people to fill out quizzes.
The campaign went on well as we had planned. When a crowd gathered, we introduced them to the symptoms and dangers of CRC and asked them to fill out a quiz after learning the background of CRC. The participants were all very engaged in our activty, and we received some positive feedback afterwards. If they did well on the quiz, we sent them our little prizes, such as key chains, stickers, paslitic fans as a souvenir. As a result, we successfully raised people's awareness of CRC.
At the end of the campaign, one of the participants stated, “We know more about the danger of CRC. More importantly, we learn a lot about how to prevent from the disease.” “We will get our bodies checked more regularly in the future.” said another.
Public Campaign in Han Street
In the afternoon of July 23rd, we had our project promotion in Han Street. Han Street is one of the most popular and crowded streets in Wuhan. We walked among the crowds, hoping to have more people listen to our project----early detection of CRC.
We divided our team into two groups so that we could encounter more people. Before starting, everyone felt a little uneasy, afraid that people would ignore us or the brochure we sent might be thrown away. Hopefully, with the previous experience in publicizing, we quickly adjusted ourselves and began our work.
Figure 5.A team member Guojing was introducing our project to a participant
Everything was difficult at the beginning. After a few rejections, we successfully distributed the first brochure. With the first success, we issued the second, and the third time, we became more confident and hopeful. Realizing that more people pay attention to their health made us relieved. However, we still encountered some trouble. For instance, quite a few people declined our publicity immediately, and some left before we finished.
Figure 6. A picture of our team in Han Steet with two participants
Despite these setbacks, there were still some highlights. We were amazed that some people voluntarily reached out to us and asked us how to prevent colorectal cancer. Additionally, some people came to encourage us and donated to our foundation.
We remembered that there was an old man who showed great interest in our project. He was diagnosed with CRC a few years ago. Luckily, the was in stage I, so after some proper treatment, the old man regained his health. He said that not everyone could be as fortunate as he was. He mentioned that he went to the doctor becuase he had blood in his stool, but he though it was simply becaseu of hemorrhoids. So, when he was diagnosed with cancer instead, he was shocked. "I never thought it would be cancer. But thank goodness, otherwise, I could have died." Thus, he was grateful that young people like us were paying more attention to CRC, and he believed that our education will reform others as well.
At the end of the day, our new member Guojing exclaimed, "Althoug the weather was very hot, the process was not easy, and it was embarrassing to be rejected, I feel deep from my heart that our event is meaningful, and it can let more people know about colorectal cancer, which helps to reduce the death rate of CRC."
Education on Social Media
YiYe-China has been very active on social media as well to promoto our project and educate peopel about CRC. We have 4 social accounts in total: Wechat public account, Weibo, Instagram, and Twitter.
We have published 12 original creations and received about 55 followers. We talked about certain rules of IGEM, the background infomation about CRC, how to distingusih CRC from hemorrhoid, etc. There were always more than 50 viewers for every post we published. Besides that, we also have 75 followers on Instagram and 18 on Twitter. We posted many stories on Instagram, and meanwhile, we also follow other IGEM teams to learn from each other. On twitter, we participated in the Sponsorship Challenge Question sponsored by GenScript. We shared our team's project idea and talked about our lab procedure and future implication.
Figure 7. Our Team's Instagram Account
With the development of technology, people spend more time on social media. Therefore, by taking advantage of technology, our team is able to educate more people, thus increasing the awareness of CRC.
Education&Communication
This is our Education page, this part contains three parts Virtual Workshop, Public Campaign, and Social Media
- Virtual Workshop
- Public Campaign in community
- Public Campaign in Han Street
- Education on Social Media