Difference between revisions of "Team:NCKU Tainan/Human Practices"

Revision as of 10:18, 10 October 2021

Overview

Communicating science to the public isn’t an easy task; sometimes, we need to adjust how we deliver our research depending on the audience we face. Before the approach, we also need to understand what benefit the audience will receive from the systems and technology we bring. Therefore, Human practice became an indispensable part of our project, which acts as a bridge between researchers and general audience or even experts in different fields. We believe that only if we closely collaborate with professionals and deeply investigate the potential consumers demands can we ensure our product development is beneficial to our community. We explore and seek for innovated ideas though every interaction with different groups and optimize our product designs.We construct a framework of our human practice project that can be categorized as two main parts: business promotion and education. Throughout the business promotion part, we reached out to several experts for an optimization of functionalities of our product and constructed our business model with considerations regarding aspects of intellectual property, laws, and regulations. To mature our designs, we determine to turn to various respects of the community: doctors, researchers and experts involved in the business side of product development.

The educational section, on the other hand, was a collective set targeting at several audiences to transfer biosynthetic science. We attempted to discover multiple approaches and viable options to promote our products and collect feedbacks from our audiences

We realize that the deeper research we dive in, the more uncertainty and unknown emerge as accompany. However, the desire to develop mature product that meets the market demands urges us to keep investigating our core issue: what is the solution to depression? and we keep asking: how do we position ourselves and our research product? Our iGEM project is to intrigue more people’s interests and come together to solve this complicated and challenging issue.

Expert visits

Before we are able to get started on developing our idea into a product, we need to make sure that our idea is as close to perfect as possible, and that means tons of research and experiments. But, the real problem with many ideas, and perhaps the reason why many fail to become a success, is a lack of expertise. No matter how much time and effort we put into research, there will always be an expert who knows the topic or even industry much better than we do. So, to help further verify and improve our ideas, we visited several experts in different fields.

Online Expert Meetup
Dry Lab Visits

Dr. CHEN,BO-SI 5/28

Attending Physician, Division of Nephrology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital

We met with Dr. Te-Hui Kuo to gain knowledge about Chronic Kidney Disease. He provided us with invaluable insight into the connection between p-Cresol and Chronic Kidney Disease. We met with him during the early stages of the project, and he advised us to keep expanding on the idea of using blood measurement for uremic toxins. He also warned us that the public and even doctors don’t pay much attention to uremic toxins, which encouraged us to design activities to spread awareness, which you can find in our public engagement.

Professor Yu-Cheng Lin

Professor, Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung University

Our first hardware idea was to detect human stress levels through saliva, we planned to extract cortisol which is the biomarker of stress, by detecting cortisol levels throughout a couple of days, we will be able to determine someone’s depression level. We made several discussions with professor Yu-Cheng Lin due to the fact that he has the real experience of extracting the different substances from saliva and detect the concentration of several substances through the paper-based electrochemical device. We wanted to continue and make this concept a reality, but suddenly covid-19 strikes Taiwan, so we were not able to go into any lab and we finally suspend the idea then search for another alternative.

Professor Chung-Hsien Wu

Professor, Department of Computer Science, National Cheng Kung University

Due to the fact that covid-19 in Taiwan escalated very quickly, we were thinking to find another way to build something even that we are not present physically. Then, we had an idea to made an artificial intelligence that can automatically detect depression using sound, and because none of our team members is from the Department of computer science we asked for guidance from Prof. Chung-Hsien Wu in developing the artificial intelligence.

Professor Chien-Hsiang Chang

Professor, Department of chemical engineering, National Cheng Kung University

Before settling with our current procedure of manufacturing Menbels, we wanted to make sure that our procedure and knowledge are sufficient for us to meet the requirements and make our system feasible to work. And professor Chien-Hsiang Chang has experience in making alginate layers to wrap several substances, Prof. Chang also ensures us that our plan is feasible and isn’t very hard to perform.

Enterprise visit

Just because an idea is good does not always mean it will sell well in the market. Our product may be designed and modified in the laboratory and adjusted to maximize its performance. However, we needed advice from potential stakeholders to ensure our product will meet real-world demands. We need to interact with industries to understand more about the industrial environment and current market situation. So, in order to refine our idea into a product suitable for the market, we visited several enterprises.

Trade wind biotech

Trade Wind Biotech is the pioneer company based in Taiwan that implements synthetic biology as their core technique. We were given the opportunity to visit their factory and laboratory led by Dr.Lance, the CEO of TWBIO. This year, we invited team CCU_Taiwan to join us in this trip to further strengthen our partnership. Both of our teams presented to Dr.Lance and received many feedback with insightful comments regarding our projects, especially on entrepreneurship and presentation skills. We even tried their probiotics coffee which claimed to provide skinny benefits!

Chen En Food Product Enterprise Co., Ltd

Our team was honored to be able to interview the general manager of Chen En Food Product Enterprise, Mr.Vincent, as Chen En is one of the largest bubble suppliers in both local and global markets. Before the online interview session began, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with them. We firstly presented our project idea to them and held a Q&A session afterwards. As a giant bubble supplier, their comments were critical and on point which assisted us in realizing the blind spots of our project at the time, like can we cook our bubble with the engineered bacteria inside and regarding the flavours. In addition, they also gave us some valuable market datas for our references. Through this interview session, we gained many insights and inspiration to further improve our project as a whole.

8D Tea Fresh Kitchen

To deepen our understanding of how traditional bubble tea shops work, we visited a local handmade bubble tea shop in Nantou. During the visits, we interviewed them and asked some questions regarding their IoT live kitchen, which is quite unique and advanced. They also suggested we market our product as chilled ready-to-eat (RTE) food, this is a life-changing comment for us. Before the visit, we were troubled by the sterilization and bubble heating process. Thanks to their suggestion, we are now able to categorize and understand the placement of our product in the market. Apart from this, we also witnessed how they made bubbles from scratch. It was definitely a visit full of learning experiences. For more details, please click on the file below!

2019 NCKU iGEM OMG Survey

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are becoming more and more prevalent in our society due to its potential in many different fields, including pharmaceutical field. There is a large amount of misconceptions and controversies surrounding GMOs. Despite the majority of scientists and researchers pushing for GMOs, it seems like the public are getting more and more wary about it.

In order to have a better idea of how the public perceives GMOs in the context of our Oh My Gut project, we developed an opinion survey about GMOs and their use in the treatment of CKD. We were fortunate enough to be able to spread this survey to international citizens. We received responses from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, Spain, Mexico, China, Canada, India and Greece.

Population Sample

From the responses we got, we know that nearly 80% of responses were comprised of those aged 18 - 25 and 41 - 65 (see Fig. 1). It was relieving to know that a large majority has received high school-level education at the very least (see Fig. 2), although only 19% were of scientific backgrounds (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 1. Age distribution

Fig. 2. Highest education level

Fig. 3. Background

Knowledge on CKD

First, we wanted to assess the sample population’s general knowledge of Chronic Kidney Disease. Thus, we established several questions to learn more about their level of information. It was quite a surprise to us that only 47% of them had heard of CKD (see Fig. 4) and only 10% admits to being quite knowledgeable about CKD (see Fig. 5). When asked about current treatments for CKD (see Fig. 6), 58% admitted to knowing nothing. The most well-known method was dialysis and kidney transplant, with 22% and 11% responses respectively. Other responses include medicine, diet control, controlling blood pressure/sugar and active charcoal.

From these responses, we could deduce that there is still a lack of education and knowledge when it comes to Chronic Kidney Disease. The responses inspired us to launch a workshop aimed at elementary students, to educate them about kidneys with a hands-on approach. (See public engagement)

Fig. 4. Have you heard of CKD?

Fig. 5. What is your understanding of CKD? (5 being an expert on CKD)

Fig. 6. What are the current treatments for CKD?

Living Therapeutic Acceptance

Second, we wanted to assess the sample population’s acceptance when it comes to living therapeutic. Thus, we established a few questions to understand more about their stance on living therapeutic (engineered bacteria used as medical treatments). Only 37% were supportive of genetic engineering, while 31% were considerably neutral (see Fig. 7). 39% approved the development of ‘gene-edited’ bacterial drugs, while only 34% agreed to use said bacterial drugs.

From these responses, we could deduce that there is still a large percentage of people who do not fully support or are neutral about gene editing, especially when it comes to gene-edited bacterial drugs. As such, we can conclude that there is still a long way to go before gene-edited pharmaceutical products like CreSolve (our live therapeutic drug) is able to hit the market. However, we are still optimistic that given enough time and education, live therapeutics can become a staple in medical treatments.

Fig. 7. What is your level of support for ‘Genetic Engineering’ or ‘Genetic Modification’?

Fig. 8. What is your level of support for the development of "gene-edited" bacterial drugs?

Fig. 9. Will you agree to use "gene edited" bacterial drugs?

p-Cresol Detector Acceptance

Last, we wanted to assess the sample population’s acceptance when it comes to utilizing a p-Cresol Detector. Thus, we established a few questions first to understand the current situation and whether or not there is a need for this detector. 38% have ever done a kidney function test (see Fig.10), but only a mere 9% has ever done a self-paid uremic toxin test (see Fig. 11). However, we cannot know for sure if the reason there is only a small percentage of people doing uremic toxin tests is because of lack of knowledge or lack of need.

We performed this survey to understand more about what the public wants and needs when it comes to a uremic toxin detector, to further understand CreSense, our blood p-Cresol quantification device’s value in the market. Most are concerned about the accuracy and cost of the device, with 67% only accepting the device if the price-tag is below 50 USD. That being said, we are happy to say that each CreSense test will cost less than $2, which is much lower than the public’s estimation.

Fig. 10. Have you ever did a "Kidney Function Test" (Ex: Creatinine test)?

Fig. 11. Have you ever did a "self-paid uremic toxin test"?

Fig. 12. Which of the following are you concerned about when choosing a "blood uremic toxin detector"? (Multiple choice)

Fig. 13. What amount of "self-paid detection fee" can you accept? (Amount in USD)

Entrepreneurship

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Collaboration

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Communication

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