Team:UAlberta/IntegratedHP
INTEGRATED HUMAN PRACTICES
Description
Introduction to Integrated Human Practices
The Beetector was designed with beekeepers' advisement at every step of development. Following our 2018 project, the Antifungal Porphyrin-based Intervention System (APIS), we developed a very strong connection with the Alberta Beekeeping Commission (ABC) which represents all commercial beekeepers in Alberta. The ABC was very passionate about our APIS project, and when deciding on our project for this year they reached out to us about an issue that they thought was particularly important: detecting Nosema ceranae, because if you can’t detect something, then how can you treat it? Following their input, we began to research the issue, plan out our product, create, and test it. At every step, beekeepers were consulted and it was their knowledge, passion, and concern that fuelled our work.
“It’s hard to see when its a Nosema problem. [Because] there was never a very clear way to say hey this issue is because of Nosema… It's kinda mysterious, you know, it's there, but you don't know how much damage it does…[and] you want to know if it's there” - Paul Christensen
Finding the Beetector
In 2018, UAlberta developed APIS - a treatment for N. ceranae- and our preliminary findings showed that APIS could be effective at treating N. ceranae. We developed the APIS project after extensive communication and collaborations with beekeepers and beekeeping organizations. But it was not until September that we connected with the ABC, the organization which represents all commercial beekeepers in Alberta, at that point they helped to inform our project but the majority of their support came from them funding our work. After the Jamboree, the council was impressed with our work and invited us to speak at their conference, from there they asked us to continue our work to deal with the issue of N. ceranae. It was through extensive consultation with them that we learned that detection was also an issue. Meaning that if we truly wanted to help the beekeeping community it was too early to turn away from the issue of N. ceranae, but we knew we needed to tackle it from a different angle.
“Alberta Beekeepers Commission has served the interests of Alberta beekeepers since 1933. Today, we support our 175 producers, work with industry and other partners to innovate and grow, and fund research to keep our bees healthy and our industry sustainable.”
But of course, when deciding to tackle an issue, you can't just speak with one organization, so we consulted beekeepers (hobbyist and commercial) from across Canada, spoke with those who research bees, and consulted those that produce products for beekeepers. This confirmed that detection is truly an issue, and because so many members of the community had expressed concern regarding the issue of detection, we knew we had to address it.
“Anything that helps to understand what’s going on, that can be done quickly would be fantastic, I would appreciate that.” - Tim Kihn, hobbyist beekeeper based out of Sherwood Park
Creating a detailed plan for detection
Our next step was to create a project proposal for the ABC. This project proposal was given to them to provide us with feedback about all aspects of our project (including human practices, as they are now very passionate about iGEM) as well as to see if they would fund our project. We thought it was important to speak with them first, as they sparked the idea and because they represent numerous beekeepers here in Alberta. Moreover, giving them our proposal meant that their entire board --14 commercial beekeepers-- would review our plans and provide feedback, which they did. We used this to make our initial project plans, which included considering multiple different sensors.
The different sensors we considered included electrochemical sensors, such as microfluidics, as well as a reporter gene plan involving antibodies, chromoproteins, GFPs, and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET). As such, our initial idea was given to us from the community we are trying to serve, and our solution was heavily influenced and funded by their largest representative body.
“I just dispose and get rid of frames, wax, and boxes that have [Nosema] on it. [And] if you lose a hive, it’s 250 dollars to replace it” - Berry Haughton
Once we had multiple ideas for implementation, we decided we needed to focus on one application method. To accomplish this goal, we spoke with researchers, and interviewed beekeepers to confirm what they think would work best for them.
The first person we spoke to was Courtney MacInnis, a researcher based out of the University of Alberta and Beaver Lodge, a research lab that does research specifically on bees. We spoke to Courtney to determine the value and feasibility of our project, as well as to consider possible application methods. From this conversation, we learned that our project would be useful to the beekeeping community, and confirmed this was an issue worth tackling as Courtney shared with us her concern over N. ceranae going untreated and beekeepers not being equipped with the proper knowledge to diagnose their hives, as it can lead to catastrophic infections which are spread at an alarming rate.
“I think they would use it if the cost for it is less than the cost for them to send their samples in” - Courtney MacInnis, bee researcher
“A field test would be really amazing, because if it is a simple field test where you just take a sample out of a hive or a group of hives and you can do a quick test indicating what the spore counts are, that would be amazing” - Stephan, a beekeeper from Beaver County
During consultations with beekeepers, discussing our different ideas for sensors, beekeepers expressed the most interest in a pH strip model for our detection system. Their advice led to the final iteration of our project: the Beetector - a paper-based detection system similar to a pH strip. See our design page more detail!
Once we had decided on this method, we went back to the ABC and asked them what their thoughts were about the detection system we had developed, they and their members were very pleased. But we still had to figure out how this paper-based system would work.
Field Testing Our Prototype
The final part of our integrated human practices was the creation of a physical prototype that could be tested by a beekeeper so they could provide further feedback about how to improve the utilization of our product. So, we created our prototype with all the components (pictures can be seen below), with detailed instructions on how to use the Beetector. We then had a beekeeper, Paul Christensen, use the prototype and interviewed him for his feedback!
Overall, Paul found the product very easy to use. He said that it was “simple and clear, [its] very straightforward”. But he also provided us with a lot of feedback, which allows room for improvement. The videos of him testing out our construct can be found here.
“It’s something you can do at home, it’s a hell of a lot faster than counting them. It’s very promising” - Paul Christensen, commercial beekeeper
Paul provided lots of very helpful feedback on how to improve our product and we plan to implement it all in further iterations of our prototype. His main ideas for improvement were: to make it very clear that he needed to use the gloves, improve our labelling system to list exactly what's in each tube and what it does, and clarify exactly how much testing a beekeeper needs to do to get an accurate reading.
Finally, our protocol was accurate for testing the prototype and we provided him with all the materials he needed to complete the test. However, all the tubes only contained water as we have not undergone any safety approval for our project.
