Team:ACIBADEM ISTANBUL/Human Practices
Human Practices
Preface of our Practices:
Background of our issue
The issue of deadly and venomous animals, mostly snakes, biting and poisoning people has been very crucial and has surfaced even more during the past decade because of poor social, economic and clinical interventions and managements. Poisonings represent a seriously grand health issue worldwide.
A snake bite is an injury caused by the bite of a venomous snake and can lead up to many serious problems such as bleeding, organ failure, allergic reactions, difficulty in breathing, many other chronic problems and in some cases death. To our knowledge from our researches, there have been numerous cases of poisonings and fatal issues created by snake bites which we have found to be very neglected, underestimated, misunderstood and ignored by majority. Tens of thousands of lives are lost to snake bites every year and hundreds of thousands of people will survive with permanent damage and reduced work capacity. As one of our goals, we want to clarify the subject and its social and ecological effects on humanity.
Most snakes do not approach humans or target us as prey therefore they don’t usually mean any harm to our kind. However, because of climate change and many human acts, snake activities have increased tremendously opening a window for accidental encounters between snakes and humans which is mainly what creates our main issue.
More about our reference snake: Western Diamondback Snake
We have focused our practices on our reference snake, ‘silver diamondback snake’, which is found to produce the largest number of snakebites not only in the United States but worldwide. The Western Diamondback is one of the largest, most aggressive venomous snakes and they carry very potent venom. The snake is easy to identify. It has a rattle, and when threatened will coil and make the typical rattlesnake sound. Also it possesses a distinctive diamond pattern, the backbone of the snake has dark-colored diamonds surrounded with white outlines. They also have vertical eye pupils and boxy heads.
How it all works
Our product, VenomXL is an improved synthetic and cost-effective version of the natural solution to this problem which is a single protein; LTNF.
It is safe, has wide acting potential, more stable and potent, less hemotoxic easy to manufacture and will be ready to use as we already initiate a real world product.
VenomXL in auto-injector
We already optimized industrialization process for utilizing yeast to express the protein we designed. Self-Administration of VenomXL will be very easy thanks to our partnership with Ypsomed that has offered us early access to their Lyo-Twist Trio dual chambered auto-injector. The device uses an auto-inject mechanism that makes self administration very easy. It is easy to use, consisting of 3 steps: Twist, Mix and Inject!
The ignorance of snakebites gives place to complications and obstacles in achieving proper solutions for this situation. The issue not only creates health and environmental problems but it also has a huge impact on the socio-economic world.
Realizing the major effect of the economic side of the problem created a great financial burden for the victims and their relatives, we have sought a new and improved solution which would be more efficient and cheaper in a way that anyone could somewhat afford and keep in reach for if they ever encountered this problem.
Antivenoms are currently incredibly expensive so the majority of hospitals are not able to afford buying or producing them causing people to be obliged to seek help from traditional healers or other forms of treatment that are mostly ineffective and short-lasting. Sometimes, inappropriately manufactured antivenom from other regions is used because it is found to be cheaper despite it having no evidence for their efficacy whatsoever.
Furthermore, even in the developed world there are numerous controversies on how to solve this problem and interact with it. These solutions include inappropriate actions opposing the snake bites and wrongly suggested first-aid techniques. We strive to avoid and prevent inappropriate intervention and treatment to snakebites by providing an easy-to-use, compact solution.
To help alleviate this global crisis, we have initiated our practices for a compact product which would eliminate all of the negative impacts brought on to this subject and situation. Our product is an improved synthetic and cost-effective version of the natural solution to this problem which is a single protein; LTNF.
Human Subjects Research
To raise awareness on our subject and engage with the public, we have conducted various activities within the issue of snakebites and our project as a solution.
Public Engagement
In order to really engage with not only our neighborhood but with strangers and people roaming the streets of our city, we have done an interview with many different people from various backgrounds, cultures and knowledges. We prepared questions concerning poisonings and venomous snake bites which uncloaked many different answers some of which were correct and some that were very far from the correct answers. In all these cases we provided the factual and correct answers of all of our questions aiming to teach the actual techniques to solve the problems we have given them. We strove to raise their awareness and get rid of the misunderstandings underlying our topic of snakebites.
Moreover, we thought that this interaction with the public that consisted of mostly older people wasn’t enough to attain our goal of informing the world of our topic so we arranged a presentation at a school, Esayan Armenian Middle and High School, to students around our age, the new-generations, thinking that this would help reach a future with further knowledge on the crucial issue of snakebites. After our presentation our team answered the audience’s questions and we explained our practices to enlighten our audience and improve their comprehension, avoiding further ignorance and acquiring more scientific curiosity.
After giving a presentation to students around our age, we decided to arrange one more presentation to our current professors and teachers in our school to inform and discuss our project in detail. This discussion has acquainted us little details we need to improve and also encouraged us about about our project.
Approval of our practices
While doing our researches and developing our practices and project we have sought approval and guidance from many knowledgeable people surrounding us.
We have talked to and informed our current professors in and out of school about the issue and the solution underlying our project topic.
Also, we have had interviews and meetings with professionals, companies and such, about our ongoing research and product.
Which have all further proved that our project will have an important worldwide impact and solve many neglected but crucial problems following snakebites and poisonings.
Interview with Dr. Yasemin Alanay
We had a very beneficial meeting with Dr. Yasemin Alanay, pediatric geneticist and dean of Acıbadem Medical School, where we discussed our project and synthetic biology. She gave us feedback and supported our idea. She stated that our project would be very successful and it would have a big impact on the world if accomplished as planned. She also expressed that VenomXL would be useful as it is practical and it would reach out to rural areas where it is needed the most.
Presentation at Esayan Armenian Middle School
Moreover, we thought that this interaction with the public that consisted of mostly older people wasn’t enough to attain our goal of informing the world of our topic so we arranged a presentation at a school, Esayan Armenian Middle School,to make known the knowledge of synthetic biology and iGEM, meantime, to understand the current situation of education about biology in middle schools and also, thinking that this would help us to reach a future with further knowledge on the crucial issue of snakebites. After our presentation, our team answered the audience’s questions and we explained our practices to enlighten our audience and improve their comprehension, avoiding further ignorance and acquiring more scientific curiosity.
Presentation at Notre Dame de Sion French High School
After giving a presentation to students around our age, we decided to arrange one more presentation to our current professors and teachers in our school about the issue and the solution underlying our project topic. This discussion has acquainted us little details we need to improve and also encouraged us about our project. They were very impressed with our presentation, therefore decided to collaborate with us and project were showcased on the school’s official website. We also emailed a survey about poison, venom and synthetic biology to all the students of the school.
Tüm Ekip Inc.:
Our visit to the pharmaceutical company was very significant for VenomXL because we left with a sponsor and a manufacturer for our product. The company was very welcoming, as they gave us a tour of their offices and laboratories. We also had the chance to talk with the founders and owners of the company, Hamza and Ahmet Altuğ Oğuz. Our interview with Mr. A. Altuğ Oğuz helped us better understand the procedure of establishing a business.
Presentation at Koç High School:
Our mentors hosted a presentation about a general overview of iGEM and synthetic biology, informing young students about the competition and the potential projects they could work on.
Our Kick of presentation and general invitation meeting
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all of the professors and professionals for their help and approval and also to everyone in the public that has contributed to our researches and data collecting with our interviews and video projects.
