Education & Engagement
Work beyond the lab
Education
Diabetes Awareness Video
As a widespread condition that affects almost half a billion people worldwide, and increasing among the Japanese population, diabetes presents a major area of study. Our team was therefore inspired to search for an effective method of glucose reduction in the bloodstream. Our project, targeting type 2 diabetes, is centered around creating an amylase inhibitor. This will lower the activity of amylase in our body that breaks down starch into glucose. Apart from our project, we believe it is extremely important to raise awareness both in our school community and in the general public about diabetes and its current implications. Through interviewing members of our community separated into five different levels, we hope we are able to achieve this objective. We hope people of all ages and backgrounds can leave this video knowing more about diabetes.
The ASIJ iGem team published this interview video to raise awareness for diabetes as part of Human Practices. Through interviewing students of ASIJ, faculty, and an alumni doctor, we gauged the true level of understanding and exposure the members of our community had with regard to diabetes. Special thanks to Flannery (G2), Isla (G3), Elise (G5), Hyewon (G8), Mr. Jacobsson, and Dr. Abe for making this HP project possible!
Back to School Night (September 23)
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At ASIJ’s annual Back to School night, we gave a presentation on synthetic biology and our iGEM project to parents. This was another useful round of practicing presenting our project as well as communicating with the general public on the ethics behind genetic engineering. We also received feedback and have questions asked by an audience without biology background to make sure our presentation is clear and makes sense to a wide range of listeners.
Presentation on DNA Fingerprinting for ASIJ Summer Passport Program (June 25)
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At ASIJ summer school, iGEM students helped to educate middle school students taking a forensic science course, specifically on utilizing fingerprints for crime investigation. After discussing about the function of DNA in our body, we talked about the use of gel electrophoresis and demonstrate how restriction enzymes and electricity are used in the experiment with simple graphics and videos. At the end, we let everyone in the group use the scientific procedure to discover their unique fingerprints.
Building off last year’s presentation at ASIJ summer school, we tried to engage the students by incorporating investigative questions which students had to answer or make an educated guess.
Presentation on Synthetic Biology Research to Japanese High School Students (October 5)
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Dr. Yamamoto arranged for our ASIJ iGEM team to present in front of a panel of high school students from Super Science High School Program and professors at the Chiba Institute of Technology. We presented in Japanese in front of students who had a basic biology background, and also to professors who were skilled in the field. We were able to receive many good questions from the audience that challenged our thinking and allowed for us to expand our project.
At the event, we had a question about denaturation in the stomach. Based on suggestions from Dr. Yamamoto, we realized that if our improved 0.19 inhibitor has a stronger attraction with amylase, the complex becomes more stable, and thus, there is a high possibility that it is not denatured in the stomach. However, since the process of denaturation is hard to predict, he advised that we conduct experiments to see if the 0.19-amylase complex denatures at pH 2. However, due to time constraints, we were not able to conduct these experiments.
Math Modeling Course Details
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2019/8/8b/T--ASIJ_Tokyo--Udemy.jpg)
Course Introduction
Learn how to mathematically model enzyme kinetics! In this course, students will learn to comprehensively understand the background of enzyme kinetics, the concept of equilibrium, the law of mass action, the derivation of enzyme kinetic equation, how to model enzyme kinetics through the Simbiology package in MATLAB, and how we used the skills taught throughout this course for our ASIJ iGEM 2019 mathematical modeling.
We hope that you enjoy this course and will find the skills useful for iGEM and beyond.
Course Outline
1.1: Introduction
1.2: Requirements and Prerequisites
2.1: Introduction to Enzymes
2.2: Competitive Inhibition, Noncompetitive Inhibition, and Uncompetitive Inhibition
2.3: Graphs of Product Formation - Non-Inhibition
2.4: Graphs of Product Formation - Competitive Inhibition
2.5: Graphs of Product Formation - Noncompetitive Inhibition
2.6: Graphs of Product Formation - Uncompetitive Inhibition
3.1: Chemical Equilibrium
3.2: Law of Mass Action
4.1: Background of Henri-Michaelis-Menten Kinetic Law
4.2: Components of the Rate of Product Formation Graph
4.3: Derivation of Henri-Michaelis-Menten Kinetic Law
4.4: Derivation of Competitive Inhibition Kinetic Law
4.5: Derivation of Uncompetitive Inhibition Kinetic Law
Online Course Videos Transcript
Public Engagement
Miso Factory Visit (June 28)
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To build further on our idea to incorporate 0.19-producing yeasts in yeast-based food products, our team visited a Miso factory. Interviewing the miso factory owners, we were able to learn more about their perspective on genetic modification in the food industry. Based on their statements, we learned the importance of transparency when working with genetic modifications, particularly when these modifications can affect human health; when creating additives to food, it’s important to fully explain the process to promote public confidence in the safety of GMOs.
Interviewing Type 2 Diabetes Patient (September 7)
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