Team:CMUQ/Human Practices
Human Practices
In order to better understand and simulate the process of genetic counseling, we interviewed Fatima Amir, a genetic counselor who highlighted the importance of having our device and biological mechanism accredited by CAP CLIA if the results were to be considered by doctors and healthcare professionals. Moreover, she advised us to calculate the accuracy of our device in detecting fluorescence emitted and take that into account when reporting a diagnosis.
In addition, we met with Dr. Nahla Afifi who offered us blinded samples to test our mechanism instead of using synthetic DNA templates. She discussed the importance of maintaining the integrity of the DNA if it is to be extracted from saliva.
As for the ethics behind human research and the psychological aspect of genetic testing, we interviewed Dr. Jeniffer Bruder who gave us insight into several aspects of the project. She helped us better understand the best way to introduce the project to people, how to deliver the results in an objective and safe way, and emphasized that human interaction is very necessary for every step of the test as an individual should feel that the project is not only about the science behind it, but also about his own health and benefit.
Taking into consideration the advice of experts we met and interviewed as well as the feedback of the judges from last year, we adjusted our project according to the following. We decided to make a pre-counseling liability % calculation using a database based on parameters requested by an application.
To complement this process, Dr. Bruder highlighted the downside of a machine-based report, thus we restrict the usage of the device to individuals with health care experience. We also took Dr. Afifi’s feedback about paying attention to the quality of the DNA that is extracted from saliva.
Finally, reflecting on the feedback given by the 2018 iGEM judges, we focused on proving the biological mechanism by conducting several quantitative measurements.