Team:NJTech China/Human Practices
About Education & Public Engagement
1.Public science [Details]
Based on the project background, we designed a questionnaire survey to better understand the public's attitudes toward breast cancer. Accordingly, the results showed that most people didn’t recognize the harmfulness of breast cancer nor effective methods to prevent it. Fortunately, respondents are willing to understand how to protect breast healthy.
Combined with the results of the questionnaire, we produced a brochure with a breast self-test. We distributed the brochures in related activities called “Pink Ribbon DO YOU KNOW” held in October, and received satisfactory feedback from the public.
2.Promote iGEM and synthetic biology [Details]
To promote the development of synthetic biology and iGEM, we made the following efforts:
First, we held a presentation at Nanjing Yuhuatai Senior High School. It aims to promote iGEM to high school students. Our presentation inspired the students’ passion about synthetic biology, and they said they would like to try to participate in the competition in the future.
Second, we held a presentation at Nanjing Tech University. It aims to popularize iGEM and synthetic biology for college students and recruit players for next year's competition. Nearly 400 bio-related students attended this conference. After the meeting, we received a lot of comments from them and learned that they have great interest in synthetic biology, they are also very keen to be part of the team next year. Our preaching is undoubtedly successful.
Third, we collaborated with the "Super Scientists" association to propaganda the iGEM competition during this carnival. This activity effectively expanded the iGEM influence. Last but not least, we got blessed from many students.
Fourth, we adapted the actual cases of synthetic biology into comics and published them in the WeChat Official Account (the most popular communication platform in China). The average reading volume for each published comic was over 300 times, which promises good publicity effect.
Taking into account the long-term and rich categories of iGEM, a competition blog was posted on Weibo (a most popular social networking platform in China). People can participate in iGEM through this platform to learn more about synthetic biology.
3.Education [Details]
We pay more attention to children and teach them simple biology courses weekly. The children are very happy that we help them to recognize the interesting course of synthetic biology. Our courses have inspired children's curiosity about the biology world. From July 15th to October 16th, the children gained knowledge and joy.
4.Meetup [Details]
During the brainstorming, we participated in the third iGEM exchange meeting in Nanjing. Many experienced iGEMers shared their experience with us. Benefiting from this, we have a full consideration of the team's division of labor and the direction of the topic.
Our team member participated in the Jilin Meetup held in Jilin University on July 19th to 20th, 2019. Other teams guided us how to launch, conduct, and present an iGEM project. That is undoubtedly a valuable experience.
From August 19th to 23rd, we participated in the 6th Conference of China iGEMer Community（CCiC）. Our partners and mentor have given us many valuable suggestions. The experience of CCiC benefited us a lot.
About Integrated Human Practices [Details]
During the months of the experiment, we communicated effectively with a wide range of stakeholders and received effective feedback. We used the results of the communication to continuously improve the experimental details. Summarized as below:
1.Visiting a doctor
We asked the oncologist for a clinical treatment plan of breast cancer，and we also confirmed the feasibility of our program.
2.Visiting a company
To optimize our mathematical model, we took professional advices from the hydrogel company on the physicochemical properties of the hydrogel.
To improve our experimental methods, we took professional advices from a well-known pharmaceutical company on fusion protein linker design.
To enhance the experimental details, we took professional advices from the nanobody company on the market research of the nanobodies.
3.Participate in the symposium
We have participated in 10th National Breast Cancer Symposium and have learnt about the latest methods of breast cancer treatment. This provides more feasible new ideas for our project design. We finally introduced PD-L1 antibody into the project, which is of great significance for the advancement of this project.
We have participated in the Global Biomedical CDMO Development Summit which focused on the development of antibodies and protein drugs. By the end of the meeting, we have learnt about the advanced biological properties of Nanobodies, which could be used for our targeted drugs.