Team:NWU-China/Human Practices
Human Practices
Brainstorming
Location: Northwest University
Date: March 17, 2019
At the beginning of the project, members of the After iGEM Academic Committee came to our school to participate in the brainstorming of this year's iGEM team. He introduced the current projects of iGEM to the teachers and students attending the event and answered some of our questions.
Questionnaire investigation
Introduce:
In different stages of the project, we carried out a questionnaire survey in phase I and phase ii respectively. Phase I was open to everyone, and phase ii was only for patients with phenylketonuria and their families. Both questionnaires were conducted online and anonymously. The results not only provided valuable suggestions for the improvement of our project, but also moved and encouraged our team members.
First stage questionnaire:
Content and purpose
1. Investigate public awareness of phenylketonuria.
2. Investigate the public acceptance of the application of biotechnology in daily life.
3. Investigate the public's acceptance of biotechnology for medical treatment .
Method
Anonymous survey using questionnaires on the Internet.
Results analysis
1.Most people do not know about phenylketonuria, and 12% of them refuse to accept phenylketonuria-related examinations.
2.16% of them opposed the application of genetically modified products and microbial products in daily life, while only 5% of them opposed the application of synthetic biological products in daily life. This shows that the public does not have much conflict with biological products, but because of some events, they are more sensitive to the terms of genetically modified products.
3.Almost all people believe that genetic engineering therapy can be applied to clinical practice, which shows that the public has a high acceptance of the application of biotechnology in medical treatment.
4.10% of the population can't accept the development of gene editing. It is presumed that some bad controversial incidents have led to public opinion on gene editing.
5.Half of the people have not heard of the biological test paper, but most of them are willing to accept it.
The questionnaire is aimed at all people. On the whole, the general public has a high acceptance of biological test paper. Moreover, for biological products and biological therapy, most people are positive or indifferent, indicating that the application prospect of biological test paper is very good.
Fig.1 Acceptance of BiologicalTestPaper
Fig.2 Cognitionofphenylketonuria
Fig.3 Views on Bioproducts and Biotherapy
Second stage questionnaire:
Content and purpose
1、Investigate the inconvenience of phenylketonuria patients and their families caused by the disease and the acceptance of biological test paper.
2、Through the analysis results of the questionnaire, better improve and perfect the project
.
Method
Anonymous survey using questionnaires on the Internet.
Results analysis
This questionnaire survey is only open to patients with phenylketonuria and conducted confidentially. From the data, it can be seen that most of the phenylketonuria patients are under 40 years old, and there is no obvious difference between urban and rural distribution. Moreover, most of the patients are still in low-income families with low education level. The main problem they are facing is still the diet.
From the survey results, our project and the acceptance of biotechnology are very high. After calculating the conditional probability, it is found that a large number of patients and all kinds of people support our study, regardless of education background, economic income or age.
Fig.4 Per capita annual household income
Fig.5 Location of Household Registration
Fig.6 difficulties encountered during treatment
Screenshots of Questionnaire Message(Part of it has been translated)
This is the message of phenylketonuria patients and their families after the questionnaire. We have extracted some of them and put them here. Some of them are translated as follows:
1.Come on. I hope to succeed as soon as possible. I am looking forward to the early application of such test paper.
2.Now our whole family is pinning on science and technology.
3.Thank you for your attention to phenylketonuria
4.The kid is young. The hospital is so far that periodic detection is too inconvenient which will delay the treatment for children. I really hope the detection is available at home. Thank you.
5.I hope that scientists can develop a home test paper as soon as possible, just as blood sugar can be detected at home by themselves.
To be honest, when we saw these messages, we were all very touched, and even some people shed tears. In the later stage of the project, the members will be more or less tired, anxious, the bad mood, and even began to doubt and deny himself, The emergence of these messages rekindled our fighting spirit, and made us realize the great responsibilities of researchers, and understand what sustains them on this road. The significance of scientific research, for the first time, has left such a deep imprint on our hearts. It makes us more firm and unremitting on the road of scientific research in the future.
Visiting Doctor
Location: the Children's Health Department of the Third Hospital of Xi'an
Date: August 14th, 2019
Visiting Partner: Dr. Cao Chunhong
In order to make our project more perfect and practical, we visited the director of the Children's Health Department of the Third Hospital of Xi'an, who gave us some knowledge about phenylketonuria, such as current treatment methods, the patient's living conditions, etc. She also provided some valuable suggestions for modification of our project, including the comparison of the reliability of urine test and blood test, the composition of the patient's special food and so on. Later, Dr. Cao assisted us in completing the questionnaire for the patient part.
Bluepha Lab
Location: Shenzhen
Date: August 19, 2019
Visiting Partner: Bluepha Lab
On August 19th, our iGEM team went to Bluepha Lab for a study tour in Shenzhen. Bluepha Lab is a sub-brand of Bluepha, which uses Synthetic Biology as its technical carrier and focuses on the science education of cutting-edge life sciences. It has guided the Chinese iGEM team for three consecutive years and achieved excellent results in the competition.
After Dr. Li Teng's visit to the Bluepha Lab, Dr. Zhang Haoqian, one of the founders of Bluepha, further introduced the development of the Bluepha Lab in recent years and shared his views on the development of synthetic biology. Then we and several teams in Shenzhen made project presentations and exchanged in turn. Dr. Zhang Haoqian and his colleagues also provided valuable advice for our project improvement.
Offline Survey
Location: Shenzhen Bay Park
Date: August 22, 2019
Cooperative Partner: SZPT-China
Event: NWU-China conducted an offline survey with SZPT iGEM. We wanted to investigate the Shenzhen citizens' understanding of phenylketonuria, since we first came to Shenzhen to attend the CCiC meeting and were unfamiliar with the local situation, The SZPT iGEM team recommended us to go to Shenzhen Bay Park for research and complete the relevant admission procedures.
Our harvest: The results of the survey exceeded our expectations. Almost all of us patiently answered our questions and gave their opinions on GM products and bio-testing. Because these people are different in age and industry, the results of the survey give us a more comprehensive understanding of the public's acceptance of bio-test paper and also enable us to design and develop a bio-test paper.
Their harvest: through communicating with passers-by, they also get the result they want, which is helpful to the improvement of the project.
CCiC (Conference of China iGEMer Community)
Location: Shenzhen
Date: August 19-August 24, 2019
Participants: Most of China's iGEM teams
We have initially completed the construction of the carrier. To further improve our project and make progress with other teams through communication, we participated in the 6th CCiC (Conference of China iGEMer Community),which is a national iGEM exchange conference held by Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology . It provides an important pre-match communication and learning platform for teams from China. Through the reports of various teams and the exchange of experience with seniors, we solved many confusions in the laboratory and gained a deeper understanding of synthetic biology. At the same time, Participation in CCiC prompted us to have friendly cooperation with some teams (such as SZPT iGEM, FAFU China).
Community publicity
Location: Xidaxincun Village
Date: September 28, 2019
Cooperative Partner: LZU-China
Event: On the day of September, we established a cooperative relationship with the LZU-China and discussed the matters related to community publicity. After that, we sent the three folds leaflets made by ourselves to each other, and selected suitable communities for publicity.
Harvest: Publicity effect is not bad, someone came forward to ask about the test paper, we and LZU-China's project have been more, better publicity.
National Engineering Center for Miniaturized Detection System
Location: Northwest University
Date: October 14, 2019
Later in the project, we visited the National Engineering Center for Miniaturized Detection System to visit researchers who research biochips, which provide valuable suggestions for the development and market application of later products.
