Team:Tianjin/Integrated Practices
"Reflexivity principle+Principles of Economics" agreements
In order to fully consider the interaction between the world and the project, adjust the progress of the project in time and make reasonable decisions to solve the problems we encountered, we introduced the basic principles of sociology and economics, and constantly revised and integrated the establishment of "Reflexivity principle + Principles of Economics".
Reflexivity Principle
"Reflexivity" is a diversified philosophical vocabulary that has far-reaching application value as one of the guiding principles of sociology of scientific knowledge[1]. From the beginning of the project, we constantly reflect on the impact our work may have on the world and how the world will affect us. We learned the theory of "reflexivity" and used it as the guiding ideology of our agreement.
In the development of each decision, we consider the following key issues:
- What are you doing?
- Where did you get the inspiration?
- What impacts does your work have on social/economic/environment/security?
- What adjustments do you need to make to your work, taking into account these effects?
It is not an easy task to incorporate sociologically deep theory into scientific experiments. But we hope that our "reflexive" agreement, which is integrated and continuously improved, will help the iGEM team to think about the interaction between the project and the world and feedback on the progress of the project.
Principles of Economics
When we started to use the “reflexive” agreement, we found that although we can consider the possible interaction between the project and the world, it is often difficult to make decisions that all team members agree on the most reasonable. In order to develop a program that can guide us to consider various influences and make sound decisions, we have read the book Principles of Economics (Marshall)[2] and successfully integrated some economic principles into our agreement. The new "Reflexivity principle+Principles of Economics" can consider both the impact of the world on us and the possible impact of our projects on the world, and the ability to integrate this information to make the most informed decisions.
We have found that some economic principles can solve our problems well and until we make reasonable decisions:
- Principal 1: people face trade-offs
- Principal 2: the cost of something is what you give up to get it
- Principal 3: rational people think at margin
- Principal 4: people respond to incentives
We incorporate the above principles of economics into our agreements and consider the following issues when encountering difficult choices:
1. The trade-offs faced by this step.
2. The opportunity cost of completing this work.
3. Will incremental adjustments bring us marginal benefits?
We have also adapted some principles, such as:
- Principal 5: communication makes everyone's state better -- communication can enable everyone to do what they do best, and enable everyone to work together to solve problems that individuals encounter.The original version is "trade make everyone better".
- Principal 6: comprehensive analysis of trade-offs can sometimes improve outcomes -- a comprehensive analysis of benefits and costs can often make the most rational decisions.The original version is "governments can sometimes improve market outcomes".
These principles have also had a positive impact on our teamwork.
The Final Version
This is the result of our integration of the fundamentals of sociology and economics. In order to make better use of this agreement, we have divided it into two different copies, one for recording and reflecting on our work that may be generated in the world. The other, mainly used in the various stages of the project for rational analysis, solves the difficult problems we have encountered. We have found that this "one-two" attempt allows us to use the protocol more effectively.
Attached below is the "Reflexivity principle+Principles of Economics" agreement that we have integrated and constantly revised:
Agreement for the Entire Process of Our Project
In the brainstorming stage
In order to reflect on the interaction between our work and the world from the very beginning of the project, we used the agreement one to guide the finalization of our project in the early days of brainstorming. Each of our new ideas has gone through the guidance of a “reflexive agreement” and adjusted our project based on feedback.
Although some ideas and solutions have not been adopted by us in the end, we also feel that we can share the records of our application agreements as an example of how to use the “reflexive agreement” in the early days of brainstorming. We believe that every responsible iGEM team should start thinking about the possible impact on the world at the beginning of the project, and hope that our sharing can help other teams.
"Agreement1"
Producing Fanesolwith Yeast
"Agreement2"
Shuttle Carrier
"Agreement3"
Genetic Compensation Mechanism
"Agreement4"
Quorum Sensing
"Agreement5"
Capsular Yeast
"Agreement6"
The Fusion of the Y.L and the S.C
"Agreement7"
Single Base Editing
"Agreement8"
Stevioside Synthesisby S.C
In the experimental design stage (Agreement 1)
1. Shuttle vector
The literature indicates that the chromosome III of S. pombe has the ability to replicate autonomously in mouse cells, and it has the potential to become a shuttle vector for mammalian cells, and our chromosomal stabilization element group can increase its stability in S. cerevisiae and help us reform it better.
Through the agreement, we have defined the impact of the shuttle vector on the world and the guiding significance of the world to our idea more clearly.
>>Click here to learn more about the agreement.In the experimental design stage (Agreement 1)
2. High-yield strain construction
We replace the centromere of S. cerevisiae with the centromere of Y. lipolytica, so that when we transfer this chromosome into Y. lipolytica, aiming at usage of cheap raw materials and high lycopene productivity.
Through the guidance of the agreement, we found the defects of the original construction of high-yield strains and the possible advantages of our method.
>>Click here to learn more about the agreement.In the experimental design stage (Agreement 1)
3. CRISPR-dCas9+ Mutant fusion protein
Our highlight is that the specific site of gRNA binding has three repeat regions, and three sequential mutations can be made because of it. In a nutshell, our detection method is very reliable because we can ensure that a positive result is detected and used in subsequent experiments only when the sequencing results show that more than one mutation has occurred.
We have a deeper understanding of how to use the engineering thought by using the agreement, and we have improved the idea in the follow-up study.
>>Click here to learn more about the agreement.In the modeling and characterization phase (Agreement 2)
In order to positively influence the design of the experiment and guide the project. We set up a series of models to guide the experiment in the early stage, monitor and modify the experiment, and finally test and evaluate the experimental results.
In order to reduce unnecessary "opportunity cost", we carefully selected and analyzed the models used in the design. Finally,We developed a mathematical model to predict the influence of where to insert the centromere and the dynamics of cells affected. By doing so, we expect to estimate the efficiency with OD600 after using our chromosomal stabilization element group so as to modify our design.
During our experinment, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been modified to different degrees. After the preliminary modification, S.cerevisiae was inserted with genes that produce lycopene. On this basis, we made two further modifications based on S.cerevisiae: one is to insert the centromere of Yarrowia lipolytica on its chromosome V, the other one is to replace the centromere of its chromosome V with that of Y.lipolytica. We named these three strains TJ01(natural condition S. cerevisiae),TJ02(centromere insertion of Yarrowia lipolytica) and TJ03(centromere replacement with Yarrowia lipolytica) respectively.
>>Click here to view the records of our application agreements in this work (PDF).>>Click here to learn more about the specific model.In the public promotion stage (Agreement 2)
1. "Future Synthetic Biology" essay activity
In order to promote the public's in-depth understanding and rational thinking of synthetic biology, and to understand contemporary college students' views and suggestions on the future development of synthetic biology, we have organized the essay activities of “Future Synthetic Biology” for all students and those who care about our public address.
In the process of planning and preparing for the event, we have encountered some difficult problems (such as obtaining comprehensive information and achieving the best publicity effect in the whole society/it takes a long time and a lot of material resources to carry out the promotion in the whole society, and it is difficult to successfully organize it).
The application of Agreement II allows us to rationally analyze "costs and benefits" and make the most reasonable decisions we think. The essay contest was mainly aimed at the group of college students, and achieved good communication results and representative information feedback.
>>Click here to view the records of our application agreements in this work (PDF). >>Click here to check out our "Future Synthetic Biology" Essay Competition.2. "World of bacteria" joint video
In order to scientifically popularize synthetic biology, the public's interest and understanding of knowledge in this field. This year iGEM-Tianjin contacted many domestic teams and introduced various "bacteria worlds" to the public science through the use of interesting small videos. The cooperation enabled us to take advantage of the advantages of each laboratory and the familiar fungi. Expanded the way to promote communication.
The application of Agreement 2 made us realize that the information held by a single laboratory team is limited, and it is difficult to achieve a wide range of publicity and promotion and ultimately decided to join forces to participate in the production and promotion of video. The joint video was finally promoted to the public on multiple platforms and achieved good publicity.
>>Click here to view the records of our application agreements in this work (PDF). >>Click here to see our "Demonstration of the World" video.In the teamwork aspect (Agreement 2)
Good teamwork is the key to success. A period of work has made us realize that we need to pool our team and achieve more efficient teamwork. But this still faces some trade-offs. There are many tasks in each part of the team, and the free time is not necessarily the same. It is not an easy task to gather the whole team discussion.
The use of Agreement 2 allows us to rationally analyze the importance of doing this work and the “opportunity cost” that must be paid. In the end, we decided to organize a group meeting every week. Some project leaders reported on the progress and problems encountered this week. We discussed and used the agreement to make decisions and jointly worked on the tasks of each part of next week.
Improvements in teamwork issues have made our progress smoother and have resulted in efficient intra-team collaboration.
>>Click here to view the records of our application agreements in this work (PDF).Summary
We are not the first team to use the theory of reflexive theory to guide the project, but we are the first team to integrate the basic ideas of sociology and economics into scientific experiments and integrate them into two agreements. We believe that the iGEM team should seriously consider the interaction between the project and the world, and hope that our work will be inspiring and useful for the iGEM team.
>>Click here to learn more.Thanks
2016 iGEM team imperial college: The work of their Integrated Humpractice has inspired us a lot.
Marshall's Principles of Economics: We learned a lot from this book and applied some principles to our agreement.
“Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR) | Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU).” 2016. Accessed October 19. https://cns.asu.edu/research/stir.
Reference
[1]Jan Zienkowski,Reflexivity in the transdisciplinary field of critical discourse studies.[J]Nature,Palgrave Communications volume 3, 17007 (2017).
[2]Marshall A.Principles of economics[M].8th Edition.London:Macmillan,1948.