Team:NWU-CHINA-A/Human Practices
Overview
In iGEM, we are more likely to ignore a fact that our project needs to be used in the real world. As an important part, human practice makes our project much more complete and help us test the practicality of our project. We believe that the contribution of both experts and consumers makes our product perfect and benefits the whole world.
The human practice part of our project consists of thoughts of team members and suggestions of experts. Besides, we also have obtained some feedbacks of the public to make sure that our project fits the real world. At the same time, we popularized synthetic biology, so that people would have a deeper understanding of it. The most important part of our human practice is that we adjust our project according to the results of every human practice. adhesive bandage already have a relatively mature market now. What about the new type of adhesive bandage we pruduced, will it have a market?
Can we bring it to market? Can it be accepted by consumers? How can we popularize it? Can it survive in the severe competitive environment? How can we ensure the advantages of our products in the market? In order to make sure that our products can satisfy more people, we decided to seek the advice of people from different industries in society, including doctors, professors, drug developers, marketing professionals, consumers, students, experts and the public, so as to learn from in their respective fields and learn more about how to improve our projects.
PDCA cycle
PDCA cycle was first proposed by Walter A. Shewhart, an American quality management expert. He divided quality management into plan, do, check and Act. PDCA requires us to make a plan, implement the plan, check the effectiveness of the implementation, and then include the successful ones into the criteria, and leave the unsuccessful ones to the next cycle to solve. Our project has used this mature framework from the start to ensure the smooth progress of our project without missing a single step. Next, we will use this framework to explain how our project has been advanced and improved step by step.
Training Camp
Our training began in November last year, and every member of our team actively participated, opened up and gained the corresponding ability in this training camp.
First of all, our team members have been trained in skills. The members who participated in the previous iGEM competitions shared their participation experience and trained our team members to use software and improve the ability of searching literature. In addition, our team members have also carried out self-study work in their own areas of responsibility, after more than 5 months of training, our team members have mastered the use of professional software and the ability to search literature retrieval.
While training, we were also thinking about projects and searching literature. In order to determine our project, we met at regular times every week. We shared ideas and brainstormed together through online meetings, and we finally determined the project.There were a lot of interesting ideas in the process and we learned how to make small ideas possible.
After the project was determined, all team members collected information, brainstormed and improved the project, so that the project was optimized. Winter came as scheduled. A sudden epidemic disrupted iGEMer's plans and arrangements. After experiencing difficulties such as not being able to return to school, not being able to do experiment, and not being able to hold offline meetings, we were still moving forward.
Inspiration
Our Inspiration comes from two places, the first is our daily life and this has been mentioned on our home page. Another point is as follows.As a fire-prone state, wildfire has burned 3.9 millions land in California this year, which is the forth fire this three years. Across the state, 17,000 firefighters are fighting with nearly 24 fire. Wild fires frequently occur in Australia during the hot and dry season. From November 8 last year to February 13 this year, the fire lasted for four months， which caused at least 33 deaths, mostly are firefighters, including many firefighters from other countries. In Liangshan County, Sichuan Province, due to the continuous forest fires in the spring of 2019 and 2020, people have endured a lot. To put out the fire, we sacrificed 31 firefighters and a large number of personnesl. Fire leads to plenty of loss and casualties all around the world annually. Firefighters are easier to get burnt or bruised in their daily training or working. The infection is serious if those wounds are not disinfected in time, especially under complex environmental conditions. To protect our firefighters from lethal bacterial infection, we intend to develop an antibacterial and completely biodegradable adhesive bandage.This is our original goal and the inspiration for our project，and we really hope that what we have done will help more people.
Interview firefighters
We specially interviewed Hang Su, Director of Fire Rescue Detachment Operation Command Center and Mingwei Fan, Fire station chief. In the process of talking with them, we know that scraps, scratches, and scratches are relatively easy to encounter in their daily life and practical training. When dealing with fires or emergency situations in peacetime, burns, stab wounds, scratches and even punctures have occurred because of the complicated conditions at the scene. Many situations at work are unavoidable, so the wound cannot be treated in time while working. Small wounds are usually treated with adhesive bandage for about 3-4 days to heal, while large wounds need to be disinfected and then bandaged to heal longer. If the wound becomes purulent, it will take more time to heal.
In special circumstances, when the supplies are not available for earthquake rescue, there are often abrasions on feet and shoes, but because the situation is urgent and not handled in time, and the environment is relatively harsh, there will be secondary infections. And they also pointed out that because of their relatively large amount of adhesive bandage, the adhesive bandage used will not be discarded after special treatment. Sometimes outings, such as hiking, you'll see some discarded adhesive bandage next to the supply kit, or some of them will be put on the tree after they are wetted with sweat.
After we introduced our ideas, Captain Fan and Director Sue of the Fire Brigade expressed great interest in our ideas and expressed their willingness to accept this product without sacrificing environmental and personal health costs, which should be vigorously promoted and developed. Finally, they also put forward some suggestions to our idea ① the economic cost can be lower, so that ordinary people can use, enjoy this benefit. ② the size of the dressing and the use of methods can be demonstrated, such as the shape of the setting can be more close to the joint, because ordinary creation can be attached to the joint using easy to both sides of the wind bacterial infection. ③ High temperature resistance (fire field), water resistance (flood disaster) for special industries have a better target. ④ Storage under natural conditions does not affect the ability of medicine, easy to carry, comprehensive conditions can be better integrated into our lives. From the conversation with them, we learned that the flexibility of adhesive bandage is also a factor affecting the sense of use. Better flexibility will not affect the festival activities and will not affect daily life and work. The second is waterproof and fit to the skin, ordinary adhesive bandage may reduce the viscosity after meeting the water. So it is not suitable for people of this particular occupation. We learned from these suggestions and tried to apply them to our project.
Marketing Research
The environmental pollution caused by adhesive bandage and the high-end wound dressings that combine adhesive bandage and antibacterial functions mentioned by firemen have attracted our attention. After we did some investigations about the environmental pollution caused by medical wastes in our lives and as we mentioned in our interview that the market conditions for this type of dressing used in our project, we made the following summary.
Medical waste
Refers to the direct or indirect infectious, toxic and other hazardous waste produced by medical and health institutions in medical treatment, prevention, health care and other related activities.It contains a large number of infectious pathogens, the hazard is significantly higher than ordinary household garbage,If management is lax or improperly handled, medical waste can easily cause pollution to water, soil and air.Can easily become the source of the spread of the virus, cause the spread of the epidemic.
Items contaminated by patients’ blood, body fluids and excreta, including: cotton balls, cotton swabs, drainage slivers, gauze and various other dressings are all infectious waste in medical waste.Discarded general medicines, such as antibiotics, are all medical wastes in medical waste.
Current status of medical waste treatment
With the increase of population and medical institutions and the improvement of medical conditions, the amount of medical waste generated is increasing year by year.The damage is more serious and the incidence rate increases.And the medical waste generated has increased, such a vicious circle, the social losses caused will be immeasurable.
Among the many medical waste treatment methods currently used internationally, the high-temperature incineration treatment method is the first,The reason is that this technology has many advantages, such as wide application range, thorough disinfection and sterilization, significant volume reduction effect, complete relevant standards and specifications, and mature technology.It has been widely used internationally for many years.
Defects of incineration technology
The main advantage of incineration technology is that the volume and weight are significantly reduced, and the waste is obviously destroyed.But its biggest disadvantage is serious air pollution.Prone to produce highly toxic substances such as dioxins, polycyclic aromatic compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, and harmful gases such as hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide, a complete exhaust gas purification system needs to be equipped, and the incineration fly ash contains a lot of heavy metals; In addition, the cost of incineration is high, and the incinerator needs frequent maintenance and has a short service life.
Development status of global high-end wound dressing products
In recent years, the global medical dressing market has basically remained stable. With the increasingly problem of global population aging and the resulting increase in patients with ulcers and other diseases, the global medical dressing market demand will continue to grow.
From the perspective of development trends, consumers’ demand for multi-functional, new-material medical dressings is becoming increasingly urgent。
High-end wound dressings are mainly targeted at wounds that are difficult to heal, take a long time, are more painful for patients, and may cause serious complications.High-end wound dressings mainly has the advantages of reducing the pain of drug change, shortening the healing time, reducing the number of drug changes and so on.
According to BMI Research, the global high-end dressing market reached $5,595 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $7,015 million in 2022.The new high-end dressing market has broad prospects and is the current trend of industry development.
What should we do?
The polyhydroxy fatty acid ester (PHA) we use is a new type of degradable material with a very special degradation method.After use, PHA can be completely degraded into β-hydroxybutyric acid, carbon dioxide and water in the body.It has its advantages in performance, practicability, degradability and safety.
In terms of performance,PHA can meet or exceed the performance of traditional plastics in certain specific areas;In terms of practicality,It has application performance and sanitary performance similar to similar traditional materials;In terms of degradability, after PHA is used, it can be degraded quickly in the natural environment, and become a substance and non-toxic gas that are easily used by the environment, reduce the impact on the environment;In terms of safety, the substances produced or remaining in the degradation process aren’t harmful to the environment, will not affect the survival of humans and other creatures.
Pharmacy research
Our team members visited a number of pharmacies in the september this year. Including Tairui Pharmacy, Zhongyou Jiankang Pharmacy, Guangji Pharmacy, Taisheng Pharmacy, Boai Pharmacy, Yikang Pharmacy, etc. We hope to understand the needs of salesmen and consumers by doing some investigations about the existing adhesive bandage on the market, we concluded that:
Types and sales of band aids investigated:Yunnan Baiyao(Lightweight and breathable type，Waterproof and ultra-thin type、Portable type、Anti-inflammatory and hemostatic guaiac type). Band-Aid(Benzalkonium chloride band-aid、Waterproof type，Common type). Kaiyan(dedicated combination of fingertips， Slim and breathable，Superlarge combination，Waterproof and breathable type).Ruoshu，Zhende，vitastic, etc. It is generally reflected that the sales volume of Yunnan Baiyao is relatively good. The first is because Yunnan Baiyao is economical, and the second is because of brand factors, customers trust well-known brands.
Public expectations for future adhesive bandage:Most people's requirements for future adhesive bandage are mainly reflected in the three aspects of outer packaging, comfort and antibacterial properties.
①The color of the adhesive bandage should not be too strange for the outer packing, others suggest that it would be better to make them transparent or sell by classification by skin tone.
②For comfort, the sticky part and adhesive bandage of the skin is extremely troubling for patients with latex allergies. In addition, it is also an important demand for consumers to consider both waterproof and breathability.
③As far as bacteriostasis is concerned, most of the bandages on the market lack bacteriostasis function.In addition, the impermeability leads to the proliferation of anaerobic bacteria in the wound and causes infection. There are still a few people who suggest that adhesive bandage should have hemostatic function, and that adhesive bandage of different specifications should be designed to meet people's needs.
We also know that the infection of wounds is mainly related to the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria and the formation of biofilm on the surface. Sometimes, because of the impermeability or poor adhesion of adhesive bandage, it is easy to cause infection. After infection, people mainly choose to apply antibiotics to wounds. Nowadays, a large number of antibiotics have been studied. As for the shortcomings of antibiotics, studies have shown that overuse of antibiotics may lead to antibiotic resistance problems, even superbugs. All the pharmacy staff and consumers we interviewed also expressed their understanding of the shortcomings of antibiotics, such as its great side effects, allergy to some antibiotics, inability to use antibiotics after drinking or patients with poor liver and kidney function, and drug resistance caused by taking too much antibiotics. At this time, we turned our attention to antibacterial peptide, an antibacterial substance with low systemic toxicity and low drug resistance.
Academic communication with Professor Han
In the initial stage, we considered to use six kinds of antimicrobial peptides with their own characteristics. Among them, HBD3,HD5,HD5d5,DCD1L is human antimicrobial peptides. ACD (allergic contact dermatitis) is a common but complex skin disease. Its common symptoms are local erythema, swelling, papules, etc. And if it’s serious, it can spread from the contact around the emergence of toxic epidermal necrosis or granulomatous lesions, accompanied by systemic symptoms, such as headache, fever and so on. In order to reduce the possibility of ACD caused by allergen contact with wound, our team selected human-friendly antimicrobial peptides by searching many literatures and asking teachers in the process of selecting antimicrobial peptides. In addition, we also selected two artificially designed antimicrobial peptides, P5 and P6.2, which were analyzed by biological software to delete some meaningless sequences on the basis of the original antimicrobial peptides and improve their active domains to enhance their functions. And we also used the methods of synthetic biology to express and verify its antibacterial activity afterward.
In the middle of our experiment, we encountered some difficulties about our experiment. The electrophoretic bands of antimicrobial peptides were very clear but could not be purified. For this reason, we specially interviewed Han Jing, a professor in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and she has rich experience for this. She analyzed that antimicrobial peptides may exist in the form of inclusion bodies and in bacteria in the form of precipitation. It existed very little in the supernatant. But the process is very difficult for us, if we need to purify inclusion body protein. So we intended to get as much protein as possible to be expressed in the supernatant by adjusting the concentration and time.
In the later, professor Han suggested that we can make PHA electrospinning to enhance its elasticity and air permeability. So it will be more suitable for us as an adhesive bandage material and can be affixed to the joint for facilitate movement.
Suicide Switch
Considering that our modified Escherichia coli would escape from the laboratory, we wanted to design a nutrition-dependent suicide switch to limit the engineering bacteria in the culture medium, so we worked with SZPT-CHINA team. The contents are as follows: https://2020.igem.org/Team:NWU-CHINA-A /Partnership
Industry
The interview between Liang Zhao and Yang Li is an important part of bringing our project from the laboratory to the market.
Questionnaire
After the Pharmacy research, we made product improvements according to the needs of the public. in order to hear more voices, we combined with our products to do an electronic version of the questionnaire. As of October 25, we had received a total of 528 public feedback, and we have put the contents and results of the questionnaire at the bottom.
From the results of the questionnaire, we can draw the conclusion that most people do not know much about PHA and antimicrobial peptides, which also urges us to carry out further educational activities.
Athletes
We wanted to know what some people who often use adhesive bandage think of our project, so we specially interviewed four athletes, Haoxuan Zhang , Jiancheng Ge, JiazhiLiu and Chenxi Bo. They said that in the course of training, they often have some bruises on their hands, legs or some joints, and a large number of adhesive bandage were used. however, the existing adhesive bandage are not very friendly to the joint wounds and have poor elasticity. It hinders the movement of the joints. In addition, the permeability is general, sometimes sweat will soak the adhesive bandage to reduce its stickiness and infection may occur. Our electrospinning technology can solve this problem very well. With regard to stickiness, although PHA itself has a certain degree of adhesion, we still expect to improve its stickiness by expressing bacterial mucin, which we will also carry out in the experiment. After listened to our introduction, the other was very willing to accept this new type of adhesive bandage and hopes to promote it as soon as possible.Their affirmation gave us great encouragement.
Doctor
We interviewed Dr. Fan. When they encounter a contaminated wound contamination, they usually bandage the wound with sterile gauze after being treated with iodophor, hydrogen peroxide and alcohol. This leads to a problem that if the wound is healed for a long time, the wound will be pulled when the gauze is changed and cleaned again, resulting in secondary injury, but it will be susceptible to infection if it is not replaced. This will not only lead to longer healing time, increased pain of patients, but also produce a large amount of medical waste. If we use our new biodegradable bacteriostatic adhesive bandage, we can avoid these two problems, reduce the suffering of patients and reduce the production of medical waste.
Patent
At present, our project has applied for a patent, and will soon be on the market!
