Team:NYMU-Taipei/Human Practices
Overview
As scientists, we make advancements in research through understanding works of other scientists combined with our own research experience. The road to uncovering the unknown is not easy and sometimes good results in the lab don’t connect so well in the world outside. In order to let our research successfully connect with the real world, Integrated Human Practices is an important part of achieving this goal. How things are done include consulting experts, understanding corporate goals, and collecting field surveys. Constant interaction and communication between in and outside of the lab can find problems quickly and is also why we see feedback as such precious knowledge. It is because of this group design and group thinking that from design to end product, our team was able to keep things close to human needs.
Field Survey
Ready to conduct our field survey
People’s ideas and opinions can show us what is most needed amidst this pandemic. At the very start of our project, our team decided on a set of questions related with COVID-19 to ask the masses. Outside of a lab environment, what would the common people consider to be important in the timing of a pandemic? We asked some people about their thoughts. The question is, “Amidst the situation of epidemic prevention, please stick the sticker on the item you would be willing to abandon.” Products include alcohol hand sanitizer, rapid test kits, toilet paper, drugs, vaccine, alcohol, face masks, and goggles.
In order to protect the privacy of people we interviewed, we will only show pictures of our results.
Results From Survey Respondents
Expert Visits
- Clinical Expert Visits
- Professor Visits
- Enterprise Visits
Doctor Yu-Juin Chan
Director, Division of Microbiology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei.Professor, Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei.
The timing of our discussion on the topic of SARS-CoV-2 was when COVID-19 was just starting to spread rapidly around the world and the infected numbers was getting more and more by day. The people in closest proximity with the patients were medical professionals, so our team chose to ask Doctor Chan from Taipei Veterans General hospital for an interview on the topic. In the interview, Dr. Chan not only explained to our team how the virus infects human body, but he also told us about what the status was like in a clinical environment.
To this day, the eyes, nose, and mouth are the main routes of infection of the virus, so to lower the chance of infection, using personal protection equipment (PPE) is of upmost importance. Though important, one thing that is in need of attention is indirect infection through contact of contaminated PPE. The purpose of PPE is to protect the workers in the frontlines but after wearing it for a day, the equipment would’ve collected a day’s amount of viruses on it. If the wearer was a bit careless or did something wrong in the procedure of decontamination, the wearer could get infected by the viruses collected on the equipment.
Professor Szu-Hao Kung
Associate Professor of National Yang-Ming University, Department of Biotechnology and Laboratory Science in Medicine
In designing experiments using FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer), our team met an obstacle that was hard to overcome. To solve the problem, we went to ask for advice from professor Kung of NYMU since he has done research related with FRET. In the end we have gotten much valuable advice for how we should choose our fluorescent proteins and how we should design our linker proteins. Since the interactions of different factors were extremely complicated when facing biochemical experiments. We needed valuable advice on everything from experienced ones who have conducted similar experiments. Professor Kung's advice and experience proved extremely important for us as we avoided many steps of trial and error.
Professor Yung-Chuan Liu
Professor of National Chung Hsing University, Department of Chemical Engineering
Due to our team’s application in contact lens, we went to prof Liu of National Chung Hsing University for advice since he is an expert in related fields. Thanks to prof Liu’s experience in chemically engineering materials, he shared with us a different perspective in choosing materials for contact lens.
Professor Che Alex Ma
Principal Investigator / Division Director of Chemical Biology, Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica
In our experiments we found out that the spike proteins made from E.coli did not have the ability to glycosylate compared to spike proteins made from eukaryotic cells. Without this ability, the protein folds incorrectly and builds into an inclusion body. To tackle this problem, our team went to director Ma from Genomics Research Center of Academia Sinica for advice.
Motex
Mask Creative Factory, Taiwan, Chunghua County, Face Mask factory
The first company we visited is a face mask company located in Changhua county, the company’s name is called “MOTEX”. We were able to have an interview with Chairman Zheng. During the visit, we learned about how face masks were made and also the current situation of face masks in the market is demand much more than supply. For face mask research, the company told us that they have been designing a chip on the face mask that can detect virus presence. Another research in development is a layer of silver ions to be put on the face masks to kill bacteria but the time needed for this to happen takes more than an hour to finish. Lastly, our team also shared our views and ideas of adding biologically designed protein on face masks to the company. The company told us that if technical difficulties in this design could be overcome, then this idea could possibly work. Most importantly the company gave us face masks, this helped us on the process of product application.
Pegavision
Taiwan. Contact Lens company
For the application of contact lens, the company we got in touch with is called “Pegavision”. The company shared with us knowledge on how contact lenses are made and what details a researcher should notice when designing contact lens. Our team learned a lot and was able to share our ideas on applications for contact lens with the company. The company gave us a lot of advice on our research, such as what materials to choose, problems we might face on the way…etc. Most importantly, the company also gave us contact lens we could use for our research(including dry and wet lens), lending us a big helping hand.
Integrated Human Practices
For our project, we have strong connections with human beings, including contacting with clinical doctor, professors, enterprises and, of course, public. After approaching with them, we hope we can learn more on how to improve our project, which can benefit the whole worlds.
The birth of our topic
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the world and the number of infected people keep rising every day. Our team believes that when humans are faced with a problem, we should follow the scientific way of thinking and try to solve the problem. Therefore our team decided to walk out the laboratory and go to the streets to discuss this topic with people, we also went to a hospital to interview a doctor working in the frontlines to get some feedback.
In the discussion with Dr. Chan, what did our team learn?
After talking with Dr. Chan the aspect of indirect infection through PPE became our main inspiration of a research topic.
What did our team learn from the field survey?
The results of our survey indicate that the masses are most concerned about finding the right drug treatment for COVID-19, next on the list is alcohol, face masks, and then research on rapid test kits. We then incorporated and considered ideas from the concerns of the people, for this, we thank them for providing ideas to our team.
Epilogue
Through our discussions with Doctor Chan and the people from the survey, our team decided on a final idea of using our product on protective equipment. Also, through our discussions with people from the survey, we learned that in order for the masses to accept our product, our product should be convenient but also be able to increase protection against infection. Lastly, our final decision is to use our product on contact lens and face masks. Contact lens will be a form of hidden protection while face masks will prevent indirect infection. In conclusion, our research topic and application were born.
Improvement of Product
After confirming the path of our research topic, to carry out our idea in real life, our team brainstormed and found a lot of references to make our initial research design. Among this process, our team discussed with a lot of experts in different fields. We found both problems and solutions in different parts of our research and was able to correct our research on the way.
In the discussion with prof. Kung, what did our team learn?
Prof. Kung gave advice in the area of the linker for FRET. He suggested that we use a linker with a smaller molecular weight than originally designed, he also discussed with us how the length of the linker would affect the experiment. It is because of prof. Kung’s advice that our team was able to have more variety in the design and selection of the linker.
In the discussion with prof. Liu, what did our team learn?
The discussion with prof. Liu really made a big impact on our design. Through understanding our problem from a chemical engineering perspective, we were able to break out of our original design and combine knowledge from different backgrounds to make the contact lens material we needed.
In the discussion with director Ma, what did our team learn?
In our discussion we learned that it is not easy to get a structurally accurate ACE2 and spike protein in a normal lab. After exchange of knowledge and explanations of experiments, CEO Ma was willing to help out in our team’s experiments.
Future Prospect
The main purpose of company visits is to understand how a complete product should look like and make sure there is a need in the market for the product. In the communication and interactions with the companies, we learned about how their products were made which also gave us inspiration in our own product designs. On the other hand, the companies were also able to gain a different type of inspiration from us, for example: feedback on issues related with company responsibility to the public, strong passion for research… etc. The following content is about the two companies we had the honor to visit.
In the discussion with Motex, what did our team learn?
In our interview with the company we learned that there were previous examples of adding material on face masks so even though our team may face some technical difficulties, the company still encouraged us to research on. They were also willing to give us face masks as support of our research.
In the discussion with Pegavision, what did our team learn?
Not only were we able to discuss about product related technology and market situations, we were also able to talk about the hardships of consumer and business responsibility when products are out in the market. This gave us more insight on why the transition of products from in the lab to the real world isn’t something easy. In the end the company gave us a lot of encouragement and was willing to help us further with things related with contact lens.
Epilogue
Through our discussion with both companies, our team learned that it’s not easy for a product to go from production to the market. The research behind each product should be complete, which is what our team is doing so far. To conclude, both companies think our research product has potential.
Learn More About Our Efforts!