Human Practice Overview
Public Engagement
Our team were first concerned with scientific and social issues in the field of antibiotics and drug-resistant bacteria. Antibiotics are mass-produced for use in animal husbandry and clinical treatment.
The application and discovery of antibiotics has extended the average life span of human beings by 15 years. But bacterial evolution worries the medical community, because superbugs have outpaced humans.
To gain insight into the role and place of antibiotics in our lives, we carry out series of human practice around focused issue. We conduct field surveys, questionnaires, interviews and lectures to engage with users, stakeholders and experts.
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Statistics of antibiotic pharmaceutical companies (pipeline & R&D Plan)Through the investigation and statistics of the research pipeline of antibiotic pharmaceutical enterprises, we are aware of our human condition as resistant bacteria become more difficult to deal with. Fieldwork on the sale of antibiotics in pharmacies.
Fieldwork was then conducted on the sale of antibiotics in pharmacies, the results show that the sale of antibiotics is still not carried out in accordance with national standards in some areas, It can be purchased by leaving an ID number and contact information rather than by prescription only. Public awareness of antibiotic use (questionnaire survey)
We continue to investigate public perceptions and use habits of antibiotics.
The results of the survey were also not encouraging, which triggered our action and thinking of science communication and humanistic medicine. Lecture@ Prof. Chen Widely resistant gram-negative bacterial infection of clinical treatment
We acquired a good knowledge of widely resistant gram-negative bacterial infection of clinical treatment from Prof. Chen’s lecture and knew the dose requirements for common antibiotics and their toxic effects on organs and systems. Interview @ two clinicians
How can we use synthetic biology techniques and constructive thinking to cope with the helpless of mankind in the post-antibiotic Era. After numerous literature surveys and countless brainstorming sessions, engineered bacteriophages were selected among the alternatives to conventional antibiotics, such as lysins, antimicrobial peptides, probiotics and antibodies. Our ideas, solutions, and proposed problems were also discussed with the two clinicians we interviewed.
So far, human practice has shifted from focusing on a social problem and conducting research to formulating and perfecting a synthetic biology solution that specifically addresses this problem.
Academic conference: 3rd Superbug Infection and Phage Prevention and Control Summit 2020.
Determining that the project focused on phages and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we gained a lot of background knowledge in a short time from the lecture of Prof. Ma and 3rd Superbug Infection and Phage Prevention and Control Summit 2020. Public, doctors, medical students’ perception of (engineered) phages
We conducted phage questionnaire surveys among different populations to analyze the acceptance of phage products in the future promotion. Interviews @ Prof. Tong (collaboration with DUT_China)
Thank DUT for their invitation. We communicated the design & proposed implementation of our project with professor Tong, which greatly broadened the horizon and promoted our project. Proposed Implementation
To maximize the possibility of positive outcomes, technological pursuits will need to be coupled with ongoing study and negotiation of the social, cultural, political, and economic landscapes for which they are being designed. Doing this will require leveraging expertise in disciplines beyond science and engineering, including the arts, humanities, and social and behavioral sciences. So did we in our proposed implementation.
We developed a philosophical and ethical insights——Medical Humanities on Bacteriophage Therapy.
Medical humanities is a therapy that require both medical techniques and humanistic care. To some extent, it is related to doctor-patient relationship, social contribution and ethics.
The purpose of this handbook is to illustrate the relationship between bacteriophage therapy and medical humanities, which will be presented into four major aspects, including exploration of the embodiment of humanistic medicine in pharmaceutical companies, inappropriate choice of volunteers, patients’ concerns and potential risks. Each aspect is consisted with both recent questions and possible solutions proposed by our team.
We did a great amount of substantial and wonderful science communication practice and founded Science for All.
Finally, we summarized the methodology of Human Practice for Engineered Microorganisms for Human Health and Medical Treatment to support future iGEMer.
Integrated Human Practices consist of three important steps: idea formulation, project design and optimization and further extension and application. Each part of the human practice work can be mutually reinforcing and achieve two-way dialogue with the most objects of human practice. Existing work, summaries, and plans can be shared without reservation and inspire future iGEMers. That’s what we believed we did.