Team:AUC-EGYPT/Human Practices

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Introduction & Values

Situation Analysis

Integrated

Activities

Uncharted territory: Our journey towards conceptualizing a SynBio-based therapy in Egypt

2020 has been a truly life changing experience for everyone around the world. To us, it was particularly special as we started the year with news that our dream of participating in iGEM was finally about to become a reality. We started the season with talks of oncolytic viruses and cancer biosensors, and then COVID hit the world. Our campus was the first to close in Egypt and it remains closed to this day. With everything around us being so heavily impacted by COVID-19, we decided to make it the focus of our project as well. Yet, we had no idea where to start.

When we first began brainstorming our project, we felt that there was a huge need to begin creating and designing an affordable and quick diagnostic method for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We had been following the news closely and had seen how most countries were attempting to ramp up their testing capacities. Companies were racing to develop rapid and accurate tests all over the world and given the limited capacity for PCR testing in our country, we felt that we should do the same.

Our core values: After we received our undergraduate research grant enabling us to begin our work, we held a team meeting with our instructors to begin identifying the core values of our project. We decided that we wanted to build our project upon three pillars: Integrity, Equity and Opportunity. Throughout all phases of our project and during the season, we kept revisiting our values, abiding by them and building upon them.

Integrity: we decided upon integrity to be one of our main values as we strongly believe in its necessity as a virtue. We wanted this pillar to be incorporated in all aspects of our project, starting from the way we communicated with each other as team members to the way we communicated with potential users of our solution. We attempted to implement this by drawing attention to both potential advantages and disadvantages of the core technologies we used in our project.

Equity: As an African team, we strongly value equity and believe in the just distribution of resources. This has never been as important than it is now, in light of the events currently unfolding. We consulted with entrepreneurs working on innovative solutions for COVID-19 in our region and attempted to identify the best design of our business model that would allow for the equitable distribution of our project. Furthermore, we wanted to ensure that all groups within our community had equitable access to prevention and protection methods against COVID-19.

Opportunity: our third and final pillar was opportunity. Our team is highly multidisciplinary in nature and we wanted to ensure that even younger generations get the opportunity of experiencing STEM sciences in fun and innovative ways that would allow them to learn more about fields such as SynBio, if they choose to.

Analyzing the situation: consulting relevant experts and communities

Social Science experts: It was incredibly important to us to ensure that the core values we had selected were appropriate with our project. We consulted Prof. Hoda Rashad, a professor and director of the Social Research Center at The American University in Cairo. She holds a doctorate in population studies from the University of London. Previously, she worked as chief technical advisor of the United Nations (1993-1995), associate of the International Population Council (1989-1993) and a faculty member at the Institute of Statistical Studies and Research, Cairo University (1991-1995). She is a resource person and consultant to a number of national and international organizations, including the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (2014-2016). She also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee to the Regional Director of WHO/EMRO (2013-2016). Member of the Advisory Committee of the WHO Center for Health Development (ACWKC) in Kobe, Japan, for the period of three years (2012-2014). Member of the Scientific Committee for the 8th Global Conference on Health Promotion, WHO (2011-2013). Member of the Advisory Group of the WHO Global Strategy for Health System Research (HSR) (2011-2013). Member of the Regional External Advisory Panel for UN

FPA Arab States Regional Office(2009-2010).

Health experts:

To ensure that we were on the right track, we met with Dr. Rami Gharieb, a physician spearheading the COVID-19 portfolio in Egypt. In our meeting with him, we asked specifically about Egypt’s need for rapid and accurate diagnosis and what was the current set of priorities in the Ministry of Health’s agenda towards fighting the disease. We quickly learned that despite the definite need for diagnostics, the need for efficient therapies was even more painstakingly high. Dr. Rami brought to our attention the fact that there was definitely strong attention towards different therapeutic and preventative solutions including various classes of anti-virals and vaccines. These items were indeed very high on Egypt’s list of priorities that Egypt was one of the first countries to include Hydroxychloroquine and Remdsivir in its treatment protocol after their Emergency Use Authorization. This was later on confirmed to us as we learned the news of Egypt participating in a Phase 2 clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Forefront innovators, Pylon CMP and the COVID-19 task force:



Our team includes Economics and Finance majors, yet early on in our brainstorming phases, we learned that designing COVID-19 therapies is in a completely different ballpark. Not only is the pandemic in itself a brand new experience for everyone around the globe, but also the R&D and bioeconomy landscapes in Egypt are still nascent. In an attempt to elucidate the correct way to construct a business model for our solution, we touched base with Omar Radi an Egyptian Software Engineer, Serial Entrepreneur and a key member of the Pylon CMP team.

In March of 2020, an Egyptian task force of data scientists, biomedical researchers, epidemiologists and engineers with established expertise and credibility in each of their respective fields came together. The group volunteered to offer their services in terms of the dedicated teams, connections and experience contributed by each individual to the task force. They believed that the potential offered by the latest technological advances in these fields to monitor and predict appropriate responses to pandemics is becoming more evident every day. As such, in record times and in response to the global demand, they put together Pylon CMP. Pylon CMP is a crisis management platform composed of a core solution with four optional add-ons/services. The software aims to centralize tracking hospital data, case data, contact tracing and so much more. Their platform has already been deployed on a nation-wide scale in Egypt and is currently expanding in other countries when we decided to talk to them.

Closing the feedback loop: integrated human practices

After our discussion with Dr. Rami, it became known to us that synthetic biology could be used to tackle COVID-19 from the roots by creating a therapy that can stop viral replication. With a market that lacks effective COVID-19 therapy, this project will help different societies deal with the impacts of this virus. This lead us down the track of beginning to adapt our initial diagnostic circuit design to serve as a therapeutic intervention by adding an activator downstream of our sensing moiety that starts an inhibition cascade once triggered.

We met with Dr. Hoda Rashad to discuss our core values, and she drew our attention to a multitude of things regarding our integrity and equity values in specific and how to work on better enhancing them. First, with regards to integrity, there are two sides of the coin that must be factored in; integrity as it applies to us- honesty in terms of our research findings, and external integrity, which is links more to the idea of informed consent and “no harm”. It is important that we focus on not only researching and hypothesizing the long-term impact of our solution internally, but also communicating this to potential volunteers during clinical trials and the beginning stages of our distribution process. Informed consent and research are important as they are part of the vital concept of doing “no harm” to the wider society and potential volunteers in trials. Confidentiality was also a main pillar in considering the ethics of our work as we need to consider patient confidentiality may impact the means by which we are able to share our results. Additionally, there was much discussion surrounding our second value, which is “equity”. Dr Hoda Rashad intelligently pointed out how “equality” which is a primary focus in our business model does not always imply “fairness”. She motioned us to instead consider equity holistically, and as part of both a pre-distribution and post-distribution process. She recognized the fact that part of the process of equity is examined hypothetically before product release by considering potential fair access and constraints to such fair access. However, she identified that a second, just as integral part of ensuring equity occurs after product release, or “during implementation”. This requires us to monitor the effect and impact of the product in the real world, and ask important questions like: “Who is benefiting and who is being harmed [by the product]?” This is because a main part of equity is taking into consideration the different groups in society, and how factors such as poor education, stigmatization, age, race, gender may limit or deter access to our product.

Working hand in hand with our scientific team, our bioentrepreneurship team worked on our business model under guidance from the Pylon CMP team. They guided us along our market segmentation providing us with incredibly valuable input that they obtained through their distribution of their solution. They also helped us identify the firmographic and behavioral characteristics of each target segment. As such and guided by our values, they helped us anticipate the correct way to begin penetrating the market.

Piecing the puzzle

Our Activities:

Volunteers in Action:

As a part of belief in the importance of equity and opportunity, we attempted to ensure that different segments of our society had equal access to awareness and prevention resources. Seeking to provide opportunity to underprivileged children, we conducted sessions mediated by Volunteers in Action (VIA). VIA is a charity whose vision is to raise awareness in underprivileged communities. We approached them and collaborated by giving children awareness sessions about COVID19. One of the activities was to teach them preventative measures taken globally. Of note, social distancing is not done properly in Egypt. The social norm of greetings is to shake hands and kiss. Alternatively, we taught the children to a new method of greeting which involves minimal physical contact. Additionally, we instructed them the proper methods of handwashing. They got to know more about the biology of the virus and were very much enthusiastic to learn about how this very tiny little particle affected the glob, resulting in quarantines everywhere. They appreciated the fact that science is the only solution to the pandemic. Stemming from our value of opportunity, we did these sessions with the hope to inspire one of them to consider a career in science. Even though their socioeconomic status is very underprivileged, they can still find a path to science through exploration, self-learning, and scholarships.

Figure 1 Winner of the creative science contest Children were required to envision the and draw the virus with its important elements that facilitate entry. This child was the fastest to draw the virus with the receptors clear on its surface.

Figure 2 Proper handwashing activity

Biosecurity crisis simulation for STEM Biology students:

The saying "The worst could be yet to come" has never been more accurate than in today's advancements in Technologies. That's why Crisis simulations should have come to the fore to prepare for an unexpected crisis, a crisis which if not handled rightly would threaten the whole world. As a result, AUC-EGYPT iGEM held an online Webinar session to educate the public about Synthetic Biology, giving them a fictional scenario that could happen if Synthetic Biology went wrong or fell into the wrong hands. 86 Participants attended the event. All were allowed to take part in workshops to develop not only strategies that could prevent such a crisis from happening, but also the course of actions that could be taken by the policymakers, scientists, and media if the crisis has already occurred.

The contribution:

It was a remarkable experience for us as we learned to adjust our speech according to the public knowledge about Synthetic Biology. Furthermore, we helped others acquire new knowledge about Synthetic Biology and its application. We raised their awareness about the field and supplied them with the needed information about Biosafety and Biosecurity as protection approaches in Synthetic Biology. Overall, we had great feedback. The people were interested in the field and the concerns about it. They understood how the dual-use dilemma is also applied to Synthetic Biology, as it is an extremely beneficial field; yet, could be a double-edged sword if it is misused.

Verifying Need – Molecular Cloud & Hult Prize National Camp

During working on our project, we were lucky enough to be invited to a virtual talk in Hult Prize Egypt National Camp and to be able to attend a virtual meeting with Molecular Cloud Company. First, in the Molecular Cloud Company, our team discussed the solution scientifically in detail and demonstrate how our project takes into consideration many factors, like Biosafety and the not discussed. Our team members with the instructor, Dr. Hana, were attended with a scientist

from this company to discuss our project's scientific approach and how it will stop the viral replication of COVID-19. So, it was an excellent chance for us to propose our idea to a scientific community interested in finding an end to this virus. After this meeting, we had the opportunity to listen to the company's feedback, where they appreciated our scientific efforts. They pointed to the importance of reducing false-positive results using orthogonal parts in our circuit. They also appreciated the idea of creating a mathematical model to make predictions before lab work and gave us some additional hints on how GMOs could help resist the COvid-19 breakthrough and how the therapy should target a particular gene to avoid any mutations). This was a fortuitous meeting that inspires us to continue our search and ensure that our system displays zero to low cross-talk with the host to avoid false results and potentially not have harmful effects on the host.





Secondly, we were luckily invited to the Hult Prize National Camp to have a virtual talk with more than 30 representatives from 23 private and public universities in Egypt. In this event, we conducted a session to explain how GMOs are essential in today's world and the positive aspects of using this technique in addressing the COVID-19 Virus. Also, we briefly discussed the project's scientific idea and how it would work inside the human body. This event led us to have connections with different segments in Egypt; in addition to that, many people expressed their interest in the project. Also, we got feedback from the participants about how to ensure the equity principle of sharing the therapy. Some people offered their help in the entrepreneurship and marketing parts of the project. This inspired us to make our project centralized with cheap fees to reach every person, regardless of his/her financial status.