Introduction
Integrated human practices are one of the most crucial aspects of any scientific research, and require active and constant reflection on whether one’s project is responsible and helpful. This calls for engagement with various stakeholders along every step of our project to gain irreplaceable insight and direction that we can use to adjust our project with. Hence, we reached out to various stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds to enhance and elevate our project with their precious points of view throughout our entire project duration. Through incorporating their feedback we gained from their valuable opinions and understanding their concerns, we polished our project. From the general public to a professor of ethics, all the stakeholders were crucial elements that helped us tie up loose ends in our project.
General Public
In the process of designing ‘CAR_Ma’, we believed that it is important to learn more about
the general public’s view, enabling us to achieve a research outcome that is relevant to the
communities. Hence, an online project feedback survey has been designed to be sent out to
the members of the public as well as the workshop’s attendees. The question includes asking
about their baseline knowledge of cancer-related topics and the most important factors that
they consider when people are considering therapeutic options. Their answers have made us
learn that accessibility and safety are major concerns of the public under this
circumstance.
Responses of the majority for the question ‘What are the most important factors that you
considered to be important when people are considering therapeutic options?
Therefore, we have also addressed these concerns in our project design, picking the
cost-effective method for the safe delivery of our engineered products. In addition, to
enhance the public’s understanding of cancer-related topics and our project ‘CAR_Ma’, we
have provided some brief details. Most of the respondents have agreed that the current
methodology of our project is capable of coping with their concerns and public healthcare
issues, providing us with continuous motivation. They also appreciate the information we
have provided before filling in the survey. In general, public opinion has provided us an
acknowledgment of the baseline knowledge that the general public has and inspiration on the
work we should do for science education. Also, their invaluable opinions have inspired us
with ideas on how we could improve our project to extend our research outcomes.
Dr. Chua Song Lin
In our APAC symposium, we were thankful to have Dr. Chua Song Lin from The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University (PolyU) sharing his insights and expertise in the field of synthetic
biology. He first shared his experience working on microbial biofilm projects with his
acknowledgment of how important biofilms are in diseases and the environment. In recent
years, he has also published several findings and patents including microfluidic platforms
for infection models.
His experience in model design and wet lab practices has provided us with more insights on
how we could improve our model design better and some caution points. Referring to his past
experience in modulating the research design, we have also been concerned about the most
efficient ways of conducting our model design. For instance, in our model design, we also
look for the best way of targeted delivery of siRNA into a macrophage, which we come up with
a unique LNP.
Besides, for wet lab and dry lab practices, he has emphasized the importance of proper
practices and data visualization, ensuring the process runs well and correct model choice.
Therefore, during wet lab experiments, we have also been aware of the handling procedures
and make sure that the visualization and verifications are clearly made for fostering the
engineering process.
In summary, his sharing has broadened our understanding of extending research influence to
any possible applications and also highlighted the importance of procedure handling.
Dr. Helen Ma
The HKU iGEM team always believes that education is the most important part in science
communication. This year since we are eager to tackle the problem of misinformation, we need
a biology expert who is experienced in dealing with science education towards the general
public. Dr. Helen Ma is currently a project manager of science education at The Chinese
University of Hong Kong. Dr. Ma is experienced in both microbiology and science
communication, with 17 years (2004-2021) as hosts and authors of different science education
media and has published multiple peer-reviewed journals throughout her career from
2006-2018. Dr. Helen Ma gave us advice and inspired us to progress in science communication
and education.
In the Hong Kong-Macau Symposium, Dr. Helen Ma delivered a detailed presentation about how
science communicators should undergo education of high quality. We were impressed by the
professionalism and experience Dr. Helen Ma has shown when she was giving comments to other
iGEM teams’ project presentations. After the symposium, we asked for a discussion with Dr.
Helen Ma about ideas when doing education for our team.
Dr. Helen Ma was impressed by the dedication of the HKU iGEM team to build up an
education-centric scheme to tackle the issue of misinformation. In the conversation, we came
to the conclusion that various mediums must be used to clarify the details of synthetic
biology, cancer therapy, and immunotherapy.
Since synthetic biology is a big topic the public has always had doubts and false
understanding about it from the introduction of synthetic biology to the world. Therefore,
Dr Helen Ma agreed with our proposal to utilize symposiums as platforms that can allow iGEM
teams in the region to communicate, sharing ideas on what misunderstanding the general
public may have regarding different topics they are performing in iGEM. We expanded this
idea, thinking that the Asian-Pacific Region actually has a similar background and shares
some common philosophy and tradition. We aimed at using the APAC symposium to exchange ideas
related to topics each team is facing, finding a common ground that we can work on to tackle
misinformation from the general public.
Dr. Helen Ma is an expert in science communication, especially targeted at audiences without
much experience in touch with science, even extending the horizon to reach out to kids and
young students. She inspired us to work with different organizations, planning out different
workshops. Since workshops are the channel through which we can directly undergo a
conversation face-to-face with the stakeholders we are aiming for, not only we can spread
fact-checked information, but also hear their immediate reactions and responses. After
gathering the responses from these workshops, we also follow up on these ideas with Dr.
Helen Ma, we gain a lot of new insights that are very rewarding. The HKU iGEM team tried to
improve and gradually increase the proficiency in tackling the mistakes the non-science
community may have and the way we introduce the concepts of synthetic biology in higher
compatibility with them.
Mr. Markus Cheung
The biotechnology industry plays a vital role in operating and launching research projects.
Therefore, we need to learn more about the industry’s development and how it potentially
supports the launching of our research project. We were honored to interview a biotechnology
industry expert, Mr. Markus Cheung, who is the co-founder of Meat the Next Company Limited.
He has extensive experience working in the field of biotechnology, knowing the industry’s
ecosystem and scientific breakthroughs. This has provided us with insights into the
project’s sustainability as well as multiple ways of improving our scientific innovation.
Before learning the industry’s overview, we first interviewed Mr. Markus Cheung about his
company’s background and its core technology. He has shared that Meat the Next is a
superfood technology company dedicated to developing delicious and nutritious alternative
protein products. In light of the worsening climate change problem, he has set up the
company to provide alternative protein sources to solve problems like carbon footprint and
environmental sustainability that are closely related to our daily lives. Utilizing its
unique fermentation methods, its alternative protein products are designed to be delicious,
nutritious, and accessible. Hence, more people are accessible to alternative protein sources
and contribute to environmental sustainability, moving forward to a better future.
With regard to the industry development and challenges, Markus has emphasized the importance
of proven prototypes and conducting thorough market analysis to gain support from other
parties including investors. Hence, we have continuously tested our approach and analyzed
the results with different model designs. Meanwhile, we reviewed past literature and the
platform we developed last year in order to identify and prove the effectiveness of 5th Gen
CAR for specifically targeting solid tumors. Conducting thorough market analysis, we learned
the importance of developing cost-effective products. Therefore, specific lipid
nanoparticles have been applied in our project considering their low costs and how they
enable CAR_Ma to be deployed intravenously and generated in vivo directly. Concerning the
project’s sustainability and further commercialization, it is suggested to have a review of
common regulatory standards and undergo science education to enhance the public's awareness
of cancer immunotherapy. For review, we have researched some safety regulations for our
therapy design as well as bioethics standards. Building on this idea, we have also drafted
an ethical framework and looked into compulsory clinical trials for potential
commercialization. For education, we have held several symposiums and workshops for
different age groups, deepening their understanding of how synthetic biology solves health
issues effectively and safely. Podcasts about vaccine misinformation are also published to
build people's trust in vaccines and hence immunotherapy solutions.
Overall, Markus has also appreciated our efforts in working towards a healthcare direction.
Regarding the existing synthetic biology solutions, he believed that an important scientific
breakthrough should be closely related to our daily lives. For instance, diet is a vital
element in our daily lives. Similarly, healthcare and diagnostics are closely associated
with our daily lives. So, it marks the importance of our findings. Moreover, inspired by his
thoughts, we have also interviewed cancer patients to know more about their daily lives,
helping us to design our project more efficiently. The whole interview was truly inspiring
and provided us with multiple insights for our project design and potential
commercialization in the future.
Professor Brian Wong
During our interview with Dr. Brian Wong, Assistant Professor in the Department of
Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong and a Rhodes Scholar, we gained critical ethical
insights that significantly shaped the direction of our CAR_Ma project. Dr. Wong’s expertise
in political philosophy and applied ethics, particularly in biosecurity and social justice,
played a pivotal role in guiding our approach to enhancing the safety, transparency, and
accessibility of this groundbreaking cancer immunotherapy.
Dr. Wong underscored the importance of proactively addressing biosecurity risks associated
with gene-editing technologies like CRISPR, which we utilize in CAR_Ma for SIRPa knockout.
His concerns about potential unintended consequences led us to strengthen our safety
protocols. Specifically, we refined the TMP-based variable expression control to achieve
more precise regulation of CAR expression and mitigate the risk of uncontrolled replication
or expression—an essential safeguard, given the self-replicating RNA (siRNA) backbone of our
system.
Additionally, Dr. Wong’s emphasis on transparency and public accountability
motivated us to enhance the documentation of our experimental procedures. In response to his
call for "radical accountability," we committed to openly sharing sequencing data and
detailed records of our optimization processes, particularly those related to srRNA and the
SIRPa knockout, on our project wiki. This aligns with our broader goal of fostering public
trust and upholding scientific integrity within the synthetic biology community.
Dr. Wong also stressed the importance of ensuring that advanced therapies like
CAR_Ma are accessible to underserved populations. His critique of healthcare inequities
prompted us to reconsider our delivery strategy. Consequently, we prioritized affordable and
scalable delivery methods, such as functionalized lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), to ensure that
CAR_Ma can reach and benefit patients in both developed and developing regions.
In summary, guided by Dr. Wong’s insights from our interview, we conducted an
ethical evaluation of the CAR_Ma project. By employing frameworks such as Rule
Utilitarianism and the Capability Approach, we ensured that CAR_Ma advances cancer treatment
responsibly, addressing vital ethical concerns around safety, transparency, and equitable
access.
Cancer Patient: Teriver
Teriver was a dazzling man born on pure ambition as a musician. From his childhood to his
undergraduate studies in the University of North Texas (UNT), his perseverance brought him
to graduating Bachelor’s in Jazz Studies. Further down into his career, he even collaborated
and worked with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and partake in numerous genres of music production
years after years.
Seems like a great life right? It was, until just before COVID-19 hits that he experienced
some discomfort within. His suspicions were soon valid when he was diagnosed with cancer. It
comes to such a shock since not a single of his family was born or diagnosed with the
disease, and soon after a lot of messages were received from all over his social network.
Deciding to stand up to cancer and not giving up, he was fighting it hard through a lot of
treatments such as oral drugs and chemotherapy. While eventually coming to a point where
there are no longer hairs on his scalp, he persists through one biggest motivation; his cat.
Along with countless support from people around him, he finds that his gray kitten does
provide most of his mental support in every moment. With all of this combined, he believed
in all of his doctor’s attempts to save his life, when ultimately came a new medicine that
saved his life.
It was a new medicine that just went through trials, and while his doctor seems reluctant at
first, Teriver’s trust in science and the research behind brings him to start the
medication. This new method is finally a successful result upon Teriver’s recovery,
stabilizing his physical stats and bringing him back to Hong Kong society as a talented
musician we have seen before.
Through his opinion, Teriver wholeheartedly embraces any discoveries made to improve
humanity within the effort of scientific discovery. Imagining that without scientific
discoveries, maybe Teriver wouldn’t be with us and contribute to Hong Kong’s music industry
again. With HKU iGEM’s progress in making breakthroughs on cancer drug delivery, he truly
supports our project and cannot wait to see the project change the landscape of modern
biotechnology for all.