Human Practice
Step1
A lecture on cancer prevention equipped us with the knowledge that more than 8,000 people on average die of cancer in our country every day, nearly 6 people die of cancer every minute. We were shocked by the statistics and decided to do something, and that was how our team gathered.
Step2
Then we came to realize that a key link in cancer diagnosis and treatment is bioimaging, a fundamental tool in modern medicine and scientific research. Though the existing techniques are revolutionizing how we detect diseases and guide surgeries, they are still not quick or powerful enough when it comes to those difficult-to-reach areas. Therefore, there is an urgent need for breakthroughs in bioimaging. After research and brainstorm, we decided to focus on vivo NIR-II fluorescence imaging.
Step3
To establish a specific project theme, we communicated with relevant experts. For example, we interviewed Professor Shoujun Zhu from the Institute of Translational Medicine at the First Hospital of Bethune, Jilin University, learning that the imaging of the blood-testis barrier is still challenging, so we finally determined the project theme of the design and transformation of the NIR II fluorescent protein probe.
Step4
Though experts inspired us a lot, looking into the public is also indispensable for the prevention and treatment of cancer in practice. During the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Week, we communicated with the public in the form of questionnaire. Through the questionnaire, we learned that the public's awareness of cancer prevention and treatment was weak, and they didn’t know about bioimaging at all, so we also determined the policy of publicizing the knowledge and awareness of cancer prevention and treatment to the public.
Step5
In addition to the public, we interviewed some of the patients and their families in the First Bethune Hospital of Jilin University as well. Through field communication, we found that some of the patients complained that the current clinical tumor diagnosis and treatment are still inefficient and ineffective. Therefore, more efficiency in bioimaging was eagerly expected, which is undoubtedly a strong confirmation for our project topic selection and direction.
Step6
We participated in the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) to listen to presentations by other teams and communicate with other iGEM teams, especiallyteams in the Diagnostics and Therapy village. During the conference, we interviewed the Peking University Peking-HSC team and the China Pharmaceutical University CPU-China team and had inspiring conversations with other teams as well. Many of us shared our views in bioimaging and many teams appreciated our project, which is promising and innovative. At the same time, we also found deficiencies in our team: in terms of human practice, the implementation means were not diversified enough,and the popularization scope was not wide enough. These problems were later corrected accordingly.
Step7
We conducted visits to Acro Biosystems Co., Ltd and InnoModels Biotechnology (Beijing) Co., Ltd to foster further dialogue. During these interactions, we discussed with experts on bioimaging, strategized on the industrialization plan and developed relevant entrepreneurship programs. We are committed to advancing our project towards a viable market plan. In parallel, our business proposal was entered into the "Challenge Cup" competition in China, where it successfully secured a national award.
Step8
We utilized a variety of new media platforms to showcase our project and disseminate key knowledge to the public. The videos we uploaded were not only widely circulated but also highly praised. Once again, we gathered feedback through a combination of lectures and post-presentation questionnaires, yielding remarkable results that demonstrated our successful efforts to address previous shortcomings.
Step 9
As soon as our work in wet lab was done, we shared our results with clinicians inside and outside the province and received good feedback. Our probe provides deep tissue penetration and high resolution, enabling precise imaging in difficult-to-reach areas. In mouse models, this technique has successfully achieved precise imaging of the blood-testis barrier and the blood-brain barrier, and it shows great potential in other bioimaging applications, such as surgical navigation and quick intraoperative examination.
We discussed the application of a cyanine modified probe for in vivo imaging of mouse brain glymphatic system with Minghuan Wang, from the Hospital attached by the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong Science and Technology University and sent our probes for their use.
We discussed with Xiao Liang, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University, about the surgical navigation of hepatobiliary and pancreatic tumors, understood the bottleneck problems in clinical practice, and initially established a cooperative intention.
In our conversations with Quan Wang and Songling Zhang, the First Hospital of Bethune, Jilin University, we learned that surgical resection is an effective treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, whereas occult metastases hinder the curative effect. Also, the conventional histopathological analysis of frozen tissue sections, which is considered the gold standard, often demonstrates considerable variability, especially in many regions without adequate access to trained pathologists. Before vivo NIR-II fluorescence imaging appeared, there was no effective method.
