1. UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
1.1 LOCAL CONTEXT
During the month of March 2022, the team was dedicated to observe and analyse problems that the population had to deal with, both locally and globally. Different brainstorming sessions were held to analyse these problems, plan solutions, discuss the respective needs and analyse the pros and cons. In deciding between all the presented proposals, we were greatly assisted by professionals who advised us on our big decision, and who, in fact, have ended up being our PI and project advisors. This way, with all the facts out on the table, we unanimously decided in favour of Vesiprod.
1.2 IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
The biocompatibility, bioavailability and ability to cross the blood-brain barrier of extracellular vesicles have propelled them as potential RNA drug carriers. As such, they are beginning to be used in therapeutics, however, the ability to create designer EVs remains limited. Unfortunately, due to low efficiency and high costs, there is no consensus in the scientific community on harvesting and purification techniques. Having identified two major problems, we believed it could also be applicable as an innovative (and hopefully with fewer side effects) therapy for different types of lymphomas and neoplastic diseases which today only have aggressive and limiting therapies.
1.3 VERIFY THE UTILITY
Before deciding in favour of Vesiprod, we made a market analysis to see the real need and interest there is today regarding the use of exosomes. When analysing the results of the Pubmed database with respect to the keyword "exosome", about 6900 articles appear, with an exponentially increasing distribution. Furthermore, according to reports by Grand View Research, Inc. and Allied Market Research, there has been significant growth in both market volume and R&D investment in this field for years, which is expected to continue to grow exponentially in the upcoming years. We also contacted researchers and people close to lymphoma patients to discuss how Vesiprod would make a difference to these patients.
All this data analysis together suggested that there is a real need to invest in the study of exosomes, improve their production, collection and applications.
2. DEFINE A SOLUTION
2.1 MISSION AND VALUES
We agreed that our mission would be to design a method to provide quality health care, to achieve and maintain the health of patients. In order to successfully realise our project, Vesiprod members have conducted all our activities according to with the following values:
- Sustainability: It was important to us that the entire process of our project was in every respect as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible, both during and after implementation.
- Accessibility: That everyone can be part of our project, having accessibility to science from scientific dissemination to its benefits
- Equality: We believe faithfully in equality, which is why we are committed to a possible solution that does not understand gender, borders or money.
- Effectiveness and security: Above all, we aim for an effective and efficient end result, carried out using all the security measures necessary to achieve this in the best possible way.
2.2 OBJECTIVES
Our main objective is to bring a solution to the current lack of consensus on working with exosomes. For that purpose, we have come up with different strategies to address several of the problems:
- To amplify the exosome production of a stable cell line
- To tag the vesicles to facilitate their purification
- To enhance the expression of membrane proteins to make them tissue-specific
- To develop a gene therapy approach
3. THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM
3.1 LEARNING FROM OTHERS
We believe that experience is a very important factor to run a project - whatever it is. That is why we contacted former iGEM participants to get their advice on how to run the project and to take into account the possible setbacks we might encounter.
In particular, we had the opportunity to meet Nina Senna, Exeter iGEM 2020 team member and iGEM Gold Medalist. She advised us on how to manage intellectual property, fundraise and organise ourselves as a team.
We were lucky to have different people from the university interested in the project, from Professor Xavier Testar to the Start-UB team (Matheus Provinciali and Liz Arroyo), with special mention of Judit Giró (The Blue Box CEO).
3.2 SHAPING THE PROJECT
As our project is very ambitious, we had to seek the advice of several experts to ensure that each process was carried out correctly. The first person to evaluate our idea was our current PI, Manuel Reina, doctor in cell biology. Despite confirming that we had a very powerful project idea, he was able to set limits, give us more realistic guidelines on the limitations of the project, and advised us on the workflow we should follow in order to achieve some results. But he has no experience working with exosomes, so he referred us to our advisors: Francesc E. Borràs and Mercè Martí. They both are professors at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and have experience in microvesicles and exosomes. They gave us advice on the subject at a scientific level, solved our doubts -both theoretical and technical-, and advised us in terms of methodology.
3.3 WET LAB
For the realisation of the project, we were extremely fortunate to be able to count on the help of Marta Fernandez and Martí Badal, who are responsible for communication at the Josep Carreras Foundation and Josep Carreras Institute, respectively. Thanks to them, the PI Gaël Roué had interest in our project, and from the first minute he hosted us in his lab. For the development of the project, we had the support of Marcelo Lima and Nuria Profitos, the postdocs of Gaël’s lab. They have supervised our practices and helped us in everything we needed, for example, the ethical concerns for the implementation of the CAM model for Burkitt's lymphoma. Without the collaboration of all the people mentioned above, this project would not have been possible.
4. IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION
4.1 PROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION
Our project is designed with the aim of being applied in the pharmaceutical sector to treat a wide range of diseases and reduce patient suffering. So having the support of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, is an indicator of the application of our project.
During the Covid-19 pandemic we were able to see how vital and necessary scientific dissemination is, which is why we believe that today there is a great deal of misinformation. One of the great virtues of science is that it is self-correcting because it is constantly evolving. That is why we believe that we must emphasise the need for the population to have scientific culture and to have free access to it, as it makes us as a society freer and more critical
To further evaluate our project, we decided to conduct a series of interviews in the form of a podcast and upload it to Spotify, since it is accessible to anyone. In these interviews we do not only talk about the project, the aim is to analyse the current paradigm and how targeted therapies are making their way to provide increasingly personalised and efficient treatments.
Throughout the podcast we will be able to immerse ourselves with experts from different disciplines who will narrate their approaches to current scientific news and our project. We believe that this will enrich and help to spread the common goal and bring the need to invest in science closer to the non-scientific society.
Therefore, we analysed the key profiles involved in this process and interviewed them. On the other hand, we collaborated with iGEM IISER TVM to analyse the potential market. While our team studied the Western market (America and Europe), they studied the Eastern market (Asia Pacific). For more information, see section Entrepreneurship.
4.2 SCIENTIFIC DISSEMINATION
Sharing is caring, that is why we have made our project accessible and close to the people since the very beginning. For this, we have used different strategies, from social media to educational activities.
As for social media, we have a very active Instagram account (@igemubarcelona Here we introduced the team members and we have been creating content related to our project. Every week we (1) upload scientific news that somehow is related to vesiprod, (2) explain the synthetic biology technique behind that news and (3) explain something about our team. Furthermore, Instagram has been a really useful and easy way to communicate with other 2022 iGEM teams and do collaborations with them (see 5.3 Collaborations). Apart from instagram we also use (although to a lesser degree) tiktok, twitter and linkedin.
In addition to social networks, we wanted to make science accessible to the youngest, who will be the next generation of scientists. Thus we have had a series of initiatives to get closer to them: we have created a series of videos to do ‘self homemade science’ that also explain our project, we have given talks in schools, and we have even asked for their collaboration in the design of our website (see 4.1 Education).