1. Surveys
Before we start doing our engineering, we did a survey, gaining knowledge on people’s thoughts and current understanding of obesity and weight control products. To ensure the diversity of the survey result, we included people living in different regions, Taiwan and the United States. The age range is also wide, from 12 years old to 53 years old and above. Most of the participants are females between 12 and 22 years old.
Graph 1:Ranking of Weight’s Importance
Graph 2:Acknowledgements about green tea and specific food’s relation with metabolism
Graph 3:Willingness to take the product if it was proven functional
On a scale of 1-5, the majority of people think “weight” is important to them (55% for important and very important); at the same time, 55% of participants find it hard to lose weight. Despite that most participant of this survey are female, this shows that control of weight is a social issue many people faces. Most people believe a healthy diet and regular exercise help control weight the most (40% and 35% respectively), which is technically true. However, metabolism also plays a crucial role in weight control.
While nearly all participants think obesity is a serious issue and is associated with multiple diseases (100% and 95%), many participants (55%) don’t know green tea and specific food can help metabolism, hence controlling weight. This show the lack of awareness of the benefits of certain food and how the human body can take advantage of the chemicals in natural foods. Instead, people try to use supplements such as Vitamin B and C (21.6%) to boost metabolism.
To ensure our product can be accepted by the public, we surveyed people’s habits of drinking tea and their attitude toward controlling metabolism through engineered product consumption. Nearly 85% of people are willing to take the product if it was proven to control weight.
Besides public surveying, throughout our project cycle, we interviewed and communicated with multiple in-field experts and community members. From these discussions, we gain a valid understanding of our project’s real-world application and spaces for improvement. Each interviewee provides comments in regard to their profession. These comments can help us strengthen our product in terms of medical validity and accuracy.
2. Expert Interviews
1. Scientist Hsiao-Fen Han
We interviewed scientist Hsiao-Fen Han, who worked on drug testing for over 20 years. Most of her studies focus on Caenorhabditis Elegans. In recent years, she expanded her research and covered cancer-related medicines.
Why did we approach her?
This interview will increase our knowledge about public awareness toward drugs, as well as gain comments on our products’ validity and potential improvement from a professional drug researcher.
What did we learn?
First, we learned professional methods to test our product. In the future to strengthen our results we could include positive and negative controls, and blind tests to see if the drug acts dosage-dependent. Furthermore, when evaluating our product’s efficacy, we could be more careful as changes in viability’s phenotype may be a result of many reasons, not necessarily the mechanism we assumed.
Second, we gained knowledge of the current drug field. Drug testing is important as it not only validates its effectiveness but also uncovers underappreciated mechanisms. Although most drug products conduct testing and have scientific data as support, most drug producer and customers are unaware that the standards for nutrition supplements and drugs are different. While drugs are monitored and supervised by specific government bodies, in most countries, supplements are regulated post-market. No regulatory body evaluates supplements’ contents and safety before they are sold to consumers. Therefore, the validity of the scientific evidence each producer provides is also doubtful, with no supervisor or overseeing agent. On the other hand, related data and information aren’t transparent to the public. This will damage public knowledge about health and supplement. People may be easily misled by fake news and biased testing results.
Application
After knowing the information mentioned above, our group expanded our campaign on social media, not only spreading awareness about the disease and our designed supplement, we provide engineering processes and related information. This will increase public awareness and knowledge. Furthermore, we added multiple control groups for experiment testing, ensuring the result is accurate and the relationship we draw is appropriate.
2. BioTech Corporation Hi-Q
We interviewed Taiwan biological technology corporation Hi-Q’s product manager Ms.Yang. Hi-Q is a corporation that sells Flucloxacillin, antibiotics, and biomaterials. The corporation supplies the majority of biological materials used in Taiwan research agencies and schools. Furthermore, this corporation also sells self-made medicines and supplements.
Why did we approach them?
This interview will provide us with knowledge of supplements from an in-field producer’s perspective. This will enable us to advance our research and project design according to the professional producer’s comments.
What did we learn?
First, we learned Taiwan public’s view and understanding of supplements. Take the corporation’s product Fucoidan product as an example, as they reported, most people take it as a supplement that helps body maintenance while cancer patients take it as an assisting nutrition source. Since the product passed clinical trials, it is recommended by pharmacists to people. According to the corporation, most people only take supplements after they got sick or discovered damage to certain body functions, which should not be the case. Certain supplements should be taken on a daily basis for body maintenance and strengthening.
Second, we see the importance of conducting reliable drug testing. With clinical trials and scientific data as evidence, people will be more persuaded and willing to take the supplements. For our product, the corporation believes it is possible to be used in future research on obesity curing and controlling after being tested in its viability and effectiveness. One of the methods is to test the drug in a recognized 3rd party owned laboratory.
Application
After knowing the difficulties supplement producers faced in the field- customers not taking supplements until they’re sick- we focus more on campaigning and promotion. This will increase people’s interest in taking our supplements in their daily lives, increasing the metabolism of their bodies for their health. Furthermore, as the interviewee mentioned, we now include the evidence in our project presentation and invite other scientists to oversee our research and result to gain the credibility of our project. Last but not least, if our project is used for commercial purposes in the future, it should be used in a recognized 3rd party owned laboratory, where supplement companies could send their product for testing.
3. Dr. Camel Ho
We interviewed doctor Camel Ho, who worked as a traditional Chinese doctor for over 25 years, serving at Po Sand Tong Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic. Traditional Chinese Medicine has a different approach than Western medicine. While Western medicine uses specific drug chemical functions to target symptoms of diseases, Chinese Medicine aims to treat the patient as a whole through the practice of balancing the body’s natural opposing forces of yin and yang.
Why did we approach him?
We approached him because the supplement product we design is tea and algae, which are materials that are often used in Chinese Medicine. Furthermore, Chinese medicine doctors are familiar with improving body function and situation through the use of specific food.
What did we learn?
First, there are existing approaches people take to tackle obesity besides surgery. Current methods include Acupuncture, following exercise and diet plan nutritionist set, and taking herbs to suppress patients' appetites. According to his experience, many people do come to the clinic to ask for Chinese herbs and other supplements for losing weight. This corresponds to the survey we did before the start of the project, people do care about weight and at the same time find losing weight hard.
Second, we know that obesity can be realistically treated using natural supplements such as herbs and tea but the effect will have to be seen in the long term. Some natural supplements change patient hormones, which take time to be observed through behavior changes.
Third, the doctor believes our project is a valid research direction; however, using yeast to do the test is a start. We still need to use mice and clinical trials to show more promising data.
Application
After knowing the information mentioned above, we are more confident about our project and are looking forward to testing our project with clinical methods in the future. Furthermore, we are interested in expanding our research scope to other natural materials in the future.
3. Taiwan Synbio Alliance
The experience of Taiwan SynBio Alliance provided us with a great opportunity to interact with other Taiwanese iGEMers and to receive feedback and design ideas from other teams. After listening to other teams’ presentations, we identified the structures of an iGEM project and understood the weaknesses of our project design. According to the feedback, our project lacked the “bioengineering part”; people believe our direction was academic-based, which was more about testing and proving an idea instead of creating a design. Before the Alliance Conference, our project mainly focused on testing whether the green tea and brown algae extracts have the stress-mitigating phenotypes for preventing obesity. After the Conference, we collected our feedback and talked to the Asia ambassador, Sabrina, who suggested various ways to modify our project design. As we further discussed our project with our instructors and other group members, we decided to shift our focus to the overexpressed SNF1 yeast that have been used to test the properties of supplements. We believe that by designing a kit of the overexpressed SNF1 yeasts, the kit can be sold to companies who produce obesity-prevention supplements for them to test the effectiveness of their products.
Through the poster session where teams exchanged ideas, our team explored potential ideas for improving our engineering designs by observing people’s creative ideas. Besides, through the discussions, we also came up with potential collaboration ideas and proposals with other Taiwanese teams. For example, we have talked to CCU_Taiwan who proposed to create an online recipe for people who want to prevent cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Over the discussion session, we believe they can implement green tea and brown algae into their recipe as these foods are proved to be effective in reducing obesity, which is correlated with CVD.
Being the first time joining iGEM competition, we cherished the opportunity to participate in the Alliance since we learned a lot about the project design and team structures of an iGEM team. Listening to the presentations of the undergraduate students’ teams, we understood more deeply about how to explain and discuss each criteria in order to succeed in achieving iGEM medals criteria.
References
1. Hsiao-Fen Han interview by Hui-Ching Kuo, on September 28th 2022
2. BioTech Corporation Hi-Q interview by Hui-Ching Kuo, on September 29th 2022
3. Dr Camel Ho interview by Hui-Ching Kuo, on Septmeber 29th 2022
2. BioTech Corporation Hi-Q
We interviewed Taiwan biological technology corporation Hi-Q’s product manager Ms.Yang. Hi-Q is a corporation that sells Flucloxacillin, antibiotics, and biomaterials. The corporation supplies the majority of biological materials used in Taiwan research agencies and schools. Furthermore, this corporation also sells self-made medicines and supplements.
Why did we approach them?
This interview will provide us with knowledge of supplements from an in-field producer’s perspective. This will enable us to advance our research and project design according to the professional producer’s comments.
What did we learn?
First, we learned Taiwan public’s view and understanding of supplements. Take the corporation’s product Fucoidan product as an example, as they reported, most people take it as a supplement that helps body maintenance while cancer patients take it as an assisting nutrition source. Since the product passed clinical trials, it is recommended by pharmacists to people. According to the corporation, most people only take supplements after they got sick or discovered damage to certain body functions, which should not be the case. Certain supplements should be taken on a daily basis for body maintenance and strengthening.
Second, we see the importance of conducting reliable drug testing. With clinical trials and scientific data as evidence, people will be more persuaded and willing to take the supplements. For our product, the corporation believes it is possible to be used in future research on obesity curing and controlling after being tested in its viability and effectiveness. One of the methods is to test the drug in a recognized 3rd party owned laboratory.
Application
After knowing the difficulties supplement producers faced in the field- customers not taking supplements until they’re sick- we focus more on campaigning and promotion. This will increase people’s interest in taking our supplements in their daily lives, increasing the metabolism of their bodies for their health. Furthermore, as the interviewee mentioned, we now include the evidence in our project presentation and invite other scientists to oversee our research and result to gain the credibility of our project. Last but not least, if our project is used for commercial purposes in the future, it should be used in a recognized 3rd party owned laboratory, where supplement companies could send their product for testing.
3. Dr. Camel Ho
We interviewed doctor Camel Ho, who worked as a traditional Chinese doctor for over 25 years, serving at Po Sand Tong Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic. Traditional Chinese Medicine has a different approach than Western medicine. While Western medicine uses specific drug chemical functions to target symptoms of diseases, Chinese Medicine aims to treat the patient as a whole through the practice of balancing the body’s natural opposing forces of yin and yang.
Why did we approach him?
We approached him because the supplement product we design is tea and algae, which are materials that are often used in Chinese Medicine. Furthermore, Chinese medicine doctors are familiar with improving body function and situation through the use of specific food.
What did we learn?
First, there are existing approaches people take to tackle obesity besides surgery. Current methods include Acupuncture, following exercise and diet plan nutritionist set, and taking herbs to suppress patients' appetites. According to his experience, many people do come to the clinic to ask for Chinese herbs and other supplements for losing weight. This corresponds to the survey we did before the start of the project, people do care about weight and at the same time find losing weight hard.
Second, we know that obesity can be realistically treated using natural supplements such as herbs and tea but the effect will have to be seen in the long term. Some natural supplements change patient hormones, which take time to be observed through behavior changes.
Third, the doctor believes our project is a valid research direction; however, using yeast to do the test is a start. We still need to use mice and clinical trials to show more promising data.
Application
After knowing the information mentioned above, we are more confident about our project and are looking forward to testing our project with clinical methods in the future. Furthermore, we are interested in expanding our research scope to other natural materials in the future.
3. Taiwan Synbio Alliance
The experience of Taiwan SynBio Alliance provided us with a great opportunity to interact with other Taiwanese iGEMers and to receive feedback and design ideas from other teams. After listening to other teams’ presentations, we identified the structures of an iGEM project and understood the weaknesses of our project design. According to the feedback, our project lacked the “bioengineering part”; people believe our direction was academic-based, which was more about testing and proving an idea instead of creating a design. Before the Alliance Conference, our project mainly focused on testing whether the green tea and brown algae extracts have the stress-mitigating phenotypes for preventing obesity. After the Conference, we collected our feedback and talked to the Asia ambassador, Sabrina, who suggested various ways to modify our project design. As we further discussed our project with our instructors and other group members, we decided to shift our focus to the overexpressed SNF1 yeast that have been used to test the properties of supplements. We believe that by designing a kit of the overexpressed SNF1 yeasts, the kit can be sold to companies who produce obesity-prevention supplements for them to test the effectiveness of their products.
Through the poster session where teams exchanged ideas, our team explored potential ideas for improving our engineering designs by observing people’s creative ideas. Besides, through the discussions, we also came up with potential collaboration ideas and proposals with other Taiwanese teams. For example, we have talked to CCU_Taiwan who proposed to create an online recipe for people who want to prevent cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Over the discussion session, we believe they can implement green tea and brown algae into their recipe as these foods are proved to be effective in reducing obesity, which is correlated with CVD.
Being the first time joining iGEM competition, we cherished the opportunity to participate in the Alliance since we learned a lot about the project design and team structures of an iGEM team. Listening to the presentations of the undergraduate students’ teams, we understood more deeply about how to explain and discuss each criteria in order to succeed in achieving iGEM medals criteria.