Considering the limitation by COVID-19 and the effectiveness and speed of online communication, people are increasingly relying on the internet and digital communication tools. In line with this trend, our team has used the internet as the primary channel to communicate with the world on a wide scale in order to reach a wider audience across the country. Recognizing that not many people are aware of synthetic biology or understand its significance, our team has used social media to post popular science articles and videos to educate the public about synthetic biology and knowledge about our topic. In addition, we held both online and offline lectures to introduce our project and gain public and professional recognition.
The WeChat Official Account is one of the channels we can spread and publicize about the bivalent vaccine topic. We would like to share the public with the progress of our team, as well as our mental journey. We believe that these will help the public understand synthetic biology and our project, so that they can have confidence in the development of this cause. Although the work every day is very hard, we insist on using a diary to record our growth.
Post statistics of our WeChat Official Account
In our daily posts, we documented our experimental steps and various social research activities in detail. We not only carried out the research of experimental principles seriously, but also maintained close communication and interaction with society. We also showed our daily research progress in text and photos. We took these articles as a way we outreach out to the public and communicate with them about what we do and they can express their thoughts by reading, posting likes, forwarding and leaving their comments freely.
WeChat Posts and people leaved likes or forwarded our articles to others
It is worth mentioning that we also look forward to interacting with our audience. We purposely set up a special section called "Bis-Vacc Corner" which is also our education corner, which usually proposes a daily question and then posts an answer below so that people can know more common sense content and knowledge. Compared to posting a scientific article, we chose to spread scientific knowledge and educate the public in an easier way with the form of Q&A each time which is more suitable for busy people to catch information quickly and conveniently during their precious spare time. In that corner, we use a special presentation method, the first thing that appears in the page is the problem. The answer will only appear after clicking on the blank section under the question. This method can help readers develop the habit of thinking and recall what they already know in their minds. We believe that this method can play a more educational function of popular science articles.
Popular science in our "Bis-Vacc Corner" at the end of every post
Our team used the Tik Tok to post our team vlogs about our daily experiments and activities. With more than 200 million users in China, Tik Tok has become an important source of information for the Chinese public, so we use it as an important social media platform to expose our projects. Sharing similar function with WeChat Official Account, through Tik Tok, we can promote our team's project, the duplex oral vaccine for young people, and let more people know that we are working on to protect our children from diseases by posting videos not articles. More importantly, we also look forward to drawing attention to hand, foot and mouth disease and viral gastroenteritis in infants and children, and reducing undue concerns about vaccines.
Our Tik Tok posts
This is the homepage of our team’s channel in Tik Tok, the avatar is our team logo. Our team has dedicated members to run this channel. They regularly updates our vlogs every day and reply to comments to get certain amount of plays and likes. With the push of big data, we have also gained some followers.
Offline lecture flyer (left) and we were presenting to our audience who are mainly parents (right)
Roadshows are a way for us to introduce our projects to the public, especially those parents which is our target group. After decided on the lecture date and the topic, we designed a flyer and spread online to invite people who are interested in our projects.
We introduced to the audience through PPT what is hand-foot-mouth disease and viral gastroenteritis and the relevant vaccines, in addition, we shared some reports about these two kinds of vaccines for infants and young children. Following that, we started to illustrate our project to the audience and the differences between our products and those currently on the market. We will use probiotics as a carrier to make the taste of oral vaccines more acceptable to infants, and also to protect their digestive tract systems. And the single oral vaccine liquid to target two different viruses we aim to develop has an advantage because it will be cheaper and more convenient than taking two separate vaccines. At the same time, it is also more attractive in the market because oral vaccines are more acceptable to children than injection ones , the latter will cause their painful feelings, and children's resistance is too strong.
We have successfully invited around 15 audience to attend the lecture
After we finished the presentation, we received very positive responses from the audience. They arose many questions about that two virus and their vaccines, and they were very curious about our project including how to ensure safety and effectiveness, how to decide the price, et al. We had a very long-time discussion and in the end, they expressed their support to our project and they mentioned they were very looking forward to our products which is much beneficial to their babies.
Through social research and interviews, we found that the public's understanding of synthetic biology is inadequate, and even has some fears for its application. In addition to our continuous posting popular science through our social media, we also held an online science lecture to popularize knowledge about our research topic including our biotechnology information to the public as an intensive education. Moreover, some people do not fully aware of the harm of hand, foot and mouth disease and viral gastroenteritis in infants and young children, and there are general concerns about vaccines.
We designed a poster to promote our online lecture (upper left) and we were presenting our project as well
as its inside biosynthesis knowledge online
During this lecture, we began by introducing our team's goals and background. In particular, it is introduced that our research is problem-oriented. Hand, foot, and mouth disease and viral gastroenteritis in infants and young children are two major hidden dangers that plague the health and development of infants and young children. We hope to solve these two problems in a healthier and safer way. In short, we also want everyone's stereotypes about disease. Just like polio vaccine candy pills to treat polio, we also look forward to using a similar probiotic drink to prevent the occurrence of these two diseases and relieve human suffering.
After that, we introduced the single oral vaccine that our team was studying and explained that it had the same effect as the dual injection vaccine. After that, we in detail illustrated how we utilize biosynthesis technology to design the oral vaccine and showed them what we did in the laboratory to show them the charm of biotechnology and our determination to develop the vaccine.
Following that, we also analyzed our product competitivity in the market by comparing it to current vaccines, for example, the single oral vaccine has more advantages in that the buyer will save more time and money. In the current market competition environment, a vaccine that can prevent two diseases will undoubtedly have more market influence than a vaccine that can only provide one antibody. For example, the nine-valent HPV vaccine has attracted more attention than the bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines, although its price is several times that of the former two.
In the end, we also invited our audience to follow our social media account where they could follow our project updates and learn much relevant knowledge. Through this online lecture, we hope to bring faith to the public on biosynthesis and deliver the message that biosynthesis technology could really make a difference in human life and will contribute the society.
In order to allow the public to understand our project, including its background, principles, and results, we also made two special education videos and posted them on the Bili Bili website. Bili Bili is a cultural community and video platform that is loved by Chinese young people. We put our videos on the website, hoping to attract public attention and achieve education for the young aged.
The first educational video which is consistent with the online lecture
In addition to the one educational video, where we mainly introduce our project consistent with the online lecture, we also prepared another educational video for spreading the knowledge about HMFD and viral gastroenteritis, as well as their vaccines.
In one minute, we introduced the hazards of hand, foot and mouth disease and viral gastroenteritis in infants and young children with the help of many illustrations and cartoons to make it more engaging, attractive, and easy for understanding. The video has gained considerable attention and forwarding, and we also expect it to further draw people's attention to the health of infants and young children.
The second educational video which is mainly talking about HMFD and viral gastroenteritis
