Team:AITM-Nepal/Human practise

The first program conducted by the human practice team was in Little Angel’s College, Hattiban (Lalitpur) for the intermediate level that is +2 students .A huge number of students participated in program which was about 160.The program contained presentation on synthetic biology, its application and future plans in Nepal. Different section of program topic was presented by different member of the team. As it was the first program conducted by the team , they gave the general concept of the synthetic biology and iGEM project .During the program it was found that many of the students were not familiar to the subject biotechnology and synthetic biology. Team gave the overview of their project. Presentors were well known about their topic. Though there were different sub parts regarding synthetic biology during presentation, some of them were enthralling and impressive. It attracted the student very much. Mosty the section containing interactive pictures and cartoon images attracted the students and they paid more attention to the particular section comparatively to other section. Different examples related to different areas of synthetic biology were included so that it made the students to catch the information easily .The team were determined to gave their 100% effort to distribute the information regarding the synthetic biology and its different areas. During the questionnaire round ,most the student were shy to ask their question in front of the mass but some Students arose their questions regarding the scope of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology's application on agricultural aspect was thoroughly described by team members and understood by the students. Overall the presentation was good as it was a first human practice approach by the team but there were few problems which can be overlook for the presenters of the first presentation. Synthetic biology and research oriented program courses are not currently included in curriculum of Nepal .Thus it is recommended that this sort of program must be included in the curriculum so that student will gain knowledge and acquire habit of doing research work .

Date : 9th September
The next interaction program was held at GEMS School, located at Dhapakhel, Lalitpur by human practice team. A wide range of audience from intermediate level and a faculty member of biology participated in that program. The main theme of that program was to elaborate the ideas about biotechnology, synthetic biology, their application and related project. Even though most of the students were not familiar to synthetic biology, the team tried their best to give the brief introduction about synthetic biology. The team explained about the synthetic biology by comparing cell with an electrical circuit so that students could easily imbibe the information. Many of the students were found to be attracted by different sections of the slide; the main attraction of the program was the information about spider goat, which was genetically engineered by iGEM team of Utah University, 2012. The team member tried to capture the attraction of students by using various questions related to biology. Hard effort from all presenters was seen to explain about their project and synthetic biology. Meanwhile sufficient knowledge of presenter regarding their topic was seen clearly. The team succeeded to summarize the areas of synthetic biology. Contents of the slides were difficult for students to understand according to their level. Similarly, the elaboration and explanation were too lengthy so that it was a kind of monotonous for students. Some of the keywords were so new and difficult for student of that level to understand. Overall presentation was good and team tried their best to provide the knowledge and information related to synthetic biology.

Date: 7th September
On 7th September, Anurag Adhikari gave a presentation describing about the project at NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology), Khusibu. The presentation was about two hours long. There was a huge participation of undergraduate students including ten students of graduate level. As the mass were of higher level, it was not a big deal to make them understand about the subject matter. The presenter had excellent knowledge about the subject matter and tried to make the audience clear about the topic. The presentation was simple yet very informative. Suitable and interactive examples helped to draw everyone’s attention. When the platform of queries was opened, there were mostly the queries about challenges faced before starting and during the period of project. There were several questions such as “How to know about the production of interferon”,”Why didn’t the team use monoclonal carrier but synthetic biology”. Each question was answered accurately. “When there is production of interferon, it binds to the promoter and then after binding with ISG-54K, the downstream of green fluorescent protein gets activated and this can be detected by fluorescence microscopy” , Anurag Adhikari answered to the first question. The project is not focused on drug designing but it includes the entire immune system was the statement that came as an answer to the latter question. There were several other queries on the floor, each of which was addressed very well. While moving on with the presentation, some of the simple examples resulted the feeling of irritation to the audience. The explanation of some of the topics was too lengthy and extra information regarding the instrumentation part was not that necessary. The presenter should have given equal time on every objective so that the presentation would have been much better. However, the presentation was outstanding and the mass could understand about the subject matter very well.

Date: 19th September
On September 17 and 18, Ministry of Science and Technology and Environment of Nepal organized National Science Exhibition on the occasion of International Science Day at Academy Hall, Kathmandu. There was participation of different academic institutions and industries in the program. The theme of the program was to promote Science and Technology in Nepal. The team from AITM also showed their participation in this program. We had a rotating a rotating DNA model, demonstration on “Spider-Goat (a project of 2012 iGEM, Utah university)”, as well as we gave an overview of our project immunEcoli to the mass. The visitors were students of different levels, professors, industrialist, and scientists including former Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. Everyone was interested and curious to know about immunEcoli and “Spider-Goat”. Since, these two topics were new for them it was the center of attraction of the program. The main objective of our stall was to notify people about the different application of synthetic biology. As synthetic biology was new to everyone our stall attracted more visitors than others and provided enough knowledge on synthetic biology and biotechnology. The synthetic biologic approach provided the new realm for the developmental aspect of life science and its potentials in developing country like Nepal. Application on agriculture which is the main part of Nepalese economy, was the true motif of all these advanced technology derived from synthetic biology. Also, the molecular biology based therapeutic application in Health sector is a need in Nepalese scenario which could be executed using synthetic biology.

Date: 9th September
On the day,AnuragAdhikari along with Pratik Koirala and KiranSubedi went to Lord Buddha Education Foundation at Maitidevi regarding human practice. The presentation was from 9:15 to 10:10am and discussion floor was open till 10:30am. There was sound participation of undergraduates and graduates students. The presenter was well known about content matter and gave his best to make audience familiar with topic. The presentation was very informative with relevant illustrations. This aided to grasp the audience attraction. Plenty of queries like 'How much portion of work is left in the project?', 'Does your project avoids autoimmunity?', 'Isn't it difficult to cure after mutant?', 'How to intake E. coli in our body?', 'Does the project only imply for virus?', 'Is it going to make us healthy forever?', 'How did you know about iGEM?', 'How did you get grand and isn't it difficult?', 'How was your approach to project?' Those queries were solved with an accurate and precise logic. The program was supposed to be started in time but due to delay arrival of the audience and presenter more time couldn't be allocated in discussion. However, theme of project and first attempt from Nepal by AITM team was saluted and appreciated by the audience. So, overall work was great and fruitful.

Date: 11th September
The team human practice reached at SANN college at Gairidhara. Participants in that program were from Bsc biotechnology including a faculty member. A general layout about the iGEM project was given to the audiences and the sole aim of the involvement of team in that project was explained. The explanation including fledging stage of the igem as well as the influence of iGEM competition throughout the world. The goals of iGEM such as to increase the skills and knowledge of an ordinary students ,progress and achievement of synthetic biology like biofuel, decomposable plastics and development of plant cell that can fix nitrogen were explained by the team . The differences between synthetic biology and genetic engineering were clarified by the team. Eventhough there are a lot of positive views about the importance of synthetic biology , one cannot completely neglect negative aspect about synthetic biology , especially the matters regarding ethical and environmental issues. The team presented their project by giving different relevant examples with pictures. The main purpose of the project was to integrate gene of siRNA in the plasmid of the strain of E coli and then insert the desired product into the human which will help to boost up the immune system . Besides providing information about the project to the undergraduate students of SAAN college, another objective of the presentation was to inspire the students to participate in such competition and show up their potentials .Several questions were aroused regarding the project and synthetic biology such as what are the scopes of synthetic biology in Nepal , how the siRNA works to boost up the immune system, whether the siRNA will act against the specific disease etc . The reply to the later question was that siRNA will upgrade the whole immune system so that body will be able to fight against various range of diseases whether that is fungal or viral or bacterial.Actually the students were curious about how to get enrolled and participate in competition such as iGEM .