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<p style="font-size:64px"><b>Human Practices</b></style>
 
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<h1 style="text-align:justify;"> Grand View Farms </h1>
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<p style="font-size:32px;text-align:center;font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Grand View Farms  
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">As our project deals with alternatives to antibiotics as plasmid maintenance, we wanted to learn how and why others avoid using antibiotics in their industries. As the large majority of antibiotics used in the United States are used in farms <b>INSERT SOURCE HERE</b>, we decided to meet directly with farmers who choose to avoid antibiotics. In addition to learning about their rationale for using alternatives, these trips also helped inform us of the potential applications of our work with the Hok-Sok system.</p>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">As our project deals with alternatives to antibiotics as plasmid maintenance, we wanted to learn how and why others avoid using antibiotics in their industries. According to a  <a href="http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForIndustry/UserFees/AnimalDrugUserFeeActADUFA/UCM440584.pdf">2013 Summary Report by the FDA </a> on antimicrobial use, a large majority of antimicrobials in the us are used in food-producing animals. Because of this we decided to meet directly with farmers who choose to purposely avoid antibiotics. In addition to learning about their rationale for using alternatives, these trips also helped inform us of the potential applications of our work with the Hok-Sok system.</p>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;"> Grand View Farms is a certified organic farm in Maryland that does not administer sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to their animals, uses no pesticides, and grows as few genetically modified crops as possible. Instead of using pesticides and antibiotics, the farm's owners employ classical crop and animal rotation methods in order to keep the soil healthy <b>This explains why they don't use fertilizer, not why they don't use antibiotics or pesticides</b>. As different animals consume different plants, they argued, rotating livestock through the land naturally maintains a healthy balance of growth and soil nutrients, while suppressing harmful weeds. Additionally avoiding repeatedly growing the same crop on one section of land prevents depletion of nutrients in the soil.<b><-- again, fertilizer, not pesticides or antibiotics</b></p>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;"> <a href="http://www.grandviewfarming.com/">Grand View Farms</a> is a certified organic farm in Maryland that does not administer sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to their animals, uses no pesticides, and grows as few genetically modified crops as possible. As different animals consume different plants, they argued, rotating livestock through the land naturally maintains a healthy nutrient balance while suppressing the growth of harmful weeds. Due to this practice, the farmers at Grand View argued that administering antibiotics was not beneficial, since they naturally received all the nutrients required for good health and from the varied vegetation available for grazing.</p>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">Interestingly, the owners of Grand View Farms did not express any particular ethical or health concerns with GMO crops. Instead, they informed us that, for a farm of their size, having an organic label made them more profitable and allows them to compete better with larger, more industrial farms.</p>  
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">Interestingly, the owners of Grand View Farms did not express any particular ethical or health concerns with GMO crops. Instead they informed us that, for a farm of their size, having an organic label made them more profitable and allows them to fill a market niche without directly competing with larger, more industrial scale operations. The allure of organically grown food and organically raised animals is a powerful marketing tool for the farm.</p>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">*One a side note, some hungry members of our team sampled the farms ribs, eggs, and vegetables, and according to them, the farms practices have only improved the taste of the food.*</p>
 
<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">*One a side note, some hungry members of our team sampled the farms ribs, eggs, and vegetables, and according to them, the farms practices have only improved the taste of the food.*</p>
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<p style = "font-size:16px"><b>Free range chickens roam Grand View Farms</b></p>
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<p style = "font-size:18px;text-align:justify";>The farmers' willingness to accept GMO crops demonstrated their interest in maintaining an antibiotic free operation. This helped us gain a greater understanding of the applications for our Hok-Sok plasmid maintenance system. If this could be used to maintain plasmids in lieu of antibiotics, then synthetic biology could benefit and partner with organizations like Grand View Farms without compromising the integrity of their ethical positions. Genetically modified bacteria which increase soil quality or the nutrient uptake of animals when ingested are just two examples of how synthetic biology could benefit farms, but the prior necessity of antibiotics prohibited their acceptance at places like Grand View. However, we knew that without antibiotics, plasmids could not be maintained within the cell for very long, leading to a highly variable level of expression. We thus made sure to ensure that our Hok-Sok system could not only maintain plasmids, but also ensure a consistent expression level.</p>
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<h1 style="text-align:justify;"><b>Montgomery County Fair</b></h1></a>  
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<p style="font-size:32px;text-align:center;font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><b>Montgomery County Fair</b>
 
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In mid-August, we sent some members to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair to canvas the site. The MoCo Fair witnesses the annual meeting and celebration of farmers, artist, craftsman, carnival rides, and pie cooking contests. We interviewed the fair-goers – farmers, high school students, county executives, and everyone in between – about their opinions and concerns about GMOs using a carefully crafted electronic survey. In keeping with our dedication to sustainable practices, and in response to our conversation with the owner of Grand View Farm, we gathered information from the general populace to better understand and navigate the misconceptions and ethical limitations our local community associates with bioengineered consumables.
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In mid-August, some members visited the Montgomery County (MoCo) Agricultural Fair in order to survey members of the local community. The MoCo Fair is an annual meeting of farmers, artists, and craftsmen. This celebration included carnival rides, pie cooking contests, and many fascinating demonstrations. As part of our human practices effort, we interviewed the various farmers, students, county executives, etc. about their opinions and concerns about using GMOs. In response to our conversation with Grand View Farm, we wanted to better understand the common misconceptions and ethical limitations that our local community associates with bioengineered consumables. Along with our interviews, we also asked people to fill out a survey concerning their opinions on genetic engineering.
  
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<p>Click here to read about the survey results</p>
 
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<h1 style="text-align:justify;"><b>2015 East Coast Regional Meetup</b></h1></a>  
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<p style="font-size:32px;text-align:center;font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><b>2015 East Coast Regional Meetup</b>
 
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We hosted a meetup this summer of several iGEM teams from around the Mid-Atlantic region. Through this we hoped to facilitate connections and collaboration between the teams, learn from each others successes and struggles with our projects, and gain valuable insights from our peers.
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This June we hosted a meetup of several iGEM teams from around the Mid-Atlantic region in order to meet other teams in our area. Our plan was to facilitate interlab connections and collaboration, learn from each others' successes and struggles, and gain valuable insights on synthetic biology.</p>
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<p style = "font-size:18px;text-align:justify">We were grateful to have representatives from the College of William and Mary, the University of Virginia, Duke University, and Rock Ridge High School come and meet us!</p>
 
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<p>Click here to read about the meetup</p>
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<h1 style="text-align:justify;"><b>Survey</b></h1>
 
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We sent out surveys to analyse the public's knowledge on GMOs and to inform us about how the expansion of community labs and DIY biology, the main focus of our project, would be received by local communities.<p/>
 
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<h1 style=";text-align:justify;"> Eye Opening Interviews </h1>
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<p style="font-size:32px;text-align:center;font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><b>Human Practices Related to Side Projects</b>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">We visited the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins University to learn about the current conditions of macular degeneration, its symptoms and treatments.
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<p style=";text-align:justify;font-size:24px;"><b>Eye Opening Interviews</b>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">We visited the Wilmer Eye Institute, a part of Johns Hopkins University, in order to learn about the current conditions of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), its symptoms, and its treatments.
  
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<h3 style="font-size:24px;text-align:justify;"> Baltimore, Maryland </h3>
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<p style="font-size:24px;text-align:justify;"> <b>Baltimore, Maryland</b>
 
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">We met with a researcher who studies, among many things, macular degeneration.
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">We met with a researcher who studies the causes of AMD, Dr. Noriko Esumi. She currently studies the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and how it relates to AMD. After giving her an explanation of what iGEM is and why we were choosing to study lutein production, she told us that, while her experience with lutein itself was limited, she was well informed about retinal health and some of the causes of macular degeneration.
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at the Wilmer Eye Institute we spoke to Dr. Noriko Esumi, who studies retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and how it relates to AMD. After giving her an explanation of what iGEM is and why we were choosing to study lutein production, she told us that, while her experience with lutein itself is limited, she would be more than willing to answer all of our questions. All we had to do was ask what her research involved and it sparked a long, information-rich conversation.
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From the meeting with Dr. Esumi, We learned the following:
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RPE is a cell type that nourishes retinal visual cells. They provide the nutrients since photoreceptors are avascular, they have no blood vessels for direct nutrient uptake. RPE also collects waste from photoreceptor cells and excretes them into the circulatory system to be filtered out. The RPE acts as a mediator for nutrient and waste transfer.
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RPE is significant because there are two types of AMD, the wet-type and the dry type. The wet type involves the overgrowth of blood vessels, structurally impairing the eyes. This is easier to treat with medication and injections of antibody to help stop cell growth. Dry type, where RPE cells begin to die, is far more common and there is no treatment.
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Macular Degeneration has been attributed to a few factors: smoking, immune responses based on bacterial infections, genetics, and, most commonly by far, aging. It has been dubbed an age-related disease, hence why it is known most commonly as AMD instead of simply macular degeneration.
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Dr. Esumi works on studying the RPE and its specialization. She studies the genes unique to the RPE and the transcription factors associated to help answer the question of why are these unique genes only expressed in the RPE and nowhere else in the body?
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She also focuses mainly on the aging process of cells. Without aging AMD will not develop, she argued.
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However, she also shared that she agrees that lutein is an effective vitamin supplement to help maintain and improve ocular health.
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She shared with us a study where a group of scientists tested a variety of cells in hope of finding a common gene that could be attributed to aging. While this gene was not found, the did find a common sequence in the promoter region of these cells, NFkappaB. A certain transcription factor related to inflammation loves this sequence as a binding site.
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Drawing from this study, Dr. Esumi experiments with mice. She allows transgenic mice, and naturally-aging mice to age for two years and studies AMD development in them. She also uses these mice to study inflammation patterns and whether exposure to oxidative stress (smoking) increases risk of AMD.
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All in all, we learned a lot about the potential to eradicate AMD as an affliction, the importance of RPE, and that lutein is a useful supplement for maintaining healthy eyes.
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From our conversation, we learned that age-related macular degeneration can be attributed to a few factors: smoking, immune responses based on bacterial infections, genetics, and, as its name suggests, aging. She also supported the notion that lutein is an effective vitamin supplement to help maintain and improve ocular health.
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<h3 style="font-size:24px;text-align:justify;"> Columbia, Maryland </h3>
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<p style="font-size:24px;text-align:justify;"> <b>Columbia, Maryland</b>
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">We also interviewed an ophthalmologist from a branch of the Wilmer Eye Institute.
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Our next interview was with Dr. Nosheen Ahmed. While Dr. Esumi had more experience with the tissue cells that cause AMD when dysfunctional, Dr. Ahmed had more experience with the disease itself, its symptoms, its common treatments, how it affects the lives of patients, etc.
 
Our next interview was with Dr. Nosheen Ahmed. While Dr. Esumi had more experience with the tissue cells that cause AMD when dysfunctional, Dr. Ahmed had more experience with the disease itself, its symptoms, its common treatments, how it affects the lives of patients, etc.
  
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From the interview with Dr. Ahmed, we learned:
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From the interview with Dr. Ahmed, we learned that a good prevention method for those at risk for AMD is a change in lifestyle habits. For example, quitting smoking, minimizing computer use, and improving one's diet all could benefit eye health. Optometrists recommend a lot of leafy greens and dark vegetables, which contain a variety of carotenoids, including lutein.
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Dr. Ahmed stated that not many studies has been done with lutein but there is a consensus it has a positive effect on AMD.  
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AMD often results from waste products building up in the eyes with age. This correlates with RPE malfunction.
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A trend noticed in AMD patients, is that they tend to be more affected or more susceptible to the condition the lesser pigmentation they have in the eyes, it correlates with UV exposure.
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Dr. Ahmed discussed a series of two studies known as AREDS (age related eye disease study) I and II. The second set of studies actually discussed lutein and zeaxanthin as feasible vitamin supplements to apply to AMD especially in the case of dry type.
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In accordance with the information provided by Dr. Esumi, Dr. Ahmed also explained the dry type has no significant treatment. She also added that it develops more slowly than wet type.
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Wet type AMD can be treated with cancer drugs to reduce tissue cell proliferation. Originally these drugs were specific to colon cancer but drugs have been more recently developed to specialize in treatment for the RPE.
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However, this aforementioned treatment is stressful as it requires injections into the eye every 4-8 weeks.
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The average age of risk is 50-60 years.
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AMD had various stages, it can jump from Stage I (minor) dry directly to wet type in some severe cases.
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A good prevention for those who have risk factors for AMD is a change in lifestyle habits, ex. quitting smoking or less computer use (blue light does damage), and eating a healthier diet. Optometrists recommend a lot of leafy greens and dark vegetables, which do contain lutein.
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The AREDS study found a formulation of vitamins that prevent AMD progression from Stage III to wet type, this included lutein in the mix.
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Dr. Ahmed concluded that not many studies has been done with lutein but there is a consensus it has a positive effect on AMD.  
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She also discussed that many patients will not recognize AMD as it develops. As the vision decreases or spotting occurs, they think they may only need glasses. More research is needed for the disease and potential treatments as well as vitamins like lutein which can help.  
 
She also discussed that many patients will not recognize AMD as it develops. As the vision decreases or spotting occurs, they think they may only need glasses. More research is needed for the disease and potential treatments as well as vitamins like lutein which can help.  
 
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<p style="font-size:18px;text-align:justify;">As part of our side project on the biosynthesis of lutein and to acquire a better understanding of the challenges facing synthetic biology entrepreneurs in moving their project from a proof of concept to an industrial level we visited the University of Maryland <a href="http://www.brep.umd.edu/bsf.html">Bioprocess Scale-up Facility </a>. BSF is a facility at the University of Maryland which provides training and is contracted by biotechnology companies in the region to optimize and prove scale up of their biosynthesis and fermentation processes to the industrial level. They kindly allowed us to tour the facility and learn about some of the unique challenges involved in reaching industrial size in a bioprocess. Gaining a greater appreciation for this both informed and invigorated our goal of making synthetic biology cheaper, safer, and more affordable for community DIY labs and entrepreneurs.</p>
  
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<h1>References</h1>
  
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<p>1. Department of Health and Human Services. Antimicrobials Sold Or Distributed For Use In Food-Producing Animals. Food and Drug Administration; 2013:6-57.</P>
  
  
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Latest revision as of 01:21, 2 October 2015