Difference between revisions of "Team:Exeter/Practices"
| Line 449: | Line 449: | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
<div id="integration"> | <div id="integration"> | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
</div> | </div> | ||
| Line 469: | Line 456: | ||
<ul class="pager"> | <ul class="pager"> | ||
<li class="previous"><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Exeter/Modelling_Diary"><span aria-hidden="true">←</span>Modelling Diary</a></li> | <li class="previous"><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Exeter/Modelling_Diary"><span aria-hidden="true">←</span>Modelling Diary</a></li> | ||
| − | <li class="next"><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Exeter/ | + | <li class="next"><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Exeter/Team">Team<span aria-hidden="true">→</span></a></li> |
</ul> | </ul> | ||
</nav> | </nav> | ||
Revision as of 09:33, 11 September 2015
Delving into the problem of Bovine TB in the UK is not something that we as a team took lightly. Bovine TB is a challenging disease that is hard to treat, easily transmitted and currently illegal to vaccinate against. Put these three factors together with the highly complex social, political and economical situation the UK faces with eradicating TB, it is clear that Bovine TB is a National problem that needs a solution.
Extremely early into our project we began to appreciate this. Therefore we agreed that during our project we wanted to make people more aware of the challenges farmers, vets and local communities face when dealing with Bovine TB.
Establishing relationships with various experts early on was extremely important. Not only have these relationships shaped certain areas of our project but also gave us an unprecedented look into the issue of Bovine TB in the UK. In the beginning these experts allowed us to understand everything to do with Bovine TB in the field and as our project has developed we have been able to integrate their experiences, suggestions and feedback into the science we are doing in the lab.
Our Beyond the Bench became as much of a lesson for us as a team as it did have an impact on our Ribonostics project. Vets, farmers, politicians, the NFU and DEFRA are just to name a few of the people/organisations highly involved with our project.
What challenges does the UK face to eradicate Bovine TB?
This is the question that we as a team decided to ask. Not only does this question have many aspects, we believe it is the question that is best able to have a direct impact on the work we are doing. The timeline below shows a breakdown of how we decided to tackle this highly important question and how what we learnt helped shape our Ribonostic work...
Richard Sibley
Right at the start of our project we wanted to understand everything to do with current TB testing. Understanding the Tuberculin skin test, how the test is implemented in the field and some of the current issues with testing are all things we needed to appreciate. To do this we met with Richard (Dick) Sibley, director of a veterinary practice in Devon. Dick has worked directly with Bovine TB, attending multiple Mycobacterium conferences and also focusing the work of his practice towards tackling Bovine TB.
Click below to read how Dick and his practice influenced our team right from day one.
Read more Phase 1: Understand everything to do with current TB testing.Tab 1 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 2 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 3 Content
Duis autem vel eum
Saved and Safe
A wide range of parties are involved with tackling TB in the UK. Important to our project was to really engage with those at the forefront of TB eradication. Central to this is a company called Saved and Safe and their director Michael Ross. Michael lives in New Zealand and was highly involved with the strategy that saw a decrease in TB incidence rate across New Zealand of 94% in just 10 years. Following this success Michael has approached the UK with a strategy that brings together all affected parties. With their 31 UK and international partners, Saved & Safe are taking a new and innovative approach in the fight against TB, something our test could offer great potential to.
Read more Phase 2: Look at what projects are at the forefront of tackling TB.Tab 1 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 2 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 3 Content
Duis autem vel eum
Phil Leighton
Our test will be cell free meaning all testing can be done 'in the field'. There were a number of important things to consider when designing exactly how our test would work. This is where Phil Leighton came into our project. A highly experienced vet, we accompanied Phil to a TB test on a Cornish farm and also spoke extensively about our project. Blood testing in cattle, the size of needles/tubes to collect samples and also blood clotting were all things Phil highlighted to us.
Click to read exactly how what Phil told us was integrated into our wet lab.
Read more Phase 3: Look at the real life design of our test.Tab 1 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 2 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 3 Content
Duis autem vel eum
The Public
Bovine TB in the UK is a highly contentious issue with many different sides to the argument of how it is spread, what the current problems are and also what is the best way to eradicate it from our farming industry. As opposed to debating this issue, we as a team took to the streets with some simple facts, aiming to make people more aware of exactly how damaging Bovine TB is to the UK. When we started we believed that not enough people were aware of some of these key facts. The best way for us to demonstrate this as a team was to engage with the general public armed with clipboards and a simple survey. Our results were interesting to say the least...
Read more Phase 4: Understand the public perception of bTB in the UK.Tab 1 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 2 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 3 Content
Duis autem vel eum
George Eustice
The Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is committed to eradicating Bovine TB from the UK by 2038. As our project developed it was important that we had a clear understanding of the current work DEFRA is doing to eradicate bTB. To do this we met with George Eustice, the Minister of State at DEFRA and also the Conservative MP for Redruth and Camborne. We discussed in detail with George the most recent advancements DEFRA have made with bTB testing as well as explaining how we believe our test may have an impact. Furthermore we wanted to gauge how imminent policy changes may be for the UK.
Read more Phase 5: Look at DEFRA's Bovine TB strategy.Tab 1 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 2 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 3 Content
Duis autem vel eum
Others
ETC
Phase 6Tab 1 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 2 Content
Duis mollis, est
Tab 3 Content
Duis autem vel eum