Human practices
Human practices
Human practices
Human practices
IRIS Genesis
Inclusivity
This question led us to further research about cancer. In 2023, 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths are projected to
occur only in the United States.¹ This, combined with the global economic crisis, made it clear that the finding of a new, effective and
affordable cancer treatment was crucial. We knew that, in 2023, it’s finally the time to put an end to this problem that causes so much pain.
And, just like this, we had ended up with a project focused on cancer treatment. Every scientist in the world wishes to find a way to cure this global, fatal disease.
Our team believes that synthetic biology is the key to make this wish come true, and this was the main thing we had in our minds when designing our project.
Furthermore, the cost varies depending on cancer type. The estimation of prostate cancer treatment is about 8,181$ - 8,586$,
while leukemia treatment can reach up to 16,551$. ³ IRIS is a therapeutic tool for all types of solid tumors, and the way that is
administered is somewhat the same for every case of cancer. Our bacteria and a luciferin analogue, methoxy e-coelenterazine, are
administered as close to the tumor as possible, and they find their way to the cancer cells. Just because IRIS consists only of
our bacteria and the luciferin analogue, it is an easily administered and affordable therapeutic approach. That makes it highly
accessible, even to areas that lack high-end medical infrastructure and developed health care systems.
Safety
But what other factors propel our project closer to becoming a safe therapeutic approach?
The utilization of E.coli, bacteria which are already part of the human microbiome. Although bacteria-mediated tumor therapy is
being tested and seems to be giving promising results, directly injecting bacteria in the human body can indeed trigger side-effects.
It can lead, for example, to inflammation or other forms of immune responses. That’s why our team proposes the employment of a Drug
Delivery System (DDM), a liposome for example, to deliver and release IRIS to its target. Other safety parameters we have thought
that would help IRIS reach the goal of being a proper therapeutic tool are: the integration of Adhesive Proteins to improve IRIS’
targeting ability, the employment of a Quorum Sensing System that controls the starting point of IRIS’ genes expression within the
tumor microenvironment and the design of a Kill Switch Mechanism that kills our bacteria after the treatment is done.
Our goal is to make IRIS as safe as possible, so that people trust it as a future therapeutic tool.
Our Vision
Integrated Human Practices
Integrated Human Practices
Overview
Our project, IRIS, owes its current form to expert guidance.
During our brainstorming, designing and lab work days, we were fortunate to collaborate with experts of various fields.
People from Greece, the United Kingdom and Stockholm, from several different fields, such as Biology, Chemistry and Medicine,
professors, doctoral students and independent researchers, contributed to IRIS's creation.
We would like to express our gratitude by briefly describing what each of them did for us.
Our Integrated Human Practices can be splitted in three categories: The ones that happened during our brainstorming sessions and
helped us reach to the main idea of our project, the ones that helped us out while conducting our experiments in the lab and finally
the ones that gave us advice on the safe implementation of IRIS in the real world.
Step 1: Where it all began
iGEM Ioannina 2021
We held several meetings with members from the team iGEM IOANNINA 2021. Most of these members have now graduated and embarked on master's degrees and phDs.
They supported our team in its initial stages and provided guidance during our brainstorming sessions. Their questions were categorized into specific axes:
-What are the current problems in our society?
-Which one does your team find intriguing to solve?
-How can Synthetic Biology help solve this problem?
When we presented our initial idea to them, they had a lot of questions to ask regarding its in vivo applications. These questions motivated us to search a little further on finding solutions to possible problems:
-How can IRIS be administered as a therapeutic product to a patient?
-Is IRIS safe enough for healthy cells? How can we increase its safety?
-How can our approach be more specific to tumors?
They also helped us select an assembly method, by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of HiFi DNA assembly and Golden Gate assembly. Let's not forget their contribution in fundraising, as they gave us some precious advice.
Photodynamic Therapy
While we were still brainstorming about possible project ideas, a meeting with professors from the University of Ioannina took place, as they wanted to learn more about our thoughts and help us with making decisions. Specifically, the professors that attended the meeting were H. Stamatis, Biotechnology professor and one of our Primary P.I.s Mr K. Papaloukas, Bioinformatics professor at the Department of Biological Applications and Technology Mr P. Doulias, Biochemistry professor at the Department of Chemistry Mr A. Tzakos, Organic Chemistry professor at the Department of Chemistry.Step 2: Lab advice
Tarvi Teder- Low copy-number plasmids and Drug Delivery Systems
Step 3: Iris as a cancer treatment
Barry Campbell- targeted therapy
Department of Medicine × iGEM Ioannina
In September, we had an insightful conversation with Mr Kolletas, Biology professor at the Department of Medicine of University of Ioannina,
Mrs Eugenia Roupakia, Doctoral Student in Molecular Cellular Biology at the Department of Medicine of University of Ioannina, and Mrs Simone Besta,
PhD candidate in Molecular Cellular Biology at School of Medicine of University of Ioannina.
We presented our project to them and we had a big conversation about the safety of our project. They agreed that an effective way to a more targeted therapy
is including adhesive proteins and even suggested several other molecules that we can employ to increase the target specificity of our mechanism.
We also talked about possible kill-switch mechanisms to further increase our project’s safety. Mr. Kolletas, specifically, had many suggestions about this topic,
including a kill switch mechanism inducible by our bacteria population, or by an σ³⁸ rpoS factor, which regulates gene expression in E. coli.
Another outcome from that meeting was the highlighting of the importance of knowing methoxy e-coelenterazine’s half-life, as it would better regulate our therapy and its future implementation.
The idea of co-culturing our engineered bacteria with breast cancer cells to test the proof of our concept seemed to puzzle Mr. Kolletas, who noted that some subtypes of breast cancer have mechanisms for countering oxidative stress. He proposed that we possibly need to make our therapy more specialized to a certain type of solid tumor cell line to achieve better results.
Mrs Kallergi G. - stages of drug development
In October, we had a meeting with Mrs Kallergi, Assistant Biochemistry Professor at the University of Patras, a researcher at the European Liquid Biopsy Society
(ELBS) and a former supervisor of the team iGEM Patras Med 2022. Due to her experience with iGEM and her expertise in the field of liquid biopsy for cancer diagnostics,
we were happy to engage in a conversation with her.
Commenting on our idea to co-culture the engineered bacteria with cancer cells, she suggested the possible co-culture of our transformed bacteria with healthy human
cell lines in order to test possible side-effects of our project.
She explained to us the whole process of drug approval and she mentioned the significance of a precise and clear step-by-step plan for the possible
in vivo application of our project in the real world. A logical workflow of in vivo experiments would start by testing on cancer cell cultures,
then move on to animal models and after many stages of approvals our experiments could finally continue on clinical trials on humans.
All these steps should be taken very carefully in order to minimize possible risks and ensure that possible positive effects are indeed our project’s effect, rather than an artifact.
Finally, she agreed that our therapy must be very well regulated in order to avoid immune responses. Especially with cancer patients who have already received treatment and are under immunosuppression, the possibility of risks occurring is greater, and for that reason, she noted that we should consider even more parameters that would make our therapeutic approach safe.
Step 4: Mentorship Program
A fourth, special category dedicated to our mentor, as she contributed to all the categories above. During our journey, we were lucky to have an amazing mentor and friend by our side, Sofia Oikonomou.
Sofia Oikonomou
Science communication
Science communication
iGEM Ioannina in the 1st pfs-bio in Alexandroupolis, Greece (28-29-30/04/2023)
On April 28-29-30th we participated in the 1st pfsbio, a conference organized by students of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics in Alexandroupolis, Greece.
It was the first panhellenic bioscientists conference for university students and it hosted many great scientific speeches from professors, undergraduate and overgraduate
students. There, we had the opportunity to present our team and our project to the public for the first time. We talked about iGEM, competition villages, our team roster,
cancer as a global problem, Photodynamic therapy and our approach on designing IRIS. Afterwards, we had a discussion with the attendees about our project safety and how we
envision its implementation to the real world.
We also got to meet, hang out and share ideas with other iGEM teams from all over Greece!
iGEM Greece 2023 Discord server
One of the most important things for a young scientist is to connect with others in the same field of interest and spend countless
hours discussing their science. Our team consists of nine young individuals who love science and science communication.
That's why we decided to create the 'iGEM Greece 2023' server, a Discord server for all members of Greek iGEM teams.
Our goal was to create a cozy space for Synthetic Biology enthusiasts where everyone can discuss
their projects, ideas, dreams, and the overall iGEM experience.
The server includes several text and voice channels where people can chat, share memes, exchange interesting scientific facts,
suggest ideas for changes in the Discord server, post photos and media related to their iGEM work, and listen to a 24/7 Lofi Music Radio.
We also provided every Greek iGEM team with the opportunity to host their own events.
Through our server, our team hosted an event called the 'Homecoming Party' to kick off the server's creation. During this
online event, we met with other iGEM teams and were able to forget about stress, deadlines, and the pressure of the competition's deliverables.
The server also served the purpose of facilitating collaborations between Greek iGEM teams. Private rooms could be created at any time,
allowing teams to engage in meetings or other online activities. For example, our team used this feature to separately meet-up with iGEM
Athens and iGEM Patras Med, connecting with their members and discussing the development of our project.
During the final days of the iGEM season, a new section debuted on our server! In the #Paris voice and text channels, we can share information about
the upcoming trip to Paris for the Grand Jamboree, plan meetups, and propose places we can possibly visit while in Paris.
iGEM Greece 2023 Discord server made by iGEM Ioannina
Collaborations with other iGEM Teams
One of the biggest opportunities we had during our iGEM journey was the opportunity to connect with people who share the same interests.
We are grateful for all the meetings and collaborations that took place this year because, in addition to the contacts we made, we were able to
communicate Synthetic Biology and our project to the world.
iGEM Patras Med podcast
We were glad to be invited as guests to iGEM Patras Med’s podcast, ‘The SynBio Voice #2’! iGEM Patras Med shares a common goal with our team, cancer therapeutics. That gave us the opportunity to talk about cancer’s background and several cancer treatment strategies before we shared more information about our therapeutic approach, IRIS.iGEM Ioannina and iGEM Patras Med podcast
iGEM Patras Med x World’s iGEM Teams - World Health Day
April 7 is marked as World Health Day, in order to celebrate the foundation of WHO. This year,
teams from all over the world connected in a really nice collaboration arranged by iGEM Patras Med.
We are really happy we took part in this and had the opportunity to explore our creativity and send an important message to the world :
Happiness lies first of all in Health!
iGEM Thrace × World's iGEM teams: What is iGEM?
In this video, 17 iGEM Teams from all over the word were connected to answer the
question ‘‘What does iGEM mean to you?’’ Thank you iGEM Thrace for giving us the opportunity to share with the world out there, that for us:
iGEM is the creative side of science!
Offline post interview
Social Media - Instagram
Our team is active in Social Media. We love science communication and Instagram is a great platform to raise awareness about
synthetic biology and cancer treatment. Additionally, we use Social Media as means to keep in touch with other iGEM teams and engage
with the international science community, by collaborating from teams not only in Greece but the entire world.