Team:Oxford/Applied Design

Applied Design

Introduction

iGEM encourages all teams to take their projects beyond the lab and to consider design using a holistic approach. The question “What is our real world problem?” has been a key consideration from the beginning and has guided our project throughout the summer.

To ensure we were putting our diagnostic device into context, we considered various aspects including safety, accessibility and socioeconomic factors in Latin America. Various design iterations were built upon over the course of the summer, influenced by discussions with experts from a range of disciplines - including blood coagulation, microfluidics and general diagnostic devices.

Having examined these design options more carefully, we propose a final design for our system which fulfills our criteria for a suitable diagnostic device.

Developing Our Design

Criteria for a suitable diagnostic device: considerations from the OpenPlant Forum

Our early design criteria was influenced by research into the challenges of designing new healthcare technologies in developing countries. Our research indicated that important considerations included the level of infrastructure present, the cost to the end-user and the amount of training required. (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/70543/1/WHO_HSS_EHT_DIM_10.13_eng.pdf)

In order to gain an insight into various aspects of synthetic biology, members of our team attended the OpenPlant Forum in Cambridge, UK. Dr Tempest van Schaik gave a talk titled ’Designing Diagnostics’, using her expertise in the development of bench-to-bedside healthcare technologies and importance of the end-user experience. From her talk, 3 key points stood out to us:

  1. Understand your analyte
    1. What is the context in which the kit will be understood?
    2. How exactly does taking blood work? Will we transport the blood to a different place, or do a spot-test by the bedside?
  2. Understand the users of the kit
    1. How will they be given the kit?
    3. Will they want to use it?
    4. Do they want it?
  3. Understand the diagnosis procedure
    1. What problems are encountered from an end-user perspective?
    2. Can we simulate a diagnostics procedure to discover an issues?

Having discussed these findings as a team, we proposed a set of general criteria to guide our initial design brainstorming.

The 4E’s Applied Design Framework

Applied design is an important component of most iGEM projects, and requires an integrated and holistic approach to ensure projects are considered from a ‘real-world’ perspective. Based on our findings from OpenPlant and research, the Oxford iGEM 2017 team came up with a framework for considering applied design - the 4 E’s (‘Effectiveness’, ‘Ease of use’, ‘Economics’ and ‘Environment & Safety’).

This provides a structured method for applied design considerations, and we hope that this framework may prove useful for future iGEM teams.