Team:Aalto-Helsinki/Dialog
Dialog
ThermoFisher Scientific and Meetings with Deans
While looking for sponsors and funding from the universities we got several useful suggestions during the meetings from the lovely people at ThermoFisher Scientific as well as from our own deans. This was a big help at the start of the project and helped to mold our idea further.
Jorvi Hospital Burn Unit
At one point we were interested in whether dermcidin would be useful in burn care, so we contacted professionals from that field. A specialised doctor Andrew Lindford was kind enough to show us around the Burn Unit in Jorvi Hospital. We got a tour around the unit which was designed to serve the burn victims in every stage of their recovery. We learned about the different techniques and products used when treating burns but since the usage of antimicrobial agents was minimal, especially in the early stages of a healing burn, we decided not to focus too much on this subject.
ChemBio Fair and Upgraded Life Festival
At the very start of our project we visited two fairs in order to look for funding, shape our idea and make some important contacts that could help us during our journey. The ChemBio fair (29.3.-30.3.2017) was mostly focused on the lab equipment and all the funding options were meant for doctoral students and researchers, so it wasn’t as useful as we would have hoped. Upgraded Life Festival (25.4.-26.4.2017), however, was more focused on health tech and the health start-up scene in the Helsinki area in Finland. During the spring, two of our team members, Michal and Meo had worked for the two-day event as volunteers and as a result they had quite a good picture of the companies and presenters. Yet there were countless possibilities to approach different companies and alliances and discuss possible collaboration. Whilst attending the most interesting presentations, we also managed to approach nearly all parties that we thought were interesting or were related to our initial project ideas. Here, we also discussed with one of our biggest supporters: Helsinki Life Science Institute (HiLIFE) - which supports our project.
In Finland, the health tech startup scene is still in its infancy - although both the interest and the market grow rapidly. As we have an excellent public health care system in Finland, it has been quite difficult to make use of new ideas and innovations. Why is it so? The hospitals are obliged by the law to make informed decisions that are based on clinical research, and they need to consider all companies which offer a similar solution. However, the Hospital District Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) has taken several steps to make it possible for startups to work together with hospitals and improve their products and concepts. Especially one surgeon, Miikka Korja - who spoke at the event, has been very enthusiastic about changing the culture in Finnish hospitals.
We later learned that a doctor and a nurse from the wound care unit of Skin and Allergy Hospital in Helsinki were, in fact, very eager to offer help with conducting clinical research. Another lesson learnt, and a topic on everyone’s lips in health tech at the current moment, was that it was the time for the big companies to look down and find promising ideas outside their own circles. Most of the speakers suggested that companies should approach universities, students, startups, researchers and small companies and collaborate. This, according to the speakers, was the key to success in this new era of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR). From our perspective, this does sound promising - although the field of synthetic biology is not the easiest to market to companies and investors. One problem is that they often do not understand what synthetic biology is. It may be even difficult to grasp that the things done with the aid of it are actually possible! Another challenge is that it simply does not sound as intriguing as virtual reality - for example - even if it may be the case that synthetic biology is capable of solving much more problems that VR is.
All in all, Upgraded Life Festival provided us with so much new information that our brains were exhausted! In addition to learning about new companies, interesting speakers and novel technologies we paid attention on marketing strategies and visual outlooks. The event organizer - HealthSPA - even wrote about us in their blog: You can read it here.
Bayer
On May in the beginning of our project we had a meeting with Tarja Jalava, a researcher from Bayer. Two scientists from the German office took part in the meeting via Skype and brainstormed with us regarding the project idea. Because of the confidentiality agreement we cannot elaborate more.
Biodesign Finland
We met two medical doctors, Sami Elamo and Katja Ivanitskiy, who are part of Biodesign Finland which aims to innovate new medical technologies in interdisciplinary teams. We discussed our idea of immobilizing dermcidin on a cellulose surface and the possible aspects we should take into consideration. At this point we were still focusing a lot on wound care and tried to come up with an alternative for silver dressings. They emphasized that we should figure out how to produce things cheaply since that would help our product to compete with current wound dressings. We were also brainstorming on different applications for our peptide and how to improve the stability in the end product. They also had more knowledge about patenting innovations and they introduced Provisional Patent to us.
Wound Policlinic
We visited the Helsinki Skin disease clinic’s wound policlinic on 22.8.2017 and met nurse Ulla Väänänen and dermatologist Kirsi Isoherranen. We had a lovely visit where we could follow the appointments of three patients with different kind of wounds and truly learn about wound care in detail. In addition to meeting patients and following the procedures we were also introduced to a massive amount of wound care products and even got to take samples and brochures with us!
Dermatologist Antti Lauerma
In order to learn more about acne, we visited Antti Lauerma who is a doctor of medicine, professor of dermatology and an allergologist. We met him in the Skin and Allergy Hospital of HUS on 15.8.2017. During our meeting we learned that acne isn’t actually as studied as one would think of such common disease. Even if people are usually well aware of its existence, they might not know that much about it. There is also still some widely distributed misinformation. For example, it has been proven that isotretinoin doesn’t cause depression, more than 50 % of patients on average only need one isotretinoin course and the severe side effects like hair loss are actually quite rare. Nevertheless, isotretinoin treatment does need to be supervised by a dermatologist who monitors the patient’s liver enzymes and lipids.
We also learned a lot about the other current treatments and that some things about acne are still not known, e.g. if sunlight has an effect on acne or not and even the exact cause of acne in general. For the application one of the most important pieces of information was that according to Lauerma, recent studies show that although Propionibacterium acnes can be found from the skin of acne patients, it is more likely a result than a cause for inflammation that is the main reason for acne. Therefore we should stress that anti-inflammatory treatment might be the key with actual acne treatment while our product would focus more on the cosmetic side and therefore self-esteem by preventing some of the new pimples from forming. This is the reason why for example isotretinoin and the antibiotic tetracycline with anti-inflammatory properties are effective as a treatment and we should recommend using also other products while using Porify.
It is to be noted that at least in Finland antibiotics and topicals are still prescribed more often than the harsher treatment isotretinoin, because a lot of patients with acne are treated by general practitioners, who cannot prescribe isotretinoin. In some countries isotretinoin is not available or is even banned, so there might be demand for new acne treatments and products.
Cosmetologist Ida-Maria Rantala
While ideating the application design for our antimicrobial peptide we met cosmetologist Ida-Maria Rantala from Ihohoitola Lupaus beauty clinic. She was specialized in acne and told us about her patients, treatments and products they use in a beauty clinic and what they recommend patients to use at home. We got a lot of input about consumer behaviour for example what kind of products they are most often willing to use and how much they are willing to but money for acne treatments. We also talked about Rantala’s own point of view about genetically modified organisms, on going trends in skin care and what kind of product she believes will be in the market in future.
Psychotherapist Pepita Hänninen
In order to gain more insight on how acne affects the mental well-being of adolescents we contacted psychotherapist Pepita Hänninen who is specialized in working with young people. She has been interviewed for newspapers about acne and how parents should react if their kids are suffering from acne. She thinks that the problem should not be belittled since it can have a major impact on young people.
Hänninen thinks that acne can worsen a person’s mental state if they are already feeling insecure or depressed but the skin condition itself is rarely the main cause of mental health problems. Still, acne can be a major problem for young people, since adolescents form their identity during puberty and pimples often go hand in hand with the increased sex hormone levels. Appearance might have a bigger role in a young person’s life and sometimes it is difficult for adults to understand that. Then again, in some cases parents might make a problem out of acne when it was not bothering the adolescent in the first place. It takes some discretion to find the right way to deal with the issue.
Vlogger Valtteri Sandberg
Valtteri Sandberg is a relatively famous Finnish fashion / lifestyle vlogger. He makes videos about skin care and makeup routines, and has been noticeably open about his acne. The vlogger was eager to be interviewed about his acne and especially its psychological effects. We were very happy about this chance. The interview can be found from here.
Acne interviews
We wanted to interview people who have or have had acne in order to understand how the condition has affected their life and whether they tried to get rid of it. The first person to approach us was one of our team member’s acquaintance who had suffered from severe acne in the past but managed to get rid of it with isotretinoin. Her skin started to break out when she was 17-years old and the condition progressed so quickly that she felt like she couldn’t recognize herself in the mirror anymore. Her mother, having suffered from acne herself in her youth, took the situation seriously and tried to help her daughter right from the start. During the course of 4 to 5 years our interviewee tried various different treatments, including topical creams, cosmetologist appointments and homeopathy. None of these worked so she went to a dermatologist who prescribed her antibiotics (tetracycline) for a course of 1.5 years which had minimal effect on her skin. She then agreed to start an isotretinoin course which she had knowingly avoided because she had heard that the side effects can be serious but the acne was affecting her life so much that she felt that she had to take the risk. The isotretinoin course lasted over a year and her liver enzymes were regularly monitored. Her hair, skin and mucous membranes got drastically dry and her back was aching but the symptoms subsided after a while. The treatment worked and after the course she has been acne-free for six years. The interviewee was so pleased with the results that she would go through the course again if it was necessary.
Another person we interviewed was a 39-year-old woman who has had acne since she turned 15. Also her father had acne his whole life. In this case, her mother took her to the cosmetologist to treat her acne. Her acne did a serious comeback when she turned 29 and stopped to use birth-control bills. She describes her acne to variate from revere to mild depending on for example her stress levels. During the years she has had acne she has gone through many treatments and medication courses like isotretinoin course. From that she got bad side effects, such as extremely dry skin, lips and ears. In the end she decided to stop the course in the middle because her pals had lost their skin totally and she couldn’t work normally because of that. In a younger age she was ready to make an effort and try different costly treatments and medicines, but nowadays she does not do that anymore. The reason is an inner balance she has found with acne and it doesn’t disturb her that much anymore. She has also learned to avoid some specific skin products, foods and habits that can make her acne worse. She controls her acne by taking good care of her skin by washing and exfoliating it regularly. She has a good cosmetologist who knows her skin well and she takes acid exfoliating treatments. She is looking for new natural ways to take care of her skin like mineral sponge and salt soap. The most important factor is to keep everything clean and she changes her bed sheets and towels often.
Survey
Simultaneously with our user and experts meetings, we conducted an online survey to find out how acne affects people's well-being and what they are willing to do to treat the condition. We got 193 responses in total. The answers were based on self-perception and personal opinions of our responders. We present the main learnings below.
Acne Prevalence
More than 60 % of our responders have been diagnosed with acne at some point of their life. However, 40 % of them do not know their diagnosis. The most of the people who had not been diagnosed might have suffered from acne, too. When asked to ‘self-diagnose’, over 95 % claimed to have the signs of acne. This was an interesting finding which encouraged us to think about the reasons behind it.
At least 45 % of our responders had had acne for more than 1 year. Thus, it can be concluded that there is a need for continuous treatment. Almost 6 % of responders had been suffering from the disease over 10 years while most of them had turned young adult age and were over 30 years old.
In almost half of the cases, acne left physical scars. Although, scarring has been evident for moderate and severe acne stages, but it has also often occurred in the case of mild severity.
Acne and Mental Well-being
According to responses, there is a clear effect of acne on mental state and social interactions among the people who stated to have acne. Moreover, it also correlates to the disease severity, with greater negative effect in case of moderate and severe acne. We did not, however, ask what was bothering them and to what extend acne affected their well-being.
Acne Treatment
Over-the-counter medicines are the most common treatment (almost 60 %). However, they might have been used as a secondary treatment on top of topical antibiotics (~40 %), oral antibiotics (33 %) or retinoids (~16 %).
Acne and Skin-care Products
People spend in average 270 € per year for acne treatments, but severe acne's cost can exceed 4000 € per year. At the same time, the great fraction of the responders (~75 %) would not mind adding another product to their daily skin-care routine.
We got similar response percentage ratio for the questions about using skin-care product which would contain ingredients produced with genetically-engineered bacteria. About 80 % said that they would use such product.
We also asked people about four potential topical products with antimicrobial agents. Their preferences are as follows: cream for daily use (41 %), face cleanser to use every now and then (26 %), exfoliating pad (17 %), and overnight face mask (13 %).
Aalto Bioproduct Centre
In application design we got a lot of help from the PhD student Andreas Lindberg, doctoral candidate from Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering. He is specialized in cellulose materials and working with designers at Chemarts school and Aalto Bioproduct Centre. He made it possible to work with cellulose hydrogel (CMC) by giving the raw material to us and helping us to proceed with it. Whatever problem we had with the application design, he was very willing to help us to solve those problems and encouraged us to keep on looking for the best possible solution.
Urlinski Company
The Urlinski company designs and manufactures the equipment for production of cosmetics and medicines. We contacted the company representative to learn about the process of producing cosmetics in general, and to get opinions and advices regarding our skincare product concept. As for manufacture, he emphasized the importance of scaling-up from the laboratory to full production. He also presented how this transfer is done with the devices of different capacities in the company facility. The first matter, he pointed out regarding our product, was spoilage of the cellulose-based hydrogel due to microbial contamination. We also talked about the growing popularity of preservative-free beauty products. However, it seems that we cannot avoid using preservatives in our case. We also got feedback regarding our preliminary package idea of the container with separated compartments for different cosmetics components. According to our interview, customers prefer a ready-to-use product over the possibility to prepare a individualized product by mixing components on their own. A special dispenser could be used but currently available dispensers are not so practical in use and fail to maintain good mixing of ingredients in a cosmetic formulation.
