M3-Specialization

It is good to carry out a fully comprehensive work by identifying and clarifying the features and aspects of the problem and the solution. Nonetheless, sometimes, it is necessary to appeal an expert’s view and advices to determine the potential targets of the problem more correctly and to maximize the efficiency of solving.

We had meetings with the experts or the managers of Turkish Heart Foundation (TKD) and Turkish Society of Cardiology (TKV). The general secretary of TKV shared their precious opinions about our project and approach.

We also discussed our project and the potential of synthetic biology in the view of establishing cure for heart diseases. President of TKD, Prof. Dr. S. Lale Tokgozoglu, and the cardiologists from the foundation praised our approach and liked the way we try to achieve. They were satisfied for proposing a novel and interdisciplinary approach towards heart diseases and supported us. We debated the current situation of heart attacks worldwide and how far we could achieve as the medical sector. In this point of view, they stated that our project may pose a promising role in the future.

We also made a discussion with the cardiologists of our university hospital. We presented synthetic biology and iGEM to Assist. Prof. Dr. Bora Demircelik and discussed what we can accomplish and what kind of features we must take into consideration when we seek a solution for such a deadly condition. He advised on some features of our approach and supported us by giving an amazing and interesting seminar on our “Heart Day” event performed in our faculty on 4 September, World Heart Day.

Through all of these meetings, discussions and advices, we developed several new features and ideas containing the therapy management, safety and security as well as experimental approach. These meetings also reflect as outreach to the academic community. For interdisciplinary studies, the feedbacks and meetings show a potential strong correlation and collaboration between cardiology and synthetic biology. This practice hopefully provided another step to reach in the goal of unifying the scientific approaches and better understanding of nature to help us designing more useful products and systems.