Purpose

To raise the awareness of Parkinson’s disease among the elderly, as well as the high-risk group of Parkinson's disease, we took the initiative to contact several nursing homes in the local community, and eventually received an invitation from one of them. The event aimed to help seniors recognize early warning signs and understand the importance of early intervention.

What Did We Do?

Considering the limited hearing and vision of the elderly, we designed a clear and readable poster with simple prevention acts and warning signs of Parkinson’s disease, with extremely large and bold fonts, as well as an illustration-based slides that demonstrate Parkinson’s disease’s cause, symptoms, therapies and intervention techniques. We spoke at an extremely slow pace to ensure all information could be fully understood. We also created canvas bags and fridge magnets with our hand-painted designs with a lovable main character that illustrates the key role of probiotics treatments in Parkinson’s disease treatment.

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How Did We Interact?

We explained the basic mechanism of Parkinson’s disease, highlighting its causes (like dopamine deficiency), symptoms, and impact on daily life. To capture the seniors’ attention, we used simple illustrations with stimulative and vivid colors and clear signs, indicating potential causes of Parkinson’s disease. Also, considering the possible social isolation and loneliness of the elderly, we increased the proportion of chatting in the whole event. Through casual conversations and warm interactions, we built genuine connections with the residents, learning from their life experiences while sharing knowledge in return.

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What Did They Say?

During the event, the elderly expressed their appreciation and admiration for our explanation of Parkinson’s disease, sharing their own experiences with each other and exchanging different ideas towards our event. One thing that truly touched our group members was an elderly person who kept fanning a member of our team to help her stay cool, despite the scorching heat, offering a moment of comfort and care. In addition, the elderly responded to our outreach activities with warm smiles and genuine joy. Nursing home staff also appreciated the activity, encouraging us to “come back any time with more sessions.”

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Reflections

This outreach helped us realize the real-world impact of our project and strengthened our sense of responsibility as young scientists, demonstrating to us the importance of public education is not only about knowledge, but also about building connection between science and people.

During our interactions with each elderly person, we gained more insights. For instance, the understanding and perspectives of the elderly group regarding Parkinson's disease, the real daily lives of Parkinson's patients, as well as the psychological and emotional needs of the elderly group, will all be further incorporated into our subsequent practical activities. We realized that in addition to medication, social isolation and psychological stress are also important factors affecting the progression of the disease. Therefore, we will add sections on mental health and daily support to our subsequent promotion and education content.

Purpose

We believe that minors should also possess adequate knowledge of Parkinson’s disease. To engage them in our outreach efforts, we visited a local community and held a stimulative, hands-on science activity for children, focusing on probiotics and Parkinson’s disease.

What Did We Do?

We began by introducing the idea of "good bacteria" (probiotics) and their role in health. To help children visualize how probiotics are alive and active, we guided them through a simple experiment:

Probiotic Balloon Experiment.

This experiment uses edible ingredients, making it safe, low-cost, and highly engaging. It is easy to replicate on a large scale in schools or homes, and has good scalability. When designing the Balloon Experiment, we considered three key factors: safety (using edible ingredients), fun, and low cost—all of which enable large-scale replication.
Through this experiment, children can initially perceive that 'living microorganisms can be engineered and utilized'—this is exactly the way of thinking in synthetic biology.

Each child received a plastic bottle filled with warm water and yeast. We then placed a balloon over the opening of the bottle. As the yeast fermented the sugar in the solution, gas began to form and inflated the balloon — a fun and visual way to show that microbes are alive and active.

During our interactions with the children, we noticed that they had a strong curiosity about the fact that 'bacteria are alive'. This made us attach greater importance to emphasizing the concept of synthetic biology in our promotion.

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Talking About Parkinson’s Disease

After the experiment, we also explained what Parkinson’s disease is in a clearly and understandable way, considering the potential low cognition of minors. Through engaging, colorful illustrations and real-life examples, we talked about how the brain controls movement, how dopamine controls human body, how new treatments, including probiotics that help produce dopamine, might help patients with Parkinson’s disease in the future.

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Their Response

Although the children were a bit mischievous at times, they were incredibly energetic and eager to participate, and full of questions:

"Can probiotics live in my stomach?"
"Why does the balloon grow bigger?"
"Can you cure brain shaking?"

Many of them proudly brought their balloons home and told their parents about what they learned. Their enthusiasm reminded us that science education can start early, and it can be joyful.

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Reflections

This activity reminded us that complex scientific ideas can be made accessible and engaging for all ages. By designing hands-on experiments and using understandable language, we were able to spark interest in synthetic biology and neurological health.

It was also a great opportunity for our team to practice science communication in a new and creative way.

Considering the age distribution of our audience and the popularity of the mainstream social media platforms, we utilized Xiaohongshu and Douyin as our primary online communication channels. Our content focuses on raising public awareness of Parkinson’s disease, probiotic therapy, and the gut-brain axis, through accessible science communication. At the same time, we shared glimpses into our team members’ daily work and life, aiming to deliver more diverse and engaging video content.

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We translate complex and professional medical and biological knowledge into content that is easy to understand and closely connected to daily life. We aimed to raise public awareness of Parkinson’s disease, helping people understand its early warning signs, causes, and potential treatment options. Additionally, we hoped to let the public see the real people and stories behind scientific research, sparking greater interest in life sciences.

We also introduce synthetic biology, aiming to help more people understand what it is, appreciate its potential, and feel inspired by its possibilities.

We post posters and short videos to explain different stages of Parkinson’s disease, the importance of probiotics and the gut-brain axis to human health, their roles in the body, and their relevance to Parkinson’s disease. We also post some behind-the-scenes funny moments to attract people.

In addition, we present the functions and everyday applications of synthetic biology, and we openly address public concerns—especially around biosafety. On Xiaohongshu, we even launched a public discussion where users could choose their stance on synthetic biology:

A. Flexible boundaries, as long as it benefits the world

B. Clear red lines—some fields should never be crossed

C. Stricter defenses with global regulation

D. I’m just here as a bystander watching the debate

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We have received some interactive comments expressing their expectations for the medicine or asking us questions about prevention. For example, one of our audience asked how to prevent Parkinson’s disease, we later shared targeted content about prevention address their needs. We are very happy to be able to help everyone through this channel. And we believe it has helped to further increase public knowledge of Parkinson’s disease and foster a better understanding of preventive measures and treatment possibilities.

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Our team has launched a podcast series called “Dopa Talk”, available on YouTube, Spotify, and NetEase Cloud Music. This multi-platform approach helps us reach a wider audience and share knowledge about Parkinson’s disease in a more accessible and engaging way.

Using a conversational format, we aim to make complex topics easier to understand. Starting from basic introductions to Parkinson’s and its different stages, each episode is carefully designed to build upon the last—expanding gradually into more in-depth content. We also encourage listeners to leave comments and suggestions, which help guide the direction of our future episodes.

Though our episodes are short, they focus on delivering key takeaways clearly and efficiently. We believe that this approach not only empowers the public to better understand their health and recognize early warning signs, but also lays the foundation for two-way dialogue in the future, encouraging broader participation in conversations about prevention and synthetic biology solutions.

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We created three brochures with the themes of Parkinson’s disease, probiotics, and the gut-brain axis. In these brochures, we presented essential biological knowledge, introduced our product, and included contact information such as our phone number and social media accounts for continued engagement.

These three brochures highlight the most essential elements of our project. To help the audience better understand our theme, we used simple and accessible language with clear and clean layouts. We avoided lengthy paragraphs because we wanted readers to quickly grasp the key information, making the brochures more eye-catching and suitable for distribution at offline events.

The brochures are designed as a connected series, forming a complete knowledge pathway: starting from the disease itself (Parkinson’s), extending to the treatment tool (probiotics), and then to the mechanism of action (gut-brain axis). Whether used on campus, in community outreach, or through online platforms, these materials have significantly enhanced our science communication impact, expanded our audience reach, and strengthened the visibility of our project.

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To capture learners’ attention, we created comics with bright, vivid colors to introduce the current therapies for Parkinson’s disease, the potential side effects they may cause, and the mechanism of our probiotic treatment. By incorporating classic comic book elements, such as text boxes that break panel boundaries and strong color contrasts, we seamlessly integrated complex mechanisms and multiple effects into our comics.

The entire series was designed in an American comic aesthetic, chosen deliberately because it aligns with the visual preferences of a wide audience and makes the scientific content feel more dynamic and approachable. To achieve this, we hand-illustrated every panel, ensuring a professional yet creative style that blends education with entertainment.

This approach not only explains our product more clearly, emphasizing its advantages over existing treatments, but also makes the learning experience more engaging. Our comics have been well received by the public, with many viewers praising the design and remarking that the visual storytelling made Parkinson’s science easier and more enjoyable to understand.

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Hip-hop-based education is an approach that uses elements of hip-hop culture—rap, rhythm, and storytelling—as a tool for teaching and engagement. It has been widely applied to connect with younger audiences, lower the barriers to complex topics, and foster interactive learning through culturally relevant mediums（Love, 2015）. Inspired by this concept, our team created an original Emo Rap song titled "This Is Prodopa", which reflects our research theme and communicates scientific content in a popular and approachable format.

The song features both melodic sections and fast-paced rap, and we incorporated a short dialogue sample from the film Love and the Pantheon to illustrate the emotional challenges faced by Parkinson’s patients. Through this musical format, we aimed to attract young audiences, convey our research creatively, and make scientific topics more memorable.

We published the song on NetEase Cloud Music, one of the most popular music platforms in China, known for its friendly community atmosphere. The track received 26 likes and 129 comments, with listeners commenting positively on the melody, lyrics, rap flow, and hook. While most feedback focused on the musical aspects, it still provided insight into audience engagement and helped us understand which styles are more effective in capturing attention. This highlights a form of mutual learning, as we could adapt our educational approaches based on the community’s response, and demonstrates how popular culture can be leveraged to introduce scientific topics in an engaging, interactive way.

Lyrics-This Is Prodopa

HARRY：

Petri dish glow like a trap house

Gut-brain axis got the new route

L-Dopa's side effects make shouts

We reprogram E.coli to bail 'em out

Prodopa Is a team Ayy Prodopa Is a team

Park-bacteria squad on the hinge

IGEM trophy's our golden bling

While nursing homes hear hope's ring

XING：

当一束光，照亮门窗，（When a ray of light illuminates the doors and windows,）

心向暖阳，并肩穿越风雨寒霜，（The heart is warm to the sun, walking side by side through the wind, rain, cold and frost,）

当梦飞扬，穿透迷茫，（When the dream is flying, it penetrates the confusion,）

爱不彷徨，携手共赴明亮的远方。（Love does not wander, hand in hand to go to the bright distance.）

ULA：

Countdown pressure like tremors kick

But squad's synergy got the slick trick

You CAD design I PCR click

Her wiki edits fly like a flick

From failure extract the truth crystal

A hundred falls for one rise pistol

From colon to cortex we hack the track

Parkinson's gonna get our smack

HARRY：

Yo! Lab coat squad got the dopamine fix

Gut-brain axis break through like a genetic glitch

Left-side levodopa but the right brain lit

PCR clicks while the CAD scripts flip

Prodopa flow like a synapse trip

Park-bacteria squad on a crispr ship

From petri dreams to the patient’s grip

IGEM gold—call it science drip

采样 SAMPLE……

XING：

步履虽缓，亦铿锵，（Although the steps are slow, they are also resonant.）

目光所及，皆晴朗。（As far as the eye can see, it is clear.）

点滴力量，汇海洋，（A little bit of power, converge the ocean,）

温暖相伴无畏路长。（Warmth is accompanied by a fearless road.）

希望生长，不慌张，（Hope to grow, don't panic,）

风雨退让，心向阳，（Wind and rain give way, heart to the sun,）

岁月温良，有光芒，（The years are gentle and bright,）

爱与勇气并肩赴前方。（Love and courage go forward side by side.）

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To extend our outreach beyond one-time activities and address the limited efficiency of direct communication, we developed two sets of lesson materials tailored for different age groups. One version is designed for high school students, focusing on the gut-brain axis, probiotic engineering, and the role of synthetic biology in addressing neurodegenerative diseases. The other version is simplified for junior school students, highlighting basic concepts of microbes, health, and the idea that “living cells can be designed to solve problems.”

By providing ready-to-use PowerPoint slides, we make it easier for teachers to deliver accurate and age-appropriate lessons in their classrooms. This approach not only supports wider dissemination of our project but also ensures that students at different learning stages can engage with the science at a level they can understand. In this way, our materials serve as reusable resources that help future educators and iGEM teams continue spreading knowledge in an accessible and sustainable manner.

We created a meaningful and visually stimulating logo. At the center is a blue, tree-shaped structure, symbolizing the central role of the nervous system in managing Parkinson’s disease. Surrounding it are numerous individual bacteria, highlighting the crucial connection between probiotics and the brain.

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We also designed fridge magnets, a common household decorative item, featuring a hand-drawn character. This green, bacteria-like figure is named "Paxiaojun," representing a probiotic treatment aimed at reducing the negative impact of Parkinson’s disease. Above its head is a brain-shaped structure in sky blue, resembling a neural network, to illustrate the connection between Parkinson’s disease and brain dysfunction. Beneath “Paxiaojun,” we included our team name, “ProDopa”, which means “promoting dopamine levels”, along with our slogan, “Balancing the brain, brightening the future,” written in Chinese.

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We created research-related emojis in WeChat, with "Pa Xiaoyun"(帕小菌) as the main character. We included common actions and expressions such as "thanks" and "hug". We personified our probiotics and conveyed our research elements and the theme of providing care and healing to patients in a more contemporary and approachable way. These emojis have been widely used among team members and the people we have involved.

Figure 33 Thank you

Figure 34 Hug