Reclone Connect: Empowering Researchers Towards Co-Creating a Self-Sustainable Ecosystem for Adopting, Sharing, and Maintaining the Open DNA Collections Toolkit for Affordable Local Enzyme Production in LMICs
Funding Area: Capacity building / Construcción de capacidad
Problem Statement: Access to affordable enzymes is a core requirement for molecular biology researchers and yet the available infrastructure to support these needs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are insufficient to meet the demands. Supply chains for basic biological tools to these areas are long and expensive, sometimes resulting in weeks to months of delays to receive shipments of vital reagents. This limits the type and scale of research that LMIC researchers can undertake, reduces productivity, introduces inequity in scientific opportunities, and ultimately constrains the ability for these researchers to innovate and share their scientific contributions at the global stage. A solution to this problem is to co-create a community-owned, accessible Open DNA Toolkit that LMIC researchers can use for local manufacturing of these core components: one that includes (1) the necessary reagents to facilitate local enzyme production for molecular biology research, (2) an openly shared knowledge repository on using the toolkit, and (3) an active network of researchers who can ensure that the resources are up-to-date and relevant to the contexts of its use. Whilst Reclone, the Reagent Collaboration Network, has made some initial headway by sharing the toolkit of Open DNA Collections that it currently stewards to over 500 researchers in approximately 50 countries globally, there is still a significant barrier to adoption due to insufficient documentation, guidance and support to its users.
Proposed Activities: Reclone was founded in 2020 and has convened five symposia, over 20 community meetings, published ten open protocols via protocols.io, and developed the open source Research in Diagnostics DNA Toolkit. We are currently establishing Reclone Hubs in Argentina, Ghana, and the Phillipines to increase toolkit distribution regionally; using the right to redistribution under an Open Material Transfer Agreement. However, for these open tools to reach their full potential, there is an urgent need to more proactively build capacity within the community to support their deployment and development. We propose a one-year project “Reclone Connect” (from 01-Nov-2023) that builds on existing open science resources, with a view to (1) increase accessibility of the Open DNA Collections for adoption by new users, and (2) build a framework to support existing users to contribute to and sustain these community-owned resources. Phase 1a (maintain): audit documentation of 16 key enzymes within the Open DNA Collections with three Research Fellows from LMICs (providing grants of 1,000USD each), to replicate and update the protocols to their respective contexts [M1-6], and link these resources to the Reclone website and forum [M7-8]. This should increase access and reproducibility, as well as begin to build trust that the protocols are appropriate for LMICs. Two further grants of 1,000USD would support two Community Fellows to review our current user base: interview existing users on how they use the collections [M1-2], understand challenges with its use, and determine what additional support is needed [M3-6]. Phase 1b (grow): Community Fellows will also identify avenues to reach new users [M5-6], and invite up to 40 LMIC researchers to attend a “new user” online workshop. A 1,000USD bursary will be set aside for attendees who do not already have the DNA Collections to request help in procuring and shipping the DNA toolkits to them prior to the workshop [M7-8]. Phase 1c (evolve): a second online workshop, jointly run by all Fellows, will invite ten existing collection users to learn how to become active contributors (150USD honoraria each) to update the collections [M9-10], with the subsequent aim to form a volunteer working group to maintain the resources [M11-12]. Both workshops work will be facilitated by an Expert (250USD honoraria per workshop), and subscriptions for Miro and Butter.us software would be used to support running the workshops. By the end of Phase 1, there should be a more accessible collection of actively used reagent manufacturing resources that are continually maintained. The community will engage around a new user-contributor-maintainer framework to increase community-ownership of the resources and help other LMIC researchers to affordably produce the basic tools of molecular biology. This would underpin Reclone Connect Phase 2: developing a community-led governing body to sustain the future of the Reclone Community and the resources it stewards.
Openness: The Open DNA Collections that Reclone stewards are all in the public domain through patent expiry or IP-free and are distributed under OpenMTA (a simple, standardised legal tool to enable open exchange of biological materials, free of royalty and fees, and open for modification, reuse, and redistribution). Associated documentation (e.g. protocols, DNA sequences, metadata) are also publicly available and openly licensed as CC-BY or CCZero, albeit distributed over multiple platforms (Benchling, protocols.io, FreeGenes, GitHub, AddGene, GDrive, OBL and Reclone websites). A key aim of the proposed work is to update and centralise all documentation into an open resource portal on the Reclone website and forum, increasing accessibility and making it easier for collection users to engage with, share, and freely adapt the available materials for their own purposes. A subscription for TranslatePress to the Reclone website should also facilitate increased access of these resources to multilingual audiences. Reclone Connect has been strategically designed to build an active and stable community by first establishing Research Fellows as core contributors of the DNA Collection resources, before using the workshops to broaden the reach and use of the collections. Our approach to openness includes inclusivity and open participation. We welcome and encourage a co-creative approach. Finally, all outputs of the project will remain open (CC-BY) and free-to-use via the Reclone website.
Challenges: The biggest challenges in building and maintaining any community-owned resource are people, time, and resources. Whilst the Open DNA Collections have been distributed to over 500 researchers globally, we estimate the number of collection users is much lower due to various barriers to adoption that we aim to address with the proposed work (e.g. centralising the associated documentation/resources; creating user onboarding material; making Reclone.org accessible in multiple languages). One foreseeable issue is a lack of engagement from the community to use and contribute to the collections, despite the proposed work in Phase 1a. We aim to mitigate this with support from the Community Fellows by regularly providing opportunities for (anonymous) feedback, and arranging user workshops to actively listen to and support our members. Another key challenge is to ensure continuation of the new user-contributor-maintainer framework beyond the timeframe of this proposal. With the help of the Fellows, we aim to identify and cultivate a core working group of users to co-create a set of sharable “how-to” guides, making it easier for users to add value back to the community: be it as future Fellows, forum moderators, proto-governing body volunteers, etc. By providing honorarias to Reclone Fellows, and building a framework to onboard new users and maintainers, we hope to acknowledge the time and effort that Reclone members/volunteers put in to build and sustain this open community resource.
Neglectedness: We have funded work on Reclone to date as a component of other grants from public research funders and philanthropic foundations. Funding has been received for developing the technical collections from BBSRC, EPSRC, and the Shuttleworth Foundation. Members of the Reclone community have submitted an application to the CYTED Programme Las Redes Temáticas scheme to fund training and exchange between Latin American countries (2023 Q1). Previous applications to UK BBSRC/MRC for COVID-related activities were well-reviewed and on a reserve list for funding, but other applications were ranked higher. This proposal is our first application focused on building a formalised framework for transitioning Reclone towards a more sustainable and resilient community-owned network that can support the onboarding of new users. It is also our first time developing a programme to incentivise existing users of our DNA Collections to become contributors and maintainers, and help generate open resources for biotechnological researchers in all LMICs. We have been seeking funding that specifically focuses on building and sustaining open infrastructure, but have found this to be a neglected area and are grateful for the alignment of IOI with our priorities and approach. We will continue to actively pursue support for building shared infrastructure, capacity building, and developing community governance.
Success: Success of Reclone Connect Phase 1a can be measured by the number of: (1) new and updated protocols available on the Reclone website and protocols.io (target n=8, stretch goal n=16 of the Research in Diagnostics DNA Toolkit); (2) users indicating the protocols on protocols.io are useful and are used (including copying/forking/commenting on the protocols); (3) interviews with collection users (including a post-analysis report, and identifying actionable steps to improve access). Phase 1b can be assessed by whether new users: (1) use the resources developed from Phase 1a; (2) engage during/after the workshop; (3) are active on the Reclone Forum. An extra success is more new user interest (including requests for the DNA Collections) beyond those invited to participate at the workshop. Successes for Phase 1c include: (1) if new users from Phase 1b (and from existing users) indicate interest in learning to be a new contributor of the Reclone Community resources; (2) co-creation of shareable “how-to” guides (n=3) for new users to contribute to the community; (3) the degree of interest users/contributors have with continuing as a volunteer working group to maintain the community resources after the new contributor workshop. Ideally, the framework set-up from Phase 1 could be repeated with contributors helping to onboard new users, adding to the collections, and/or showing interest in developing a Reclone governing body (Phase 2, currently beyond the scope of this work).
Total Budget: 9,902.20 USD
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: Reclone is currently hosted by the Open Bioeconomy Lab at the University of Cambridge, and is aiming to transition towards a community-governed network over the next two years. Through Jenny Molloy, Reclone is also affiliated with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy. Reclone currently has established partnerships with academic researchers at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (UNCUYO) in Argentina, Ashesi University in Ghana, and the Ateneo Research Institute of Science and Engineering (ARISE) in the Philippines, as they act as Reclone Regional Reagent Hubs.
LMIE Carveout: Reclone is currently hosted by an institution in the UK, but it is a global community whose primary focus and membership are researchers in LMICs who are disproportionately affected by supply chain challenges for basic biology tools and infrastructure. The Reclone Coordination Team are based in UK, Brazil, and the Philippines, and we have cultivated partnerships with research institutes in Argentina, Ghana, and the Philippines to set-up Regional Reagent Hubs for local distribution of the DNA Collections. This proposal builds upon this by working with LMIC Fellows to lower the barrier of adoption to these resources, increase the reach to new LMIC users through ICGEB, and build the support structure to strengthen the contributor community and enable easy access to our collective resources.
Team Skills: Jenny Molloy has 15 years experience as a leader within open science communities, and five years developing open source tools for manufacturing enzymes in LMICs, as a research group leader at the University of Cambridge (Open Bioeconomy Lab) and ICGEB (Biomanufacturing Group - from 2023). She is well-placed to advise on best practices for documenting and sharing the Open DNA Collections and on building global open science communities. This project will benefit from her experience co-founding the Gathering for Open Science Hardware and developing bioinnovation labs and training in UK, Ghana, Cameroon, and Kenya. Yan Kay Ho is the Reclone Community Manager, supported by the Reclone Coordination Team (Jenny Molloy, Cibele Zolnier Sousa do Nascimento, Youzi Bi, Aaron Macauyag), and the Reclone Regional Hub leads (Maria Teresa Damiani, UNCUYO, Argentina; Elena Rosca, Ashesi University, Ghana; Aaron Macauyag, Ateneo University, the Philippines). Yan Kay and Cibele also have nine years of scientific community management experience between them and, along with the rest of the Coordination Team and Regional Hub leads, have good connections to LMIC researchers who can contextualise the use of the collections in their respective locales, and who would be keen to improve the social and technical infrastructure of the Reclone Network for better adoption and self-sustainability of the Open DNA Collections that they steward.
How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)
Submission Number: 52
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