Team:Wageningen UR/HP/Engagement.html

Education

We attach a great value to educating the public about genetic modification, in particular synthetic biology. This relatively new field in science raises many concerns when people are, for example, not educated properly about the opportunities, but also the risks, it raises.

During our other public engagement projects (see below) we engaged with the general public, informing them about our project and synthetic biology in general. However, in the activities listed below, we took it a step further, from informing to education and real personal engagement.

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National Biology Olympiad

The National Biology Olympiad (NBO) is the selection round in The Netherlands for the International Biology Olympiad. This is a biology competition for clever and talented secondary school students. In the international finals, this year in the United Kingdom, 4 students per country compete in this science olympiad. They are tested on their abilities to tackle biological problems and doing biological experiments. The aim is to promote science to talented young students and to stress the importance of biology in society. In the national finals at the 9th of June in Wageningen, twenty top-students of the Netherlands gathered for a week of science. We contributed to the NBO by educating the students in the field of DNA techniques and synthetic biology. A summary video of the whole NBO can be found here.

Before the lecture, they knew about Golden Rice and insulin production by microorganisms as the only examples in biotechnology. During the practicals on plant genetics, we gave a one-and-half hour lecture about current DNA techiniques and synthetic biology, followed by an exam of 10 closed and 2 open questions. This covered the basics of gene expression and plasmid assembly, as well as more complicated assembly methods and modification techniques. We introduced them into the field of synthetic biology, a subject that was new for most students. They learned about it, and had the opportunity to think about the rational and ethical issues. In this way, we involved these students into synthetic biology and our iGEM project, and we got input from the students into these fields.

The main findings can be found below. To summarize: after the lecture, the students saw the potential in synthetic biology to combat infectious diseases. However, it also raises some safety, ethical and biocontainment-related concerns. Following these findings, we worked on these issues. The outcome of this can be read on the Biosafety page.

Figure 1: We educated the participants of the National Biology Olympiad about DNA techniques and synthetic biology.

The greatest advantage of Synthetic Biology they discussed can be summarised into three main categories:

  1. The opportunity to improve food production. E.g. increasing yield by resistance introduction, drought resistant crops, and more sustainable production.
  2. Production and development of medicines. Both development of novel, better and cheaper medicines were mentioned, as well as better diagnostics.
  3. General, non-specific improvements in current and new industrial processes; faster, easier, more efficient, and economically favourable.
  4. Reduced impact on climate, by using synthetic biology for protection of the environment, protect threatened animal species, and improvement of sustainability.

However, there were also some concerns. They thought about their own concerns, as well as how they think the wider public will react on synthetic biology. The concern regarding Synthetic Biology can be summarized into three categories:

  1. Safety
    1. By mutations or combinations of different genes, hazardous microorganisms can be created or formed, for example bioweapons, superorganisms, antibiotic resistant bacteria etc.
    2. Fear of possible dangers of the end-product made via a GMO-production process. Lot of uncertainties and misunderstandings about safety of GMO-products.
  2. Ethics
    1. Ethical issues on modification of organisms and transferring genetic material of one species to another.
    2. Religion-related ethical issues: interfering with God’s creations.
    3. Hard to set boundaries in genetic modification; are we going to modify people in the future?
    4. GMO-products are considered artificial/unnatural.
  3. Biocontainment
    1. The possible negative effect on an ecosystem and lowering biodiversity when GMOs are introduced in nature.

“Synthetic biology has the potential to run out of control, but I believe we have the knowledge to keep it within limits.” - Student NBO 2017

Next, the students were informed about our project; making a modular diagnostic kit against tropical diseases. They were stimulated to think about possible problems this can bring intro a community where it is applied. Their opinions can be summarised into:

  1. Availability of treatments. After diagnosis, sufficient medicines should be available to treat the diagnosed people. If treatment is not available, resources are not sufficient, or financially the people cannot afford treatment, a diagnose will not improve the quality of life for these people.
  2. Overpopulation in those areas. Lower mortality rate by good diagnostics can result in overpopulation, and possibly more hunger and unemployment problems.

A prerequisite that was proposed by several students, was sufficient education about the kit itself and the consequences for one’s life after diagnosis is confirmed.

Finally, the success rate of this diagnostic kit in third-world countries was compared to western countries (the Netherlands).

  1. The use would be more accepted in the Netherlands (50%) because the Dutch population has a higher education and would understand the purpose and the action of this kit and are thus more open to it. Here, people can afford healthcare and are used to novel techniques.
  2. The use would be less accepted in the Netherlands (30%) because people are more aware of the dangers of GMO’s. Moreover, the health care in The Netherlands is satisfactory as it is.

When such a diagnostic kit would be available in the Netherlands, the ideal antigens to be detected according to the students are cancer and STDs. Moreover, Pfeiffer, HIV and Hepatitis B were mentioned, as well as tropical diseases for travellers.

RIVM Kennisparade

During the open day of the RIVM: The Dutch national institute for public health and the environment, we presented our project to visiting parents and children. By making a comic on biosafety, we tried to educate children on the safety aspects that come with the use of GMOs. You can read the comic on our biosafety page. Moreover, we presented our project using our poster, and distributed the postcards of the postcard collaboration.

Figure 1: Some of the children visiting the Kennisparade of the RIVM and read the comic.

Events where we presented our project

Dutch Biotechnology Congress

The NBV, the Dutch Biotechnology Association is the association for all professionals in the field of applied life sciences in the Netherlands. On the 17th of April, they organised the yearly Dutch Biotechnology Congress (NBC-17) in Wageningen. iGEM Wageningen 2017 was present with a poster presentation. The highlights of the conference can be found on the website of NBV.

Ultimaker Education Session

On the 4th of July, we participated in the Ultimaker Education Session in Zaandam. Here, the newest inovations in 3D-printing techniques were showcased. We presented our device, both in a presentation and a posterstand, and got some valuable tips on refining the settings our 3D-printer from Ultimaker.

Benelux Meetup

On the 24th of June, we organised the Benelux meetup: an iGEM meetup for all Belgian and Dutch iGEM teams. Part of this meetup included presenting the project. More about this day can be found on the meetup page.

European iGEM Meetup

iGEM TUDelft organised a European iGEM Meetup. On the 7th of July, various teams from all over Europe gathered in Delft for a symposium. This included three interesting speakers that talked about implementation of synthetic biology, and posterpresentations of the iGEM teams.

Go-No Go presentation

In order to involve our collegues here at the university in our project, we presented a Go No-go presentation, where all researchers and students in the relevant chair groups were invited to. Here, we gave a comprehensive 20 minute presentation on our project, how far we have come, and how much we were still planning to do in the last few months before the Jamboree. After, the viewers were able to ask questions, and vote if we made enough progress to proceed and participate at the Giant Jamboree. We got some valuable input and tips on the science part of our project, as well as the way we tell our story. Luckaly, more than 90 percent of the public voted for a go!

Topsector Chemie

One of our team members pitched our project at the annual Topsector Chemie closing ceremony in Wageningen, at the 30th of August. This short pitch focussed on the challenges we face in using synthetic biology. Topsector Chemie is an organisation with the goal to find solutions to big social challenges. These are the so-called Grand Societal Challenges by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission. The topsector approaches these challenges from a chemical point of view, collaborating with other top sectors wherever possible.

SynCity

The Wageningen University organised SynCity: a film and art festival on the 5th and 6th of October about synthetic biology to involve the general public in this field. Here, both citizins, scientists and students could discover the field of synthetic biology and how it can be used for many purposes. This is done from an artist point of view. Via art, synthetic biology is depicted, for examples with a series of short movies. Together with iGEM Wageningen 2014, we presented our view and projects.

Media attention

Snapchat Wageningen University

For one day, we took over the Snapchat account of the Wageningen University. Here, we Snapchatted throughout our day. We showed the target audience, mostly secondary school students who are interested in the Wageningen University, what we do throughout the day, and that science is really versatile and interesting! In this way we not only promoted the Wageningen University, but also brought the iGEM competition under attention by these future scientists.

NEMO Kennislink

NEMO Kennislink, an online magazine that focuses on making scientific news reachable to the general public, posted an article on iGEM and our project. This magazine targets Dutch citizens with an interest in science. You can read the article made by Nico Claassens "Spanning in het lab voor de synthetische biologie wedstrijd van het jaar" (in Dutch) on the website of Kennislink.

Resource

Resource is the magazine for students and employees of the Wageningen University and Research Center. After being interviewd by Stijn van Gils, he posted posted an article on the website.
Link to the full article: “Students work on field test for tropical diseases”.

Later, a second online article about our halfway presentation was published (in Dutch): “Wagenings iGEM-team mag naar Boston”. This is also publised as an article in their paper magazine, both in the Dutch and international version.

Press release Wageningen University & Research

With some tips from the science adviser from the Wageningen University drs. Jac Niessen, we wrote a press release about our project. The article “Wageningse studenten ontwikkelen diagnostische test voor zika” was posted as news article on the website of the Wageningen University (in Dutch).

Intranet

Following our halfway-presentation at the end of August, ing. Liesbeth Idema, online editor of the Wageningen University, published a short article “Support Wageningse iGEM-team bij detecteren tropische ziektes” on the Intranet. The intranet of the Wageningen University is only accesible by employees. The article covers our aim and raises attention for our Crowdfunding project.

Bionieuws

Bionieuws is a magazine for biologists in The Netherlands. Via drs. Gert van Maanen, a small article in their magazine on the iGEM competition was posted (25 August 2017, year 27, page 12), featuring all Dutch iGEM teams, including iGEM Wageningen. The article, “Zes Nederlandse teams in iGEM-competitie” cannot be reached online, but the page of the magazine can be found below.

Global One Health blog

The Global One Health blog is an initiative from the Wageningen University. A Global One Health is a theme that reflects the interconnectedness and global nature of health care. More specifically, it focusses on interdisciplinary ways for controlling the risk of disease outbreaks and reduction of endemic infectious diseases. Not only for human healthcare, but also for food supply, hygiene, medicins, vaccins, vector control and crop protection. More about this initiative can be found here.

For this initiative, we wrote a blog about the rise of infectious diseases, taking African Sleeping Sickness as an example for the problematic situations in tropical regions with regards to infectious diseases, and how there is a need for a new diagnostic device. Moreover, an infographic was made to visualise our device.

The blog can be read on the website of Global One Health blog (in Dutch).

Figure 7: English version of the schematic overview of the Mantis prototype, created for the Global One Healh blog.

International Student Blog

Sabine