Outreach is a significant aspect of our project this year. The goal is to pursue a project that will provide a long-standing solution to a current problem. Before deciding on a project, we began our outreach efforts by contacting health practitioners around the world to ask what they saw as the most prevalent and important healthcare issues to address. Many of our contacts directed us towards vitamin deficiency, stating that the lack of accessibility to adequate sources of essential vitamins is a significant healthcare issue. They also directed us towards the lack of essential medicines available; some of the most common medications are painkillers and fever-reducers which are often used as supplementary medication for numerous ailments.

To educate our own community of these issues, our team visited a summer camp to teach children between the ages of 7 and 14 about life sciences. We introduced the concept of genetic engineering through fun activities catered to each age group. In doing so, we hoped to raise awareness of the bioengineering field and inspire the next generation of scientists.

Community outreach is, and will always be, an integral component of bioengineering, and more specifically, genetic engineering. Without immersing ourselves in our community, we end up lacking insight into reality, and we run the risk of misunderstanding problems in society. Santa Cruz in particular has a relatively large homeless population for its size, though our concerns are largely founded in foreign affairs.

In an effort to better understand our local community’s relationship with inadequate nutrition and access to medicine, we volunteered at the St. Francis Soup kitchen in Santa Cruz to serve our community. We met with individuals who had been involved at the soup kitchen for many years and were able to gain insight on how both our local and national government have been addressing homelessness in the United States. Homelessness is a multi-faceted issue that also results in an isolated population with inadequate access to proper nutrition and health care. Volunteers voiced their approval at the potential deviation from “big pharma” that our project offers.

We also guest lectured at Leland High School in San Jose on synthetic biology and genetic engineering, and the ethical, cultural, political and various other implications associated with modern laboratory endeavours. With an audience of high school students, we hoped to spur a conversation that addressed both the consequences and rewards of genetic engineering, while instilling a greater sense of awareness and ethical reasoning in the students. We hoped to inspire these students to delve into the policies surrounding genetic engineering, as well as to question its applications and potential consequences in society.

In order to raise awareness on campus not only about iGEM and our project, but also about bioengineering and genetic engineering, we tabled at the annual OPERS fall festival and asked students what bioengineering meant to them. We were met with a variety of responses from the student body, and we were delighted to see how open-minded many students were. We discussed issues revolving GMO's, the pharmaceutical industry, genetic engineering and eugenics, bioethics, and of course, some of the many problems associated with malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. We emphasized the interdisciplinary nature of iGEM, as well as the crucial role everyone has in helping develop a potential solution to a real-world problem.