Team:TU-Eindhoven/Human Practices/Outreach
SYNENERGENE The Hague
21-04-17
The first step in our Integrated Human Practices! The Rathenau Institute together with SYNENERGENE have launched a new version of their guidelines for Integrated Human Practices. The day in The Hague was a pilot project for the iGEMer’s Guide to the Future and gave the iGEM teams from the Netherlands the chance to start working with this guide. Moreover, this day also gave us the opportunity to talk to some experts: Korienke Smit and Cécile van der Vlugt (RIVM), Dirk Stemerding (Biotechnology & Society), Virgil Rerimassie (formerly Rathenau Institute) and Marjoleine van der Meij and Wieke Betten (Athena Institute).
Since our project at that time was still under construction and very fundamental, we could still easily shape our Human Practices. From our talk with Virgil we learned that it is extremely important to have an ‘easy’ explanation of our project, if it can be used as a tool, what can the tool be used for? Dirk Stemerding told us that it is important to think about what our technique would add to modern research, why would people want to use it? Furthermore, it can be very helpful to look at previous projects for inspiration. From Marjoleine and Wieke we learned that it is important to think about the audience, that might change the story you want to tell. It is also very important to incorporate the views of other people into our project, have some sort of expert committee. Lastly, with Cécile and Korienke we talked about the risk analysis of the GMO’s: what is safety? When is a protein safe? Apart from safety in GMO’s, guidelines regarding medicines are also important to consider.
We learned a lot from this day and it was a good first step into thinking about our Integrated Human Practices.
Dutch Biotechnology Conference Wageningen (NBC-17)
16-05-17 Every year the Dutch biotechnology association organizes the Netherlands Biotechnology Conference. iGEM team Eindhoven, other iGEM teams and several other researchers were present to show their work or plans during the poster sessions. Before this poster session presenters were given the opportunity to explain their poster in a one minute pitch in the opening of the event. Apart from that there were lectures on current developments on Microbial System Biology & Synthetic Biology by several research groups from the VU, Wageningen University and RU Groningen. In the afternoon we attended a more interactive workshop from a delegate of the Dutch ministry of infrastructure and environment Virgil Rerimassie. The discussion was set on policy making in the field of biotechnology with an eye on the new perspectives form the biotech trend analysis 2016. An important point, which was stressed several times, is that researchers would like to see a more flexible case-to-case evaluation by policy makers. In this evaluation the relevant groups doing the research can assess their own work on safety instead of a generic one-size-fits-all list of precautionary measures. An interesting perspective and seemingly fitting to the fast changing field of biotechnology. Luckily at the end of the day there were drinks and a buffet so the impressions of the day could be evaluated with the other students from the iGEM teams.
Meeting soon-to-be Biomedical Engineering Students
30-05-17, 13-06-17, 27-06-17
The faculty of Biomedical Engineering organizes several days each year where high school students interested in starting either Biomedical Engineering or Medical Science and Engineering can have a taste of the university. During this day the students attend introductory lectures and have a personal talk about their motivation and capabilities before enrolling in the study program.
On these days we as an iGEM team presented ourselves to the students-to-be about iGEM and iGEM team Eindhoven. We did this to make them aware of the possibility to join future teams and show what kind of research we are currently doing.
Benelux iGEM meet-up 24-06-17 The iGEM team from Wageningen organized a Benelux meetup for Dutch and Belgian iGEM teams. On this day each team presented their project to the other teams and it was really interesting to see what the other teams were working on. Furthermore, some interesting guest speakers were present: Hyan Youk gave a very clear and inspiring talk about how he uses synthetic biology in his research to understand basic science. Rob Smith told us some things about reverse design and how this is useful in research. We also participated in a short workshop “Change of Perspective”, a discussion about the stakeholders of our projects. We had an interesting discussion with some team members from the team of TU Delft, they asked us some questions about what our gel could do eventually and also why people would use our gel instead of buying one from a chemical supplier. Wilhelm Huck 05-07-2017 After our Skype call with Zoë Robaey in which we had a small brainstorm session about possible stakeholders for our application, we thought of our system as some sort of toolbox for synthetic cells. Since Wilhelm Huck’s research is about the synthetic cells, we decided to set up a meeting with him to see whether our idea is something he would work with. Wilhelm Huck’s first remark about our idea was the fact that a 4-4 valency would also lead to network formation, so 4-3 would not be necessary to induce a network. Furthermore, he thought that our network will form a gel instead of a coacervate, since the interactions we use are quite specific. For synthetic organelles, coacervates would be preferred over a gel. Summarizing, our meeting with Wilhelm Huck has given us some new insights in the research done in synthetic organelles. European iGEM meet-up 07-07-2017 The iGEM team from Delft organized a European meetup, teams were present from all over Europe. On this day we started with some interesting talks. Cees Dekker started off with a presentation about synthetic biology and some hot topics in the field, like DNA origami. He also gave us some insights in his own research: synthetic cell division. Denis Murphy stressed us the importance of big data and how reliable knowledge and wisdom can be extracted from this. Finally Dirk Stemering had a more interactive talk about responsible research and innovation and asked how the iGEM teams present were incorporating societal embedding in their project. After the break it was time for the poster session. The poster presentations were a good opportunity for us to practice our story and we noticed that our story was a whole lot clearer compared to the previous meetup. It was also very interesting to see the posters of other European teams and to see their projects. Marileen Dogterom 07-07-2017 Since we were in Delft for the European iGEM meet-up we decided to have a meeting with Marileen Dogterom, because of her work on the synthetic cytoskeleton and synthetic cells. It became clear that our project does not necessarily have overlap with her research, but she gave us some good ideas for an eventual application. If the interactions of the gel could also be controlled by (UV)light, the interactions could be screened in such a way that the gel only forms very locally. Furthermore, she also thought that an application of a drug delivery system, in which the gel would break down controllably, could be possible. Ignace de Hingh 13-09-2017 Ignace de Hingh is a surgeon in the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven. He is specialized in complex oncological surgeries, like operations on pancreas cancer. We had a meeting with him to get feedback on the application of our gel: the encapsulation of tumors. Ignace saw some potential in our idea, as it is a new way of targeting/using matrix metallo proteinases (MMPs). He mentioned that in the abdominal tissue it is challenging to get a good image of tumor cells, a laser has to be used to make them visible. To make this process easier, a fluorescent protein combined with our gel could be a possibility. As for our project, Ignace had some recommendations for the details. In order to make our application scenario more viable, it is also important to think about the exact type of proteases that we want to target. Moreover, it is very important to consider that MMPs play a role in a variety of processes. To make our application more viable, it is thus important to think about how to make it selective. TUe Information Days 17&18-03-17, 20&21-10-17 Four times a year, the TUe organizes Information Days for high school students who want to find out more about the Bachelor’s programs or about the student life in Eindhoven. Besides finding out more about the programs at the TUe, the high school students also have the opportunity to see what possibilities there are outside the regular program, like joining a student team. We as an iGEM team had prepared some questions for the students-to-be and their parents about synthetic biology, to start a bit of a discussion about GMOs. During these discussions we noticed that a lot of people do not really know what a Genetically Modified Organism actually means. In first instance, a lot of people think about the danger accompanied with the the genetically modified. But, after we talked with them about the opportunities and applications of GMOs, most people became less sceptic about it. Furthermore, after explaining the regulations around GMOs, the negative first impression people had about GMOs faded away. TUe Master Introduction 29-08-17 This year the TUe organized a Master Kick-off to welcome all new Master students, this includes foreign Master students as well as Dutch Master students. During this Kick-off, which is a three day event, students will get to know each other, the master’s degree program and they had the opportunity to network with some high-tech companies in the area. During one of these days the faculty of Biomedical Engineering also had the chance to welcome their new Master students. We as an iGEM team gave a presentation about the iGEM competition in general and also our project, to give the new students an idea of the possibilities to join a student team in the area of synthetic biology.
