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Education and Public Engagement
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We set out to educate the public about the rise of antibiotic resistance and the large applicability of home diagnostic devices. To this end, we participated in fairs, youth educational meet-ups and universities open-days. In order to measure the awareness about synthetic biology and the level of comfort towards performing self-diagnosis, we conducted a survey for students and the general public. We also interviewed experts to gather educated opinion on the concerns surrounding synthetic biology and genetically modified organisms, as well as paper-based diagnosis devices and their distribution in areas with limited access to medical help. We have raised awareness on the issue of antibiotic resistance and familiarized hundreds of people to the possibility to utilize user-friendly paper-based diagnostics, which rely on synthetic biological circuits.
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Survey
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We conducted a survey on synthetic biology and diagnostics devices to find out how the public would react to our project. We targeted different groups: Munich students and general public without a biological background. A part of the survey was conducted in the online platform Survey Monkey and the other part was done at the Munich city center where we distributed the survey handouts. We hoped this survey would help us improve our project by understanding the public interest and doubts about diagnostic devices. We analyzed the survey data and interpreted the results.
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Question 1: Do you know about synthetic biology?
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53% of the students in the Munich area knew about synthetic biology but only 13.8% of the general public have heard about this field.
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Question 2: Do you know about the iGEM competition?
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From the surveyed students, 30% have heard of iGEM before, but only 5.2% of the general public knew about it. This is not surprising considering the previous results, that not so many people are acquainted with the synthetic biology field.
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Question 3: Do you know about the CRISPR/Cas system?
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Although the CRISPR/Cas system has been hyped by both the media and scientists as one of the most important technologies because of its genome editing applications, less than half of the students and 12% of the public knew about it.
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Question 4: Do you trust in home diagnostic devices like home pregnancy tests?
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Surprisingly, more than half of the students and public trust home-based diagnostic devices. This could mean that our device might be well accepted by the public.
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Question 5: Would you use diagnostic devices at home to determine pathogenic diseases?
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Only 25% of students compared to 86% of the public would use home diagnostic devices to know whether they have a pathogenic disease. The public´s answer corresponds to the result in the previous question on whether they trust this type of devices. However, although the majority of students trust home diagnostic devices like pregnancy tests, 75% of them would not use a similar device to detect a pathogenic disease.
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Question 6: How often do you visit a doctor?
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Most of the students and general public consulted go to the doctor every 6 months.
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Question 7: Do you need to make an appointment when you go to see a doctor?
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Most of the people need to first get an appointment in order to visit their doctors. Our device could be used as a first test for people to decide how urgently they need to see a doctor.
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Question 8: How long do you have to wait for an appointment with a doctor?
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The time that people need to wait for an appointment varies between days and weeks. This could make a difference in the treatment needed if an infection is diagnosed too late. Our device has the potential to be used as an early diagnostic so that the patient can get medical attention faster if needed.
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Question 9: Would you use a diagnostic device at home instead of going to the doctor?
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55% of the students and 86.2% of the general public would prefer to use a diagnostic device at home than going directly to the doctor. When we interviewed them, we stressed the importance of going to the doctor afterwards in order to get a professional opinion.
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Question 10: Would you be comfortable to use a home diagnostic device for viral and bacterial infections?
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70% of the students and 84.5% of the general public said that they would be comfortable when using a device to diagnose a viral or bacterial infection. This could mean that our device might be well received by the public.
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Conclusion
Even though synthetic biology is considered a growing research field, not so many people are acquainted with it. Despite iGEM attracting hundreds of teams every year all over the world, the public seems to be not very well informed yet.
Regarding the use of home-based diagnostic devices, people seemed very eager to use them and would trust their results. Most of the people would prefer to use a test-at-home instead of going directly to the doctor, probably due to the long waiting time to get an appointment. However, we noticed some discrepancies when asking the students whether they would use this type of devices. When asked about their opinion about the use of such devices for pathogenic diseases, only 25% said they would. However, when we asked them if they would use a diagnostic device at home for discerning between a bacterial or viral infection, 70% answered favorably. This might be caused by the bias in the words used to describe the question.
From this survey we learned that our product will be positively accepted by the consumers, even for diagnosing viral or bacterial infections. Our device could be useful to get a first diagnosis before getting proper medical attention, in order to speed up the recovery and save time.
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Education
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We attended several events around Munich during the last months to know the opinion of the public about synthetic biology and diagnostic devices. One of the first events we went to was Make Munich, a maker and DIY festival, where we had a stand and showed people our project via a poster presentation. As in most of our presentations, we brought with us printed paperfluidics to let everyone experiment with simple detection systems, so they had an idea on how our device would work – color-based pH detection on paper was our toy model for detection of infectious diseases. Kids were especially fond on these. We met both people with and without a scientific background, and we explained them about the future applications of synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. We listened to their experiences with medical care and antibiotic treatment, and raised awareness about the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
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We then attended the KLVHS youth meetup, which is a 3-days camping program with different workshops, presentations, and activities for young students from schools and universities around Munich. We spoke with many students, especially from high school, about synthetic biology and home diagnostic devices. Both were unknown subjects for them and they were very curious about learning more about it.
We also presented our project CascAID at the Open House Day of the LMU Biocenter. We met people from different ages that were curious about science and the research done at the LMU. We met many students that got interested in joining iGEM and working on synthetic biology. We also received many children that were amazed playing with our paperfluidics and the 3D-printed prototype parts from our hardware. We explained them in a simple manner how paper could be used to detect diseases and speed up recovery.
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A group of high school students from Girl Guides South Africa came to visit us at the lab to learn more about synthetic biology. We were surprised by how curious they were about our project and the future applications of this field. We helped to clear doubts on antibiotic resistance and how important is to limit their use, and they asked us a lot of questions about our motivation for working on science.
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We also met some of the Amgen scholars that the LMU was hosting this year. We did a presentation about iGEM, synthetic biology applications, and our project, and distributed flyers with key information. They were very curious about the competition and the fact that students could develop a project on their own. Since these students had a biological background, we explained them in a detailed manner our project and the problem of antibiotic resistance.
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When we hit the streets of Munich to distribute our survey, we also used the opportunity to introduce people to the synthetic biology field and create awareness on the antibiotic resistance problem. We met people from different ages and background, and we even met a couple from Boston that knew about iGEM! We were surprised on how fond people were on using home diagnostic devices and explained them how our device could help in the battle against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Nanoday hosted by NIM was one of the last events we went to. There, we met very motivated students, scientists, and people unrelated to science. We explained them about iGEM, synthetic biology, and home diagnostic devices. As in our previous events, we brought our paperfluidics and hardware parts, so people could get a better grasp of our project.
With all these events, our main goal was to introduce people to synthetic biology and reduce the worries that they had on these emerging new technologies. We are glad that we helped raising awareness on the antibiotic resistance problem and we hope that we motivated both children and high school students to follow a career in science.
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Interviews
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We had the chance to interview several experts...
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