Team:DTU-Denmark/Engagement
Education and Public Engagement
This year our main goal has been to show the power of synthetic biology via the snake envenoming issue.
The Danish legislation is tough on synthetic biology, and it is not possible for high school students to make their own plasmid modifications (see regulations). We have, together with the Danish organization Biotech Academy’s Biosensor project, made a free kit that will be distributed to high schools. This kit enables an average high school student to work with synthetic biology at his or her own school - while still taking the law into consideration.
Spreading the word of synthetic biology to the general public has also been at the core of our work. The importance and the solutions it offers, have been spread via presentations, fairs, articles, social media campaigns, but mainly through a documentary. A journalist is filming a documentary about our project, team, and the opportunities of synthetic biology.
Education
Whatever the challenge, it is important to spread passion to the researchers of tomorrow. Unfortunately synthetic biology is barely introduced in Denmark at the high school level. Nothing is quite like your first passion, and thus it is not a stretch to imagine that someone’s life can be completely changed by introducing students to synthetic biology at an earlier age. This is why we have decided to focus as much as we have on the Biosensor project, and education in general.
Biosensor
The Biosensor project is an effort to expose Danish high school students to the world of experimental synthetic biology. The Biosensor kit makes it possible for high school students to work with biobricks. As stated earlier, certain laws prohibit high school students to work with plasmid modifications.
The Biosensor project was created by DTU’s iGEM teams from 2015 and 2016, Biotech Academy, and further developed by the BioBuilders’ 2017 team. We are preparing to ship out the kits to 200 high schools in Denmark by Spring 2018.
The Exercise
The Biosensor is structured to give students creative freedom in the field of synthetic biology, while being simple. The entire exercise can be completed in just two days of laboratory work and testing. The exercise involves the following:
1. Digestion of selected genes (2 hours)
2. Ligation of genes and linearized vector to make a Biobrick plasmid (1.5 hours)
3. Transformation of Biosensor (3 hours)
4. Test of Biosensors (1 hour)
See more information on the Biosensor webpage
Even though everything can be completed in two days, the exercise can be paused at any step by putting the DNA in a freezer. This makes the exercise adaptable to most classroom timetables, no matter how inflexible. At this moment Biosensor is in the first phase, which means that the Biosensor will not have detection promoters, but instead a constitutive promoter to show the response gene. The Biosensor kits are expected to be distributed in the Spring 2018. Biotech Academy is working on preparing a second phase kit, which will entail responsive promoters with the potential to detect specific molecules and express a chosen gene.
Content of the Biosensor kit:
1. Tube with E. coli cells DH5 alpha in 15% glycerol
2. 1 detection genes
3. 7 response genes
4. Restriction enzymes
5. Primers
6. Plasmids (For amplification of more detection and response genes)
7. Chloramphenicol
Online platform
If you visit Biosensors webpage you will see that the webpage has an entire tab dedicated to the Biosensor project and Biotech Academy, this also includes pages about iGEM, DTU Denmark’s 2017 team, and our current project. On Biosensor’s webpage teachers will be able to order the Biosensor kit which comes with directions and safety measures. All the students will be able to read the protocol and the theory behind the Biosensor. Students will be able to submit their experimental results and describe their Biosensors on the webpage. Giving other students the opportunity to look at the biosensors already created and get inspiration.
Safety
The protocol has been done in collaboration with Kresten Cæsar Torp, the subject adviser for Biotechnology of the Danish Ministry for Children, Education and Gender Equality. This has been made to make sure that it is in tune with Danish law within synthetic biology. The parts have been approved by the Danish Working Environment Authority, meaning that no application work is needed by the high school teachers in order to work with the kit.
Biotech Academy collaboration
Our collaboration with Biotech Academy has been extensive and rewarding for both sides. In the early phases of our team we hosted the BioBrick Tutorial where we invited all the nordic teams to DTU. A former team member, and current employee of Biotech Academy, set up the laboratory exercises and gave a lecture on BioBricks. Biotech Academy has helped us with the understanding of BioBricks and advised on our laboratory strategy. Furthermore we received an amilCP (BBa_K592009) culture from Biosensor to test our prototyped device in the early stages of the project.
In turn, we helped on the Biosensor project with their laboratory work by testing and developing response genes as well as optimizing production. The protocol was tested with our high school team member to make sure that it was understandable. Lastly, we gave a presentation about synthetic biology and our project at the Biotech Academy Camp for high school students.
High school student
To spread word about iGEM and synthetic biology to future students within the field we invited a high school student, Minh Greulich, to be a part of the team.
Minh assisted on the interlab study, helped us test the protocol for the Biosensor project and did some creative work related to the wiki.
This is what Minh had to say about her experience being on the team:
"It was surprising for me, to experience such a relaxed and playful environment, despite the very serious and difficult nature of the work. My takeaway from participating in the project was that biomedicine is a field of work, where you can be sure to contribute to improving the world, and still have a life whilst doing so."
By helping us in the lab, Minh gained valuable skills and learned what it means to be a part of a team. She was eager to learn and was enthusiastic about the project.
Public Engagement
Snakebite is an urgent, neglected problem and we are immensely passionate about contributing to the solutions. The best way to combat such a vast, multi-faceted issue is to spread this enthusiasm to the future generations - semper ardens.
Social media
Through social media such as Facebook, our homepage, instagram, twitter, and snapchat we have informed the public and our fellow students about our project and synthetic biology as a means to address important societal problems.
Fairs and presentations
Our team has attended multiple fairs during the project. At DTU’s Open House we talked to potential new students about the opportunities you get by starting at DTU and being a part of an iGEM team such as DTU BioBuilders. We also attended two student fairs held at DTU the DSE Fair and PF Study Fair where we reached out to DTU students to get people enthusiastic about our project, iGEM, and synthetic biology. In collaboration with a Danish society called Young Scientist we attended their annual Science in Forum event where we had the opportunity to talk to learners and students of all ages as well as people from the industry about our project.
In an attempt to communicate the problem of snake envenoming, we presented at a multitude of events during the last 8 months. The presentation at the Synapse (a society for students and professionals within the field of biology) event was in collaboration with Copenhagen University’s iGEM team. At this event we gave a presentation about our project and our supervisor Chris Workman gave a presentation about synthetic biology as well as iGEM. We also presented for the student organisation Society for Biological Engineering, the high school society Academy for Talented Youth and the previous mentioned Biotech Academy camp that was held during the autumn break. We presented iGEM and our project before an audience of high-school students considering starting their studies at our University with great response. One of our team members also attended the International Synthetic and Systems Biology Summer School 2017 in Cambridge to keep us up-to-date with the newest research in Synthetic biology in addition to getting us valuable contacts working within the issue of snake envenoming.
Press
The website and magazine of the Technologist are initiatives of EuroTech universities Alliance (DTU, TU/e, EPFL and TUM) to promote technical solutions which address major challenges in modern society and bring together exciting research and innovation from around the globe.
We are to be published in issue No. 15 in January 2018. The issue of snake envenoming, its diagnosis, and iGEM-participation will be covered.
The magazine is available from leading newsagents, at major train stations, airports, etc. or can be ordered via www.technologist.eu.
This year our university newspaper, DTU Avisen, has expressed particular interest in our project and written an article about the project and the team. The article is published in the November edition of DTU Avisen.
Furthermore, a documentary is being made about the experience of competing in iGEM and being a part of DTU BioBuilders along with all the complementing synthetic biology publicity.
Conclusion
In conclusion our main goal has been to promote synthetic biology to a wide target audience. This has been achieved mainly via the Biosensor project and via the documentary.
The Biosensor project ensures that the average high school student receives an introduction into the world of synthetic biology, whereas the documentary spreads the message to a more general public. The Snakebite Detectives iGEM project has been the backbone of this journey, standing as an example of the potential of synthetic biology, BioBricks, and hard work.
