Team:Greece/human practices

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Optimized Societal Impact & Risk Integration System

Developed by our team and based on the work by Cummings & Kuzma et al., 2017 [1], OSIRIS is a robust screening tool to identify issues of increased concern and limited uncertainty in order to quantitatively demonstrate the dynamic relationship between a Synthetic Biology project and its impact on the world. It is characterized by high interoperability in different case-studies and its multi-faceted methodology of information collection as received from a multidisciplinary panel of experts. A proof-of-principle analysis can be found here. A complete step-by-step guide follows:

Methodlogy
I. Pre-analysis

1. Carry out an eSWOT Analysis. eSWOT is an enhanced Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis (eSWOT) of the proposed project. Add a pre-processing step before the SWOT analysis by employing a PCR (Parameter Chain Reduction) brainstorming method in order to feed validated-only SWOTs in the final analysis. The PCR “program” is the following:

(i) Possible SWOTs are proposed through team discussions.

(ii) SWOT candidates are decomposed into simplified complementary statements.

(iii) Socratic method (also known as maieutics, method of elenchus) is utilized as a way to thoroughly investigate possible strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The team is divided into groups of two interlocutors, one that asserts the proposed SWOT statement and one that targets for refutation.

(iv) Only SWOT candidates that survive the in-depth debating (during multiple rounds) are tampulated in the final eSWOT analysis.

Schema 1

2. Create a Stakeholder/Value Matrix to identify all stakeholders that might have interests or concerns regarding the proposed project. This constitutes the first filter of the sample of multidisciplinary experts who can provide greater insight into detected or emerging project issues.

3. Map out the stakeholders (Experts) according to power and interests on a Stakeholder (Expert) Map in order to gain further insight on their position relative to your project.

4. Create a Risk Map to better understand the risks of your project in order to aid in downstream analysis.

These 4 steps allow team members to have a clear picture of the stakeholders/experts and complete an initial risk assessment.

II. Analysis

*Key things to consider*

A. Selection of panel of experts:

  • -Identified by team members (Steps 1-4 of the pre-analysis).
  • -Found by Muses; collegiate ambassadors collaborating with the members to establish a line of communication with experts on an international level.

B. OSIRIS consists of a tweaked 3-round Policy Delphi method. Named after the Oracle of Delphi, it is a forecasting, decision support method that uses the panel of experts to distil responses and build toward group consensus regarding the risk prediction of the proposed project. The method is conducted sequentially in 3 Rounds:

  • -Open-ended interviews in the form of Q&A for qualitative data collection regarding general issues of the proposed project (via email, Skype, in-person interview).
  • -Formation of a quantitative online survey after evaluating the answers of the 1st Round. This Round is comprised of 8 sets of questions (each set has 2 categories: Risk/Benefit, Uncertainty).
  • -During Round 3, after analyzing the concerns that have arised from Rounds 1 & 2, perform a short-round of questioning, internally between team members and externally with the advisors and synthetic biology experts. This round was designed in order to simulate the challenge of iGEM teams to come-up with radical redesigns for their project according to the received feedback.

1. Perform all 3 rounds of the Policy-Delphi study.

2. Calculate an additive risk/benefit and certainty index and ultimately a mean risk/benefit and certainty score for each factor:

3. Visualize the results in octagonal plots that allow for granular assessment of each factor of the OSIRIS protocol in terms of both its risk or benefit profile as well as expert uncertainty of current understanding of that given criterion and its potential management.

4. Follow an exhaustive analysis by comparing the octagonal plots with the Risk Map (Step 4) and the finalized graphs and qualitative answers/data derived from the first two rounds of the Policy-Delphi method. Draw conclusions on the most important risks, benefits and areas of the proposed project.

Work collaboratively with other teams or research groups in order to reshape your initial approach by integrating several of the aforementioned criteria into decision making and experimental planning.

References

[1]Cummings, C. L., & Kuzma, J. (2017). Societal Risk Evaluation Scheme (SRES): scenario-based multi-criteria evaluation of synthetic biology applications. PloS one, 12(1), e0168564.

Any goal can be efficiently and quickly realized, only if the procedure of achieving it, follows a meticulously tested, standardized protocol. After an extensive research on the how-tos and methods to investigate issues regarding our project and receive feedback on a synthetic biology idea, we came up with next to nothing results; at least nothing that included an across-the-board approach to our objective. Hence, we developed our own methodology with that goal in mind. OSIRIS protocol guides the implementation of a course of actions to take under consideration a wide range of opinions, across multiple fields, evaluating them and elucidating various weak points. From risk analysis and prediction of health/environmental hazards to anticipatory governance and the integration of ethical considerations, OSIRIS covers every step of the way. For a step-by-step guide in implementing OSIRIS, check here. The results of our widespread analysis and the integration of experts’ opinion in our design can be viewed here.
Considering safety an issue of utmost importance, we have received biosafety training by the advisors and attended seminars in order to get accustomed with emergency crisis management in the laboratory. Such seminars are organized in Greece by the Hellenic Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Pasteur Institute in Greece and the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas. We have taken part in the seminar titled "Health and safety in research laboratories" (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, March 5, 2017) organized by the aforementioned authorities. In addition to that, our project was redesigned, after extensive conversations with clinicians and biologists, in order to introduce a 5-star safety system, on regard of the environment and the users. Check out more about integrating feedback about safety here.
In order to properly identify various Human Practices issues, our launching pad was our multi-level public engagement and education campaign. The public’s valuable feedback enabled us to isolate significant issues and weaknesses that needed to be strengthened. Check out our efforts here.
Every major project is affected by multiple factors. On that ground, we analyzed possible risks, effects and stakeholders that could influence our work negatively, by creating a Risk Map. Hover over the points of the map for more info!
Check out how we evaluated and managed those risks here.
Having a wide picture of the current policies, regulations and official risk assessment methods is a matter of significant importance. The chaos of multiple initiatives, committees and panels all over the world might seem frightening to anyone that attempts to initiate a synthetic biology project. Our Societal Impact Assessment Handbook contains analytically current EU Directives and Regulations, while offering guidelines to anyone that wishes to get a concrete, au courant idea of the existing regulations. Adding to that, it describes how iGEM Greece complied to the various aforementioned Acts. View our Handbook.
Societal Image
Integrated Human Practices
Systematizing Feedback Assimilation and Integration for Synthetic Biology Projects
Short Description

The flagship of our Human Practices efforts this year is the development of the OSIRIS (Optimized Societal Impact & Risk Integration System) Protocol; a methodology to efficiently receive and quantitatively integrate feedback into any synthetic biology project.

Mainspring of our endeavor

Any project, any initiative, however structured and well designed, will require feedback and through its fruition, adjustments will be made. Our team, upon deciding on its project and planning the basic steps to follow, had to try and find the most relevant researchers and professors in the field. Its purpose, of course, was to consider their opinions and utilize them to tweak various parts of our project accordingly. Despite our efforts, we could not pinpoint someone in Greece that was an expert regarding our topic, thus we had to extend our reach worldwide. While trying to get in touch with researchers from all over the world and participating in the 4th Systems and Synthetic Biology Summer School, we thought of decomposing the whole process that we've been through, in short, individual steps. We, then, had the idea to search vast-scale opinion taking from people of interest in world-wide range. We stumbled upon Societal Risk Evaluation Scheme (SRES), developed by Cummings & Kuzma et al., 2017 [1], that identifies and evaluates risks regarding Synthetic Biology projects. As it did not perfectly fit our case, we decided to modify specific parts of it, so that if will not only find possible risks regarding our project, but will also aid us in finding ways to mitigate them. However, as it requires experts to provide their feedback on various concerns, we fed it with the results of our primary eSWOT Analysis and different versions of Stakeholder Maps. Combining all those steps, the creation of OSIRIS became a reality. For an analytical, step-by-step explanation of the protocol, click here.

Pre-analysis

1.We've carried out an eSWOT Analysis. eSWOT is an enhanced SWOT analysis in order to evaluate Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) of our project.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
-The Art of War by Sun Tzu

In order to holistically evaluate our idea in the context of the real world, we explored the process of identifying favorable and unfavorable factors during the SWOT analysis after examining the findings of the Helms & Nixon., 2010 [2]. We employed a brainstorming method of our own invention termed PCR (Parameter Chain Reduction) analysis in order to feed validated-only SWOTs in the final analysis. Our PCR includes the following steps:

  • (1) Possible SWOTs are proposed through team discussions.
  • (2) SWOT candidates are decomposed into simplified complementary statements.
  • (3) Socratic method (also known as maieutics, method of elenchus) is utilized as a way to thoroughly investigate possible strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The team is divided into groups of two interlocutors, one that asserts the proposed SWOT statement and one that targets for refutation.
  • (4) Only SWOT candidates that survive the in-depth debating (during multiple rounds) are tampulated in the final eSWOT analysis.
PCR Photo

eSWOT Analysis Table

eSWOT Analysis helped us realise the opportunities of our idea and inspired us on finding other future applications of pANDORRA.

2. We've created a Stakeholder/Value Matrix to identify all stakeholders that might have interests or concerns regarding the proposed project. We've obtained our first look of a sample of multidisciplinary experts who can provide greater insight into detected or emerging project issues.


Stakeholder Value Matrix

Stakeholder/Value Matrix worked as another reminder of how important biosafety and the safety of patients is. Therefore, we worked even harder to chisel a project with as many safety checkpoints as possible.

3. We've created a Stakeholder (Expert) Map in order to map the stakeholders (experts) according to power and interests.

Stakeholder (Expert) Map

From the data analysis of Stakeholder Map we were able to pinpoint the stakeholders we should contact to transform our project's features in the best possible way. As signified by their high power to influence our project and interest, the aforementioned stakeholders-experts we contacted are mostly Researchers, University Professors and Clinical Doctors.

4. Finally, we've created a Risk Map to better understand the risks of the project in order to define areas of improvement in our method. You can find our risk map here.

The Risk Map showed us the areas on which we could improve our project. These are the possibility of false prediction of miRNA candidates for our classifier circuits based on conventional bioinformatic methods and the concern about a possible environmental ecosystems disruption. We moved towards the mitigation of such problems through extensive modeling of our classifier and by establishing several levels of safety. We also propose that a future treatment should be carried out in a controlled environment under the supervision of highly-trained clinicians.

Analysis

After a thorough examination of the literature, we've concluded that current methods of evaluation and reshaping of synthetic biology projects according to the stakeholders' feedback are limited and face the following problems:

  • -Socioeconomic and ethical issues are often dismissed [3,4]
  • -Upstream public engagement, often a proposed tool for integration of users' opinion in the design, is impaired by the complexity of synthetic biology as a whole [5]
  • -Multi-criteria analyses using stakeholders' judgement to assess an idea are not causally connected to the integration of this feedback in the technical, safety, ethical, societal aspects of a project [6]

Inspired by the work of Cummings & Kuzma et al., 2017 [1], we have developed a new methodological contribution to the field, termed OSIRIS (Optimized Societal Impact & Risk Integration System). OSIRIS constitutes a robust system that is capable of outlining risk factors and concerns in various fields and sectors, by analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from a multidisciplinary panel of experts with diverse perspectives and affiliations. The OSIRIS can assess, but is not limited to, the following factors:

  • -Health risks
  • -Health benefits
  • -Environmental risks
  • -Uncertainty
  • -Risk Manageability
  • -Commercialization potential
  • -Public concern
  • -Ethical dilemmas

It is a tool aimed to enhance risk governance by summarizing predicting risks and it is expanded in order to evaluate risk manageability and provide optimal solutions. We consider it a significant boost for iGEM teams to investigate and manage risks and safety parameters in a quantitative way and a robust screening tool to prioritize information collection, hazards identification and expert's opinion integration to the workflow of synthetic biology innovations.

OSIRIS consists of a tweaked 3-round Policy Delphi method. Named after the Oracle of Delphi, it is a forecasting, decision support method that uses the panel of experts to distil responses and build toward group consensus regarding the risk prediction of the proposed project. The panel of experts was pre-selected by the pre-analysis results of our Stakeholders (Experts) Map. Our modified Policy Delphi works as follows (3 Rounds):

  • Open-ended interviews in the form of Q&A for qualitative data collection regarding general issues of our project (via email, Skype, in-person interview).
  • Formation of quantitative online survey after evaluating the answers of the 1st Round. This Round is comprised of 8 sets of questions (each set has 2 categories: Risk/Benefit, Uncertainty).
  • During Round 3, after analyzing the concerns that have arised from Rounds 1 & 2, we performed a short-round of questioning, internally between team members and externally with our advisors and synthetic biology experts in conferences. This round was designed in order to simulate the challenge for iGEM teams to come-up with radical redesigns for their project according to the received feedback.
OSIRIS in numbers
  • 28 answers in our Round 1 open-ended questionnaire out of which 7 were from PIs/Instructors of iGEM Teams, 9 researchers in Greece and 12 postdoctoral researchers and professors in Europe, Asia and America.
  • 66 answers in our Round 2 quantitative questionnaire out of which 46 were from experts such as PIs/Instructors from other iGEM Teams and 20 were from experts that we managed to pinpoint around the globe.
  • Outreach to more than 80 Ambassadors, called Muses, from countries on every continent, from which more than 60 were actively engaged in promoting Synthetic Biology and identifying experts in their respective fields.

* Osiris first recruited the nine Muses, while embarking on a tour of all Asia and Europe, teaching the arts of cultivation wherever he went.

Each SB application is summarized using an additive risk/benefit and certainty index and ultimately a mean risk/benefit and certainty score.

In case of Risk(R):

\[R = (\sum\limits_{i = 1} {{r_i})/n} \]

Our results are visualized in octagonal plots that allow for granular assessment of each factor of the OSIRIS protocol in terms of both its risk or benefit profile as well as expert uncertainty of current understanding of that given criterion and its potential management.

After the visualization process and after the completion of Round 3, we can say we have a better understanding of probable mishaps that can happen with our design, as estimated by the scientific and clinical community. Moreover, we have a better view of our design's strengths. We made the following observations and took specific actions:

1. Great public concern might be generated due to the use of genetically engineered E. coli, with a more than average level of certainty as indicated by the experts' answers. That's why we created a visual lingua franca to communicate our integrated design to the greater public, independently of the various social groups' interest and educational level.Check out BUILDING A VISUAL LINGUA FRANCA TO REACH OUT TO THE WORLD.

2. There is a strong basis that supports the beneficial nature of RNAi-classifiers to human health applications, like cancer therapeutics. However, we want to further explore this potential, by tackling technical complexities and creating pANDORRA, an open-source toolkit with basic Parts to build various multi-layered cell-type classifiers.

3. We noticed that there is a blurred line regarding the applicability of anticancer E. coli, however there seems to be a group consensus regarding their health and environmental risks. To tackle this widely spread issue we put great care into developing a therapeutic approach with serial fail-safes. Moreover, the last fail-safe, the inclusion of the cancer selective toxin named Apoptin was added after discussing with Prof. JD Keasling about the therapeutic efficacy of complex engineered circuits. Check our system here.

In this journey, we also had the chance to have in-depth discussions with other various experts, who kindly provided us with technical feedback which we developed in different iterations of our project.

Stamatios Damalas

1. Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Wageningen

Stamatis is a PhD candidate in Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology of Wageningen University under the supervision of Prof.dr.ir. VAP (Vitor) Martins dos Santos. In order to create a modular system that can be compatible with various assembly platforms, we've contacted Stamatis who has extensive experience on the expansion of current tools for chassis and circuit engineering. He was extremely helpful and eager to collaborate with us. We had an exciting back-and-forth interaction where he argued about the compartmentalization of the building blocks of circuits in synthetic biology, even in complex systems like mammalian cells. That completely changed the direction of our initial approach. He proposed the use of the customizable vectors where any researcher can insert different binding sites for preferred miRNAs in the 3' untranslated region of specific genes. It has been a blast and one of our most exciting moments in iGEM integrating his feedback and coming up with solutions to increase the modularity of our system.

Melania Nowicka

1. Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (IMPRS-CBSC), Berlin, Germany

2. Freie Universität at Berlin, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Berlin, Germany

While attending the 4th International Synthetic & Systems Biology, during the poster session, we met with Melania who was presenting a poster regarding the design of optimal cell-type classifiers. She was really kind and energetic during our discussions as she thoroughly informed us about the significant benefits of computational design of logic circuits with miRNA molecular switches. After our conversations, we quickly reshaped our computational modelling, developing a new classifier optimization tool that can dictate the architecture and logical expressions used in the wet lab.

Our project acted as a proof-of-principle for OSIRIS, proving that OSIRIS is a multi-faceted tool that can be employed for a wide range of synthetic biology projects developed by a research group (iGEM-related or not) in order to evaluate potential risks and benefits in multiple fields and incorporate in a systematic manner, opinions by a multidisciplinary panel of experts and stakeholders.

References
  • [1] Cummings, C. L., & Kuzma, J. (2017). Societal Risk Evaluation Scheme (SRES): scenario-based multi-criteria evaluation of synthetic biology applications. PloS one, 12(1), e0168564.

  • [2] Helms, M. M., & Nixon, J. (2010). Exploring SWOT analysis–where are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade. Journal of strategy and management, 3(3), 215-251.
  • [3] Thompson, P. B., Kassem, M., & Werner, W. G. (2007). Food biotechnology in ethical perspective.
  • [4] Paradise, J., Wolf, S. M., Kuzma, J., Kuzhabekova, A., Tisdale, A. W., Kokkoli, E., & Ramachandran, G. (2009). Developing US oversight strategies for nanobiotechnology: learning from past oversight experiences.
  • [5] Wilsdon, J., & Willis, R. (2004). See-through science: Why public engagement needs to move upstream. Demos.
  • [6] Malloy, T., Trump, B. D., & Linkov, I. (2016). Risk-based and prevention-based governance for emerging materials.
Nourishing Synthetic Biology in the Cradle of Culture
As the first collegiate team in Greece, we've encountered immense difficulties during our project development, as synthetic biology is dramatically underdeveloped in our country on the academic as well as the community level with public perceptions remaining in flux.

For our outreach vision, we’ve zeroed in on two goals:

- spark interdisciplinary student innovation intertwined with ethical debating around the world

- expand public awareness regarding synthetic biology applications on human health, on a global scale by using intuitive learning methods and visual narratology principles

We initiated four parallel campaigns, for the aforementioned goals:


Oxynous Theme Interactive Workshop

Oxynous Theme is an exciting educational initiative for High School students, with the goal to encompass student interests regarding scientific programs not limited to the curriculum. We were excited to be invited by Mr. Dimitris Siapkas, to present our work in a simplistic manner to a inhomogeneous group of students aged 14-18. We informed the students about the field of Synthetic Biology, its potential applications, our own project and the advancement that we already made towards achieving our goals. Through gamified activities, we explained the main sub-projects of the wet and dry lab and showcased quorum sensing using party favor noise makers (inspired by the “Quorum Sensing Activity” of the MIT/HHMI Teachers’ Workshop 2011) and an electrical circuit that simulates our RNAi classifier’s function, by using simple logic gates and LEDs. After the main event, we discussed with the students about our engagement with the project, decision making and problem-handling. The students also provided us with feedback on our presentation and on their understanding of Synthetic Biology, by filling a survey. Our most valuable feedback was that they increased their Synthetic Biology knowledge, however they also expressed their wish to participate and/or organise independent student-run research projects.


Everyone was enthusiastic about the experience and we were more than happy to take part in such an event, that introduces the students to a fresh mindset, that of a team-oriented, interdisciplinary approach to hard problems.


3rd Meeting of Youth Organizations organized by the General Secretariat for Lifelong Learning, Greek Ministry of Education & Research

Representatives of the Greek Ministry of Education & Research gathered university student teams of Thessaloniki, state agents and major social partners at national policy level, aiming to get a better understanding of the voluntary and research actions. We got a better grasp of the initiatives in our city and joined forces to reach out to a larger audience. The representatives were more than excited to learn about our efforts to promote interdisciplinary research in Greece, such as exposing high school and university students to fundamental Synthetic Biology principles. They encouraged us to keep at our efforts and we discussed on how to kick-start a campaign next year to visit schools all around the country. Last but not least, we engaged in in-depth discussions on the possibility to secure financial support from the Ministry of Education & Research for the next iGEM team, thus rendering participation in iGEM for Greek teams somewhat like a tradition.

AUTH Student Week Presentation

Our first public appearance was during the Student Week organised by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) back in May. Student Week stretches across multiple days, where AUTH teams can participate and present their work, which can include theatrical plays, concerts, sports, painting exhibitions as well as many cultural activities. However, scientific teams have exponentially established their presence throughout the years. We had the pleasure to present our initiative and progress to an audience of roughly 60 students who warmly welcomed us, appeared to be quite interested in Synthetic Biology and actively participated by asking questions or having conversations with team members directly after our presentation. That was our first major event and we received positive feedback from all those enthusiastic students, that were intrigued both by our innovative approach to cancer treatment as well as by Synthetic Biology, as they were not familiar with the term, let alone its principles.



InnovationLab: iGEM Greece organised by IEEE EMBS Student Chapter AUTH and The Triple Helix Aristotle

After our presentation in Student Week, we were invited to participate in the final InnovationLab for the academic year of 2016-17.The Triple Helix is the world’s largest, completely student-run, non-profit organization, that aims to communicate the importance of science to the public, by taking an interdisciplinary approach to the evaluation of its role and impact on society. InnovationLabs are events that bring students in touch with startups, inventors and accomplished researchers, inspiring them to start the next big thing, in a way that they would advance humanity and influence the world. We decided to hold two workshops during the event; one for dry lab oriented students and one for wet lab enthusiasts. During the dry lab workshop in May we went into detail of our then-only analysis; that of miRNA differential expression analysis and explained the algorithm behind it as well as the basic principles of modeling. We presented them with a simple example of a stoichiometric matrix that we turned into differential equations. Moreover, our workshop included:
  • -Computer modelling of genetic circuits (fuzzy logic)
  • -Searching for miRNA expression data in patients (GDC)
  • -Selecting the most appropriate miRNA candidates (MATLAB, R)
  • -Annotating miRNAs of patients and matching them with the involved genes and metabolic pathways (R, Diana Tools, KEGG, GO analysis)
  • -Structuring suitable ODEs for simulating biological systems-phenomena (MATLAB)

For the wet lab workshop, team members formed with participants a “think tank” as a way to brainstorm and design a synthetic biology project. By simulating the engineering cycle and following multiple abstraction levels (System → Device → Part → DNA), the students were able to come up with innovative ideas (such as yeast cells targeting cancer), consisting of different modules.In addition, to back-up their proposed design the following tools were covered:
  • -Various top-notch technologies (e.g. CRISPR / Cas9, Gibson Assembly).
  • -The iGEM Registry of Standard Biological Parts
  • -Software for the construction of desirable DNA sequences (e.g. SnapGene)

We put in great time for the preparation of the aforementioned hands-on experiences that foster exploration, innovation, and interest in the emerging field of synthetic biology. The goal was to show the participants how the two labs of an iGEM team work independently but they combine and collaboratively interpret their results. Finally, we were excited that we received enthusiastic feedback as the students quickly made progress and designed a project from scratch learning engineering methods to approach a concept and solve occurring problems.




PATh (Physicists Aristotle university of Thessaloniki) Event

Two members of our iGEM team participated in the first scientific conference for undergraduate researchers that took place in the School of Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Our team’s intention was to promote the interdisciplinary character of the iGEM competition and to encourage undergraduate physics students to get involved in the scientific field of synthetic biology as well as systems biology. We presented the modeling part of our project, explained the use of ODEs in dynamical systems and the in situ modeling of fluid dynamics, and provided an overview of the entire project in order to showcase the contributions of an aspiring physicist in synthetic biology. Both students and professors were excited about the field of synthetic biology and the role of physics in such an interdisciplinary field. In fact, a lot of students in the audience were interested to join the forthcoming 2018 iGEM team. Thus, it is safe to conclude that our mission to encourage student participation in the iGEM competition and promote research in the field of synthetic biology was crowned with success.


Team Fair 5.0 AUTH

Comvos (Cooperation and Motivation of Students) organized an open event in which 27 Aristotle University student teams were invited to show their work in their respective booths. Anyone, not just students, was free to join this event to converse, learn about the possible opportunities as well as participate in the short activities that were planned by Comvos. iGEM Greece explained its project, the options for future development and how it could transcend from the proof-of-concept phase to a real-life application. However, the better part of the two days was focused in explaining how Synthetic Biology is a distinct field and not a subdiscipline of Biology and how the ensemble of engineering principles combined with Biology is an exciting way to go for novel ideas that could not be grasped before.


4th International Synthetic and Systems Biology Summer School - Cambridge, UK

Members of our team participated in the first day of 4th SSBSS in Cambridge to get a grasp on cutting-edge advances in Systems and Synthetic Biology. We presented a poster that included our project idea and dry lab work progress. We also had multiple conversations with other poster presenters (e.g iGEM Team DTU Biobuilders was also participating in the summer school) and integrated their feedback in our work (Link to Integrated Human Practices-Melania). At the end of the sessions, during a welcome cocktail, we were excited that we had the chance to chat with J.D. Keasling (Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley), who gave us valuable insights on Synthetic Biology as a concept [Link to watch Keasling Video in HP] while also providing us with tips on how to improve our current idea’s implementation [Link to watch Keasling Video in Integrated HP]. The whole experience amazed us, as we didn’t have the opportunity before to have meaningful conversations for perplex projects with such energetic and innovative people of the field.


23rd Scientific Congress of Hellenic Medical Students - Larissa, Greece

We are firm believers of the notion that experimental explorations of novel therapeutic methods should go hand in hand with the examination of their prospects for clinical implementation. As a result, we gave a talk during the annual Scientific Congress of Hellenic Medical Students, a large gathering where more than 1500 medical students and 350 acclaimed scientists discuss the current and future perspectives in the field of Medicine.


Greek European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Alumni Meet-up - Dilofo, Greece

The EMBL Alumni Relations program, that includes meetups all over Europe is built to advance EMBL and the relevance of life science research in the scientific community and society at large, by fostering connections between the Laboratory, its member states, current EMBL staff, the EMBL alumni and the public. After contacting the EMBL Alumni in Greece and informing them about our team, iGEM Competition and our project, they kindly invited us to their meetup to present our work. PIs and researchers from all over Greece were participating, coming from multiple backgrounds such as Medicine, Molecular Biology and Structural Biology. It was a mind-opening experience for us, since the attendees seemed not only thrilled with our idea and our experimental output, but also more than willing to give us advice and share their insights. Being surrounded by people with remarkable research experience and scientific boldness, we felt very welcome and lucky. The conversations we had after the end of the presentation were invaluable to us, since we talked about our project, its future potential and societal impact. Their enthusiasm is something we cherish and their advice and support was essential, as it showed us that we were on the right track, with quite a few possible ways to move forward.



Volos Summer School of Human Genetics - Volos, Greece organized by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Engaging in Synthetic Biology and its applications requires a interdisciplinary approach. Therefore expanding knowledge on different fields and investing on multiple skills is key for student members of iGEM Teams. Bearing that in mind, three of our team’s members, Elissavet, Asteris and Charis applied to participate in the 1st Volos Summer School of Human Genetics organized by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. All three of them got accepted along with 17 MSc students and PhD candidates and headed to Volos, Greece in May. At the 1st Volos Summer School of Human Genetics, our wet lab members attended lectures about analysing large scale data, conducted genome-wide association studies, took part in biostatistics workshops and familiarized with tools such as PLINK and various R packages. All in all, the summer school was a great opportunity for us to gain new skills but also to discuss with other scientists across Europe about our project and the technical hurdles we encountered in our modeling approach.


11th Panhellenic Scientific Chemical Engineering Conference - Thessaloniki, Greece

iGEM Greece participated in the 11th PSCEC and presented its first poster that mainly included preliminary idea and a primary version of a single cell growth model. During the coffee breaks, we had the opportunity to have a fruitful conversation with Hal Alper (Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin).




The Muses Initiative

As an addition to our OSIRIS protocol we invited students to join our ranks as a Muse; an ambassador of synthetic biology, on a mission to promote collaborative research projects all around the globe. Muses have contacted oncologists and experts in molecular biology, shared our informative flyer about synthetic biology in their universities and engaged in lively discussions about our project’s ethical considerations and commercialization potential.




We are big fans of aesthetic flavors in hard science disciplines. During this summer, we set a challenge for ourselves: to communicate our whole integrated project, from the chaotic nature of molecular biocomputers to the quorum sensing of bacterial anticancer agents, as a embodied live presentation. We teamed up and discussed back-and-forth with the Manzins, an experimental contemporary dance company based on Thessaloniki to translate a rather esoteric synthetic biology project into a dance video that will delight and inform the public. During this collaborative work we:
  • (i) employed visual narratology principles based on Meister, Jan Christoph: "Narratology", Paragraph 6. In: Hühn, Peter et al. (eds.): the living handbook of narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press.
  • (ii) modified the commonly used vocabulary of dance that constitutes the language of performativity to include abstractions of our experimental vision
Make sure to check the output of this creative cauldron (filled with easter eggs) in the following video:
Manzins Video


Quul, a multiplayer emulator of cancer research

Paraphrasing Spock, it was only narrato-logical to employ visual storytelling principles and build Quul, a multiplayer card game which aims to communicate cancer diagnostics and therapeutics to the general public. Visit our table in Exhibition Space, in Boston and play against one of our team members; Health vs Cancer. Download it here.




Our mark on social media

Our team has been active on multiple social media platforms in order to update followers about our progress and invite them to our various events. We focused a lot on our Facebook account as it gathered more than 2000 likes and several posts reached out to more than 5000 users. Overall, our Facebook page served as an important line of communication, considering that quite a few iGEM teams and individuals contacted us. We successfully capitalized on our page’s potential by collaborating with students from different universities to seek experts’ feedback for our OSIRIS campaign, conversed with researchers that shared with us their invaluable insight and met students interested to join the 2018 team.









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