Team:LUBBOCK TTU/HP/Silver
Human Practices is an integral part of creating impactful relationships with our community, and conducting research that is embraced by a generalized audience. The iGEM competition is centered around synthetic biology, of which includes genetic engineering, which traditionally has been a controversial area of research. Careful consideration of Human Practices ensures that our research is ethical, responsible, safe, secure, and sustainable.
Human Practices is an integral part of creating impactful relationships with our community, and conducting research that is embraced by a generalized audience. The iGEM competition is centered around synthetic biology, of which includes genetic engineering, which traditionally has been a controversial area of research. Careful consideration of Human Practices ensures that our research is ethical, responsible, safe, secure, and sustainable.
We wanted to connect our local community to biology and to educate and engage members of our community by involving them in a community led wet lab that any person could join. This required feedback from the community to learn what they needed and wanted from a wet lab and community science education center and to do this we have led a series of roundtable discussions and social events for people interested in DIYBio and community wet lab. Our team was interested in discovering what people found important in a wet lab or community biology group and what they were interested in doing, whether it be learning, experimenting or researching. We have discussed with the members of our MeetUp Group the types of curriculums and classes or workshops that they would like us to do. The topics have included have pondered doing special topics, where members of the community hold seminars in their areas of expertise, as well as a community funded research project. We aimed for these discussions to be an even dialogue and brainstorming session to better our community. This feedback and engagement resulted in the creation of BioMania, a “citizen science” group that holds classes and socials to connect our community with science education and community research.
Our BioMania group has taught weekend workshops and have plans to teach an ongoing progressive bi weekly class. The weekend workshops were full of experiments and lectures covering the most fundamental basics of how biology works, starting with the structure of DNA all the way to genomic regulation and genetic engineering. We extracted and visualized our own DNA, transformations, gel electrophoresis and bacterial painting using differential agar. The team enjoyed this experience and sharing our love of science with others and think that this can be an excellent opportunity to increase scientific literacy within the community.
These meetups occur weekly, and we are currently seeking members to take a more active role within the group. Eventually, we hope that community members will continue our work and to have the wet lab and engagement flourish long after we leave. Our team has compiled lists of experiments, templates, and hours of lectures created for the classes to continue beyond the scope of our team.
In a small conservative town, our team wanted to unite the community in a fun and educational way to teach science to everyday citizens, from college kids, to retirees, or even business people. We wanted to show that science doesn’t need to be divisive, and you can learn by having a well constructed and mediated dialogue with a diverse background of participants.
Our team decided to speak with an expert regarding the safety and security implications of a community wet lab, as it was our primary method of outreach and engagement in the community. We reached out to Dr. Vickie Sutton, the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, and a Paul Whitfield Horn Professor Law and Director of the Center for Biodefense, Law and Public Policy, the only center at a law school in the U.S. to focus solely on issues of law and biodefense, biosecurity and bioterrorism. She served as a political appointee for President George W. Bush, as the Chief Counsel for the Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
Dr. Sutton had a multitude of suggestions to run a safe and secure community laboratory that is in constant communication with local law enforcement, as well as ways to reduce the liability that can arise by having a public practice. She suggested to contact law enforcement beforehand and invite them to come and see what the community wet lab is doing to reduce the risk of concern of bioterrorism or improper practice. She communicated to us that we should have as much transparency as possible with law enforcement in regards to who we work with, who owns the facilities and the work we do. Dr. Sutton mentioned that the concern over “DIYBio” has increased over the years, mainly because of the spread of knowledge, availability of techniques, equipment, and biological parts, and because it is completely uncontrolled and unregulated.
Secondly, we discussed the logistics of patents and how it was possible to patent pieces of genetic material, or if it was possible at all. Dr. Sutton commented that it seemed like the DIYBio community or organizations like iGEM have been created to avoid intellectual property issues. If BioBricks weren’t made available for public use, an issue similar to the limits of patents would be seen, and thousands of dollars would be spent maintaining those patents.
Patenting in the synthetic biology industry is an impediment for any emerging technology because it slows the research and the development of the technology down. The patents can be so broad that it infringes with all aspects of other experiments. There aren’t as many benefits to patenting in synthetic biology, as there are in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Sutton advised the team that a patent is good if the item is unique and has utility, but there are many aspects that slow the progress of the item that is being patented as it prevents scientific discussion before it is patented. Dr. Sutton predicted that the future of the majority of patenting biological information will be in personalized medicine, and that it will protect the platform for conducting the testing.
Dr. Sutton helped the iGEM Raiders team understand why “structured” synthesis or science within a lab seems so terrifying to the general public, because of the lack of knowledge of the public to understand what is actually going on within it. There have been many pieces of legislation put in place to protect the public from misuse or unguided and misinformed practice outside of a regulated laboratory.
We have decided to integrate many of her suggestions into our lab protocols going forward to run a better lab. First, the community wet lab is run by mainly students of our university, and therefore, the safety protocols of our wet lab should be in accordance with the safety protocols that are used by the university. We are working to design a safety training program that will need to be retaken yearly, along with documentation of the training. She also suggested separate safety protocols for individual experiments with more details of the precautions to be taken.
These documents will continue to be formulated and put on a communal drive for access for the people who continue to run the lab as the years go on.
