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− | Speaking to Kevin Esvelt, the inventor of PACE, was a real pleasure. We had the great opportunity to host Kevin Esvelt for a <a href= | + | Speaking to Kevin Esvelt, the inventor of PACE, was a real pleasure. We had the great opportunity to host Kevin Esvelt for a <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Engagement">lecture at our university</a> and when he visited our iGEM lab he provided extremely helpful advice not only on how to set up PACE technically, but also on how to design corresponding experiments safely and responsibly and how to communicate our project outside the scientific community. |
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Kevin Esvelt made us aware of possible challenges we would meet when running PACE, for instance, he mentioned that phage-washouts in the lagoon are a problem he faced several times when setting up PACE in his own lab for the first time. Therefore, we developed a real-time PCR readout to test, whether phages are still present in the lagoon and if not, to re-inoculate to keep the evolution going. | Kevin Esvelt made us aware of possible challenges we would meet when running PACE, for instance, he mentioned that phage-washouts in the lagoon are a problem he faced several times when setting up PACE in his own lab for the first time. Therefore, we developed a real-time PCR readout to test, whether phages are still present in the lagoon and if not, to re-inoculate to keep the evolution going. | ||
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− | As Human Practice is one of our core projects we invested a lot of time in, we thought it is reasonable to get some advice from Dr. Dorothea Kaufmann who herself campaigns for open science and actively encourages discussions about controversial topics of gene technology. Dr. Kaufmann appreciated, supported and expanded our Human Practice concept in many respects. For instance, she encouraged us to actively invite and face the broad public with synthetic biology issues. Dr. Kaufmann enriched our work with her motto: "science affects everybody and therefore, everybody should be able to affect science". Following up this idea, we invited everybody for an open <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Engagement">lecture with Kevin Esvelt</a>, presented our project at <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Engagement</a>, visited a <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Education">school</a>, and hosted a <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Education">high school</a> class for some DNA experiments in our iGEM lab. We received diverse encouragements during all these events, which struck new paths for our project. | + | As Human Practice is one of our core projects we invested a lot of time in, we thought it is reasonable to get some advice from Dr. Dorothea Kaufmann who herself campaigns for open science and actively encourages discussions about controversial topics of gene technology. Dr. Kaufmann appreciated, supported and expanded our Human Practice concept in many respects. For instance, she encouraged us to actively invite and face the broad public with synthetic biology issues. Dr. Kaufmann enriched our work with her motto: "science affects everybody and therefore, everybody should be able to affect science". Following up this idea, we invited everybody for an open <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Engagement">lecture with Kevin Esvelt</a>, presented our project at <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Engagement">TEDx</a>, visited a <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Education">school</a>, and hosted a <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Education">high school</a> class for some DNA experiments in our iGEM lab. We received diverse encouragements during all these events, which struck new paths for our project. |
Furthermore, Dr. Kaufmann highlighted the importance of our PACE simplification PREDCEL. According to her statement, that methods should be cheap enough to be used by every scientist, who wants to contribute to the questions in synthetic biology, for which it is is essential to invest time in simplifying processes. Good science should be transparent, method descriptions should be easily accessible, and experiments should be reproducible. With our standardized <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Toolbox">evolutionary toolbox</a>, the simplified setup <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Predcel">PREDCEL</a> and our inter-lab study for <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Collaborations">mutagenesis plasmid activity evaluation</a>, we would like to contribute to open science for everybody. | Furthermore, Dr. Kaufmann highlighted the importance of our PACE simplification PREDCEL. According to her statement, that methods should be cheap enough to be used by every scientist, who wants to contribute to the questions in synthetic biology, for which it is is essential to invest time in simplifying processes. Good science should be transparent, method descriptions should be easily accessible, and experiments should be reproducible. With our standardized <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Toolbox">evolutionary toolbox</a>, the simplified setup <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Predcel">PREDCEL</a> and our inter-lab study for <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Collaborations">mutagenesis plasmid activity evaluation</a>, we would like to contribute to open science for everybody. | ||
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/bc/T--Heidelberg--HP_experts_wollmann.jpeg" alt=""> | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/b/bc/T--Heidelberg--HP_experts_wollmann.jpeg" alt=""> | ||
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− | Thomas Wollmann is a PhD student at the Department for Bioinformatics & Functional Genomics and Co-Founder of PW solutions. He works on the applicability of Deep Learning methods for large scale segmentation and detection tasks in biomedical image data. He recommended us to work with the Tensorflow framework and gave us substantial advice how to handle it. In addition, he had significant contribution to the implementation of our neural network architecture. We integrated his input in our <a href= | + | Thomas Wollmann is a PhD student at the Department for Bioinformatics & Functional Genomics and Co-Founder of PW solutions. He works on the applicability of Deep Learning methods for large scale segmentation and detection tasks in biomedical image data. He recommended us to work with the Tensorflow framework and gave us substantial advice how to handle it. In addition, he had significant contribution to the implementation of our neural network architecture. We integrated his input in our <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Software/DeeProtein">DeeProtein</a> software tool. |
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− | Prof. Michael Wink is one of the most experienced professionals we talked to. It was a great pleasure for us to be profiting from his store of knowledge in the field of evolution. Our concerns that directed evolution approaches like PREDCEL and PACE might be too ambitious and too complex for a student project were alleviated by Prof. Wink. He gave us intellectual input and helped us with recommendations about existing literature by which we were able to translate our ideas to the laboratory | + | Prof. Michael Wink is one of the most experienced professionals we talked to. It was a great pleasure for us to be profiting from his store of knowledge in the field of evolution. Our concerns that directed evolution approaches like PREDCEL and PACE might be too ambitious and too complex for a student project were alleviated by Prof. Wink. He gave us intellectual input and helped us with recommendations about existing literature by which we were able to translate our ideas to the laboratory "bench". |
As he pointed out that silicon besides carbon-based life is a possibility on other planets, we feel encouraged to pursue our research on enzymes that form carbon-silicon bonds. | As he pointed out that silicon besides carbon-based life is a possibility on other planets, we feel encouraged to pursue our research on enzymes that form carbon-silicon bonds. | ||
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− | When we considered to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for our software project for the first time, we wanted to ensure that we do not endanger anybody with this powerful, but controversial technology. Interviewing high school students, we learned about their fears regarding the use of AI. Dr. Ullrich Köthe elucidated all potential risks, and we discussed dystopian predictions where AI dominates the entire earth or universe and turns all available matter and energy into | + | When we considered to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for our software project for the first time, we wanted to ensure that we do not endanger anybody with this powerful, but controversial technology. Interviewing high school students, we learned about their fears regarding the use of AI. Dr. Ullrich Köthe elucidated all potential risks, and we discussed dystopian predictions where AI dominates the entire earth or universe and turns all available matter and energy into "Computronium". To answer the question whether these dystopian predictions might come true one day, he referred to the onset of gene technology: People pointed out severe risks thirty years ago, but science has found effective counter-measures to keep these <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Safety">risks</a> under control. The current discussion about AI is in many ways similar. Informing us about leading experts who anticipate computers to achieve general intelligence or even super-intelligence, he especially referred to Ray Kurzweil. <a href="http://www.kurzweilai.net/futurism-ray-kurzweil-claims-singularity-will-happen-by-2045">Kurzweil</a> predicts that “by 2029, computers will have human-level intelligence” and "set the date 2045 for singularity — which is when humans will multiply our effective intelligence a billion fold, by merging with the intelligence we have created” - Dr. Köthe considers this estimation to be quite optimistic. He points out that we cannot predict AI-related threats and dangers far into the future, because we have no idea how computers at this level of intelligence will work. Current dystopian ideas are mainly extrapolations of human weaknesses, which are unlikely to apply to intelligent machines in the same way. Existing (weak) AI systems usually make mistakes that are markedly different from typical human errors in the same situation. Therefore, it is necessary to advance our understanding of AI goal control and safety in close association with our improving understanding of AI itself. For the time being, AI will remain unable to cause severe trouble, unless actively misused by a human. All in all, Dr. Köthe quietened down our concerns and <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg/Engagement#our_survey_PP">general fears of dystopian AI</a> and made us feel more relaxed using AI for our software approach. |
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Latest revision as of 00:33, 16 December 2017
Prof. Dr. Kevin Esvelt
Director of the Sculpting Evolution group
Assistant Professor, MIT Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kevin Esvelt made us aware of possible challenges we would meet when running PACE, for instance, he mentioned that phage-washouts in the lagoon are a problem he faced several times when setting up PACE in his own lab for the first time. Therefore, we developed a real-time PCR readout to test, whether phages are still present in the lagoon and if not, to re-inoculate to keep the evolution going.
Antonio D´Isanto
PhD student in Astroinformatics
HITS – Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
Dr. Dorothea Kaufmann
Study Program Manager for Molecular Biotechnology
Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology
Heidelberg University
Thomas Wollmann
PhD Student and Co-Founder of PW solutions
Department Bioinformatics & Functional Genomics
Heidelberg University
Prof. Dr. Michael Wink
Academic Dean of the Institute for Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology
Heidelberg University
Prof. Dr. Dr. Edith Huland
Founder & Managing Director of Immunservice GmbH
Medical Professional
Prof. Dr. Philipp Stoellger
Theological Department
Heidelberg University
We wanted to discuss our directed evolution approach with experts in the field of interdisciplinary ethics and philosophy of religion. Hence, we talked to Prof. Dr. Philipp Stoellger from the theological department of Heidelberg University. Prof. Stoellger pointed out that he, as a theologist, has no general concerns about intervening in evolution and harnessing its potential for human benefits as long as the experiments are kept under strict laboratory conditions. Nature is a natural field of cultural practices. However, ethical questions arise, if powerful and efficient techniques like PREDCEL and PACE are misused for military, economically or potentially harmful purposes or if modified organisms are released into the natural ecosystem. It is the duty of each and every scientist to reflect about the consequences of their research. Could this new discovery or invention be misused in any way? Which safety measures and precautions can be taken to prevent misuse?
To face ethical concerns about directed evolution approaches, Prof. Stoellger recommended to firmly integrate professionals from other fields into such substantial projects and proposals, like hermeneutics, ethics, theologies or even artists and politicians. This is reasonable because only an interdisciplinary group of professionals can make decisions with consequences affecting all humanity. His message to the natural sciences is: professionalize your unprofessional limits of research, and make use of professional competences where you are not competent. That message may affect your experimental constellations, your methods and your theory of science up to the members of research groups. Prof. Stoellger was impressed about the concept of iGEM and how this competition in Synthetic Biology encourages young scientists to reflect on safety, environment and the involvement and contribution of the general public to the design and elaboration of the scientific project. Following this concept, young scientists would grow to become responsible researchers in the future.
PD Dr. Ullrich Köthe
Visual Learning Lab
Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing and
Dr. Michael Ernst
Director of the Agricultural Department
University of Hohenheim
Dr. Lorenz Adlung
PhD in Systems Biology
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Birgit Degner
Judge
Ordinary Jurisdiction North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
From their point of view, scientific research should be as unrestricted as possible. This also implies that a crucial role is assigned to the scientist: Every scientist has to prove if his or her research is compatible with their own moral values and has to make sure that all necessary safety measures and precautions are taken. Scientists are connected to and responsible for their research, but in the end the consumers can and should use their market power to give a feedback if the findings are compatible with general ethical values. In addition, ethical review committees can lead discussions, clarify research topics, and help to determine moral values.
They concluded that science should not be limited unnecessarily, because the ultimate goal of research is the improvement of the general quality of life for every human.
Dr. Ingo Janausch
Representative Biological Security and Gene Technology
Department for Biological Safety
Heidelberg University
Dr. Jens Degner
Judge
Ordinary Jurisdiction North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
From their point of view, science should be as unrestricted as possible, but by doing this, the scientist is assigned a crucial role: Each scientist needs to think if his research is compatible with their own moral values and make sure that all necessary safety measures and precautions are taken. The scientist is connected to and responsible for the research done, but in the end the consumers can and should use their market power to see if the findings are compatible with general ethical values. Ethical commissions can lead discussions, clarify research topics and help finding moral values.
They concluded that science should not be limited unnecessarily, because the ultimate goal is the improvement of the general quality of life for every human.
Dr. Lutz Greb
Group Leader
Department of Inorganic Chemistry
Heidelberg University