Human Practices Development

We have thought about the Human Practices since the very beginning of KILL XYL. We had drawn the limits of it and found out which actors were going to be involved in deciding our scientific approach. This way our project could be as adapted as possible to the factual needs of society.

Then, the more our project advanced and defined itself, the more we worked on the practical side of Human Practices.

First and foremost safety is crucial in a lab. To work in synthetic biology, we ask our self about the consequences of our manipulation and the safety level of each part and organisms that we used. We also always make sure to work with the best condition and we didn't experiment with P2 level organisms. We also wanted to make sure that our product, especially our phage-like particle as it is a GMO, is environmentally friendly and doesn't pollute the soil or harm plant. To do so, we did test our phages in various conditions.

To integrate the farmer’s opinion, we contacted them and did surveys, first via the web and then in person, during events around agriculture. This approach helped us to figure out their needs and their thoughts, about Xylella fastidiosa and the communication around it.

We got advices from different experts : Mireille Ansaldi, the research director of the phage cycle and bacteria metabolism in LCB CNRS; Marie-Agnès Jacques, INRA’s researcher specialised in X. fastidiosa, and Jacques Van Helden, professor in Aix-Marseille University in bioinformatics, genome analysis, and more specifically analyses of regulatory sequences.

Finally, in order to get advice on the relevance of our project we contacted Ms Jacques, a X. fastidiosa specialist from the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique(INRA). She beware us that we would be defined by the legislation as a GMO product. We then began a complete study of french’s and European's law, thanks to a collaboration with the Paris-Saclay team to see if we will be able to sell our product in France and in Europe.

To sum up, our project grew entwined with the human practices.