While being impressed by our project design, many people showed misinformation and uncertainties towards the basics of the immune system. We faced a lot of questions concerning genetic modification as well as immunobiology and vaccination in general.
Inspired by these conversations we conducted a survey, with the purpose to find out where such uncertainties might originate from. We were able to gather a lot of different opinions on controversial topics like vaccination and genetic modification.

Synthetic Biology and iGEM

We took the opportunity to represent iGEM and Synthetic Biology in general and to explain our project to interested visitors. There was a huge interest in our project and people liked our idea of a therapy which is effective and has a low risk for serious side effects and long term damage.

Puzzle of Immunology

To give people a better understanding about the functionality of the immune system, we …. with a puzzle termed ‘Immunologie für Jedermann’ (immunology for everybody) which was gratefully provided by the German Society for Immunologie (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie e.V, abbr. DGFI). We talked to people about the importance of vaccinations and faced their questions and insecurities by explaining, how the immune system actually works. We had great success which was visible by the huge interest the people showed towards our booth, our project and synthetic biology in general. (A lot of them promised to keep track of our project and wanted us to keep them informed.)

DNA extraction from fruits

For young scientists we offered a DNA extraction from fruits by materials commonly found in households and taught them about the properties of the DNA and its building blocks, the nucleotides. Not only the kids, but also their parents were impressed since they don't get the opportunity to see DNA with the naked eye everyday.

Based on the experience from the science fair, where we gained huge recognition for our project, we faced a lot of uncertainty and misbelief concerning the functions of the immune system, vaccination and Synthetic Biology. We decided to conduct a survey to find out, where such uncertainty might originate from and how to face them. We got feedback from over 140 participants from different countries, who willingly shared their beliefs and opinions.

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As iGEM slowly went to an end, we presented our final project on the Science Days, which were hosted in the Europapark in Rust, one of the biggest theme parks in Europe. It is a science fair especially established to bring research and science closer to kids and school classes, and appeal to their joy of discovery. But also adolescents, parents and teachers are targeted and informed about institutes, companies, and education possibilities. This was the optimal opportunity to share our final project to large audience. Based on the experience of the science fair, we again engaged the people in a dialogue concerning our project and the basics of immunology. For very young explorers, we offered to extract DNA from bananas.

In summary, we grasped the chance to inform the public about Synthetic Biology and could explained how an application of synthetic biology like CARTEL^TM could influence positively or create, with the CAR T cells itself, a new powerful therapy against cancer. In return, we received valuable input to modify and influence our work by improving the safety aspect, which showed that Synthetic Biology can greatly profit being accessible to the public. To see more about that, see our Integrated Human Practices section.