Team:Groningen/HP/Gold Integrated

Human Practices

In short: how did we implement all the information we got from our interviews? We decided to make a product that is not in contact with the end product. We decided to use sequences from a … bacteriophage. We designed an on-site detection cartridge which is easy to use. We designed a program which can determine spacers for specific bacteriophages. We added a hydrogen peroxide compartment to the cartridge to ensure safe disposal.

STILL MISSING: CHR HANSSEN, ROB DUBA, WOUTER, RATHENAU/ZOE, FC LABORATORY

Simon van der Els works for NIZO. NIZO is the Dutch institute for dairy research. Simon his research focusses on bacteriophages and CRISPR-Cas. We send him our project proposal and called to discuss the details. He was able to give us a better insight into the growing problem of bacteriophages in the dairy industry. We also talked about the feasibility of the project, about which steps should be working relatively easy and which steps would be really challenging. It was nice to have someone specialized in the subject And telling where we should At the LAB symposium in Egmond aan Zee we met with Simon. We were able to talk about our research and ask questions. For example, he helped us with which promoter we could use.

Jeantine Lunshof works as a bioethicist at the Church laboratory in Boston. We contacted her in the beginning of our project to get a general view on ethics in the field of synthetic biology. After explaining the general idea of our project, she told us something about her work at the Church lab. Together we thought about a story which would be interesting for the public and would not scare them of. Jeantine also mentioned that the consumer of dairy products is in our case a very low stakeholder. This definitely does not mean we should set them aside. It is important to inform them and think about the story you will tell them. Why is our project important for the consumer? Does it ensure better/safer dairy products or will the dairy products be of a higher quality? The most important and helpful thing she told us was to make clear at all cases that our diagnostic tool will not get into the food! Only one small mentioning of this of one of the team members could make the headlines and break your story. Possibly the team’s project would only get remembered by the negative attention it got. Ultimately, chances of getting the product on the market would be close to zero. Tip: one team, one voice!

Previously to the meeting with prof. Martin Goedhart end dr. Maaike de Heij we have tried to contact multiple dairy factories and farmers, but all with no success. The fact that we are using a GMO for our project was probably one of the main factors why this was so difficult. Professor Martin Goedhart and dr. Maaike de Heij gave us great tips about how we should contact companies with our GMO product. After we implemented their advice we gained contact way easier. One of the researchers at a big dairy company was even surprised we were allowed to visit one of their factories!

We had a phone call with Jan Willem Sanders, a science leader in Microbiology at Unilever. Unilever does not primarily focus on dairy products, but Jan gave us some good starting points for our project with questions such as: ∙ What is the detection limit of the method? What sample size is needed? ∙ Can different species (or strains) be detected in parallel? ∙ To what level of identification can the method be used: genus-species-strain? ∙ Can the method quantify live cells in the presence of dead cells of the same genus-species-strain? ∙ Is the method reliable to detect microbes in a complex food matrix (without enrichment), such as cheese, margarine, soups, powders containing spices, etc. and their ingredients? ∙ How would you validate the method? How does it compare to existing methods? ∙ How could you modify the method to allow for immediate read out (current methods take half a day up to multiple days)? ∙ How could you modify the method to allow for read out on a factory floor (current methods require a micro/molecular lab.)? ∙ How could you modify the method to allow for read out by non-trained people (current methods require experience in microbiology/molecular biology)? After this conversation we decided to focus on an easy to use device that could possibly be used on the factory floor by someone without a synthetic biology background. Of course, such an application gives rise to other questions, such as safety and regulation. We discussed this thoroughly **here a link or something.

At the beginning of our iGEM adventure we were invited by the Rathenau Institute, an institute which promotes safe and ethical research, to visit their introduction to the iGEMmers Guide To The Future. Along with an explanation what that is, we had speed dates with Human Practices experts from the Rathenau and RIVM (government institute for health and environment). Before this event we decided to make a DNA detector, but were not yet sure in what way. We had several option, but after the talks with experts we decided to focus on one specific project; a bacteriophages detection system for the dairy industry. We used the iGEMmers guide during the beginning or our project to explore our human practices options and had skype conversation with Zoe Robaey. She guided us where to start with human practices, which was very useful.

On the 22th of August we talked to Arla in Denmark via Skype. We got some tips on how to communicate about the project. For instance using the word ‘virus’ on the homepage of our WIKI could immediately scare people and that is definitely something you do not want. So it is best to use the word phage or bacteriophage and explain what is meant by this. Two researchers from Arla, who also joined the conversation, were really interested in our project and had some questions prepared. We explained everything and also asked questions, because we are really interested in the point of view of the company to our project.

Cathalijne van Beekvelt works for the ILT. This is the Dutch Inspection of Living environment and Transport. We contacted her because we wanted more information about the regulations that would limit us in bringing our product on the market. She gave us the contact information of Rob Duba, because he knows more about the policies regarding GMOs.

Multiple times we had a talk with Jaco Westra from the RIVM. The RIVM is the National Institute for Health and Environment. The RIVM provides funding and therefore we were committed to do their assignment where we took safety as the most important aspect of our project. The title of this assignment is ‘Thinking before doing’. Think about the safety of your product, before you start developing it. We decided to present all of the safety aspects, we believe to be important, in a card game. Jaco was our contact person during this safety assignment. He gave great tips on how to handle legislation. He also gave us some contacts, we could contact for more information.

As committed IGEM-team members do, we wanted to visit dairy companies at work, on site. To this end we were kindly invited by Christa Smink (Bedrijfstechnoloog Workum) to get a tour of a cheese factory in Workum, Friesland. Prior to our tour we got safety instructions. Afterwards we were given the opportunity to ask questions the effect bacteriophages have on starter cultures. We learned how they measure a bacteriophage infection of starter cultures in their factory and how they proceed afterwards. The 23th of August we visited the FrieslandCampina Innovation Centre in Wageningen to discuss our project with Arjen Nauta (Sr. Scientist Nutritional Sciences). Since our project focusses on detecting bacteriophages which can negatively impact various dairy production lines, we were excited to talk to a bacteriophage research expert in the dairy industry such as Arjen Nauta. He kindly discussed the issues he faces in his research concerning bacteriophages and provided us with helpful advice for our project. Arjen pointed out that the use of GMOs for the dairy industry is very tricky. Even though our detection device will not get in contact with the product, the factory still needs a permit to use it. This permit is accessible by the public and as the use of GMOs in Europe is still very controversial, they do not want the risk of a NGO getting hold of it. Our detection device could however be useful in their research laboratory. Current detection techniques are not able to detect new bacteriophages. If we could implement a way that new bacteriophage sequences can be obtained, this would give new opportunities for bacteriophage research. DSM cultures is one of the main providers of dairy starter cultures and has more than 100 years of expertise in the dairy industry. As they might benefit from our detection device and have knowledge about bacteriophages we decided to get in contact with them. During a phone conversation we spoke with Thijs Kouwen, senior scientist and expert on bacteriophages and starter cultures. We learned that bacteriophage detection is performed by both major dairy factories and companies that provide starter cultures, such as DSM. There is a need for a fast bacteriophage detection system in the dairy industry and that, indeed, bacteriophages cause a significant problem to the dairy industry. DSM provides a free service of bacteriophage testing for their customers, for which they use plaque assays and sometimes qPCR. Thijs mentioned that these test take quite a lot of time. According to Thijs an ideal detector would have the following characteristics: · Can differentiate up to 700 species of phages · Has a detection limit of 100 phages per ml · Has a detection time of 30 minutes to one hour · A detection limit of 10.000 – 100.000 would be useful as well, because the bacteriophage level will get problematic.