Team:Costa Rica/Public Engagement
Human practices' main goal is to bring our project to the general public, and telling them how it is important for society. In this section, we present our efforts in informing the people of Costa Rica about Synthetic Biology, iGEM and the new possibilities for Engineered Probiotics.
Science Through Dance
If there is something that we can be sure is the primitive need that human being has to understand and describe the world that surrounds us. Both science and art are avatars of human creativity, created to facilitate the process of understanding and expressing. Nevertheless, most people use to think about them as separated fields.
That is why, using our background in science and the experience as a dance teacher of one of our team members, we fusioned science and art in a special show, named Science Through Dance.
The show Science Through Dance, gave us the opportunity to bring science and dance to the scenario, where dancers, scientists, dance parents, university teachers and many supportive people experienced, enjoyed, felt and learned from it. It is important to say that this space was also a way to demonstrate the capabilities of the country in these areas, which often go unnoticed or unconnected.
To achieve the goal, we contacted scientists, dancers from all ages and one of the most famous theatres in Costa Rica. First, for science section, we counted with Rosalind Innovations, a biotech-social entrepreneurship who spoke of the magnificence of nature and the unbelievable biotech projects that emerged from it. Also, 4 chemistry students from the University of Costa Rica, elaborated an incredible show where they made and explained amazing experiments. Additionally, our team presented the project we are taking to the iGEM competition. As for the dance section, we counted with 90 dancers from 7 to 35 years old, from beginners to nationally and internationally recognized dancers.
Disciplines preformed went from Ballet to Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Lyric, Latin Dance, Antigravity, Break Dance and African Dance. All of them appreciated by 285 spectators. The show was covered by Novum Comunicaciones S.A., a company who took all the astonishing photos you can see in the next slideshow.
iGEMxSDGs Challenge
In collaboration with the 2019 iGEM teams from Taipei American School (Taiwan) and the University of Tübingen (Germany), we created a challenge related with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations. This three continents and different time zones collab was born to promote the SDGs and show the iGEM 2019’s footprint in the advancement of a global sustainable development.
iGEMxSDGs challenge’s inspiration is the current need to address the global challenges we are facing confident that our challenge can impact teams in their fulfilment of the SDGs.
Every year each iGEM team targets at least one goal through their project and even more considering the human practice, collaborations and potencial outlook. Base on that, our challenge invited teams to match their targeting goals and post them on their social media. The strategy to encourage more teams consisted in a nomination chain, similar to the ice bucket challenge, where you accepted the challenge, posted your information and tagged three teams to do the same in the next 48 hours.
Considering the amount of tasks an iGEMer have to do these days, we elaborated a platform in our wiki to facilitate the process. There, you just had to access from an iGEM account, select your team goals and easily create a collage for your social media. Also, we established a hashtag in Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for our challenge named #iGEMxSDGs, to show all team posts and motivate other teams to do it.
Challenge Results.
A total of 74 teams participated in the hashtag challenge. The list of them is located in Collaborations. We shall now discuss the most shared SDGs among the participants of our challenge.
SDG 3. Good Health & Well Being: This was the most frequent goal targeted by teams that took part of the challenge. According to the UN, ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Since the 19th century, significant efforts have been made to eradicate all sorts of diseases, including polio, smallpox, and malaria in most developed countries. It is not a coincidence that most iGEM teams targeted this sustainable development goal, since one of the main applications of synthetic biology is the treatment of diseases. Whether they come from pathogens, or from pollution, most teams agree that the most important goal to have in mind is the health of the general population. This, combined with efforts in promotion and prevention, provide local communities with the necessary tools to achieve sustainable development.
SDG 17. Partnerships for the goals: Most teams agreed that partnerships are the key to achieve major advancements in any field, specially if we are talking about development. For us, some of the main reasons why iGEM is unique, is because it promotes collaborations, and exchange of ideas between many different countries and it promotes the interdisciplinary work. Even if a team has a project more oriented towards local issues, it is important to document and share gathered information or data. You never know if someone across the world is trying to solve the same exact problem you are facing.
SDG 12. Responsible Consumption and Production: Climate is one of the major global concerns right now. It is necessary to adopt a responsible approach towards production and discarding of every kind of goods (clothing, technology, food). It is extremely important to achieve efficiency, and to minimize pollution via recycling. Being responsible with the environment is one of the main axes of sustainable development. We need to shift our mindsets from “How can we produce more and cheaper?” to “How can we produce more efficiently, minimizing our environmental impact?”. A significant amount of teams agreed with this. Pollution is a small and large scale concern, and efforts have to be doubled in order to solve this problem. Most of the teams in this collaboration have projects related directly to reducing contamination in industrial communities.
SDG 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: The fourth most shared SDG among the teams is fundamental in matters of development. Progress is absolutely necessary for sustainable development, and innovation is key to progress. Whether it comes from the improvement of already existing processes, or the creation of completely new technologies, iGEM teams agree that to make a change, it is important to create something new and relevant. This also closely related to the very theme of iGEM, which is the development of synthetic biology, through interdisciplinary innovation.
Booklet
“Synthetic biology has expanded and evolved substantially from its initial rather narrow focus to appreciate and use more fully the diversity of mechanisms found in natural biological systems” -Christina D. Smolke.
Nevertheless, this accomplishment can only be achieved if there is enough dialogue between the parts involved in Synthetic Biology improvement. In Costa Rica, as in many countries, there is still a lot to learn and discuss in this areas. And so, lack of resources, bureaucratic processes and the lack of scientific diffusion to general public are some of the problems frequently found in synbio investigations in our country.
Therefore, our team worked in the study and vinculation of synthetic biology segments needed to be strengthen in our country. These sectors include National Politics, Healthcare Systems and general public.
To gather information about the state of the art of National Politics in terms of Synthetic Biology, we interviewed experts in the topic:
• PhD. Pedro Rocha, International Technology and Innovation specialist involved in
biotechnology and biosafety issues in the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la
Agricultura (IICA).
• PhD. Sylvie Braibant, National Biotechnology Program Coordinator of Servicio
Nacional de Salud Animal.
• Eng. Beatriz Ortiz, Evaluator in the Registries Unit, Health Products Regulation
Department of the Ministry of Health .
• Lic. Alejandra Chaverri, Director of Regulation of Products of Health Interest of
the Ministry of Health.
• Dr. José Ramón Salcedo, General Coordinator of the Master in Bio-Law of the
University of Murcia
• MSc. Alejandro Hernández, Science Director at the Ministry of Science and Technology
for several years.
• BSc. Ediner Fuentes, Ambassador of the iGEM Foundation for the CBD COP-MOP of the
Cartagena Protocol.
• LL.M. María Carolina Peláez Gil, Global Health Law Practitioner and International
Legal Consultant.
As for the Healthcare System, we wanted to approach to medical centers and doctors as a primary source of information and future distribution channels of synthetic biology health solutions. Therefore, we got in contact with:
• Dr. Fernando Morales, Dean of Medicine of the University of Costa Rica.
• Dr. Gustavo Leandro, Chief of Infectology of the Dr. Raúl Blanco Cervantes Hospital.
Collected information from the interviews (explained below), we decided to elaborated a booklet looking forward to inform the three segments mentioned before. You can see the material here. (que “here” sea hipervínculo al diseño del folleto, que va a estar al final).
National Politics
Health Care System
In a meeting with Dr. Fernando Morales and Dr. Gustavo Leandro, we talked about the prospects of synthetic biology in health. In regards of their interest on the topics discussed, they helped us organize a broadcast event in the National Hospital of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Dr. Raúl Blanco Cervantes Hospital, which is also a WHO collaborative center.
The event was attended by 72 health professionals (the list of attendance is shown in the following table). Participation was not only from the Dr. Raúl Blanco Cervantes Hospital, but also from the infectology department of San Juan de Dios Hospital, both of them belong to the 29 public hospitals of our country. It was important for us to exchange ideas with experts of both institutions because they frequently attend cases of multidrug resistant bacteria, which could eventually be treated through synthetic biology solutions.
During the event, we were able to share with the audience the concept of synthetic biology, how it is applied in Costa Rica and the possible use of bioengineered microorganisms as treatment. The response of the participants about the topic was positive; however, we were interested to know if they considered that a bioengineered probiotic as a therapeutic was a possible option in our healthcare system. Among the comments we received, doctors reaffirmed to us the importance of divulging this new kind of treatments, so that the public is more recipient of it and less scared about its side effects. In words of one of the doctors: “if you publish, communicate and socialize your treatment, then it is easier for us to suggest it as a therapeutic to patients that have heard about it, in contrast with those who have not”.
In hand with the above, another engagement activity we did in the Dr. Raúl Blanco Cervantes Hospital consisted in providing the information of the booklet to various patients and companions. As this hospital is specialized in the elderly, we were able to share about antibiotic resistance with a vulnerable public. Must of patients were really interested on the topic and they took their time to read the information provided and asked us questions. Therefore, in the hospitals we were able to bring synthetic biology as an alternative closer to the Costa Rican healthcare system and final beneficiaries.
Academic Talks
Costa Rica is recognized as one of the leading countries in terms of education in Latin America. However, for Costa Rican educational policy and practice there is a lot to improve in the field of science and technology. Within it, synthetic biology is undoubtedly an unexplored topic in Costa Rican education.
Therefore, our team gave a booklet and talked to high school and undergrad students who are not able to learn of it in order place. We introduced basic concepts of synthetic biology such as genetic modification, recombinant proteins, domain fusions, among others. We also explained our project diffEASY, raised awareness about the situation of Costa Rican politics regulation and mainly, motivated them to do not lose their interest to understand their surroundings.
Press Release
Our booklet aimed to engage synthetic biology with Costa Rican society too, considering the beliefs of general population, some of them based on disinformation. Therefore, we reached different press media from our country to help us inform a larger public. It is important to emphasize that this kind of involvement with general public is key in the improvement of an informed and critical society, in order to create awareness of the possibilities with GMOs and their limitations.
Fortunately, we were featured in multiple press releases, including social media, radio and television. Notably, TV interviews were hosted in the main TV news channels of the country. Also, thanks to Kantar Media Ibope, software for press monitoring used by ITCR, here we show you a summary with all the press publications and their reach, which had a total of 204 373 people.
Our booklet design
(Hover mouse over to stop)
Antibiotic resistance: A global problem
Since we were brainstorming about possible problems to be addressed, we quickly (not so much) stumbled upon the issue of antibiotic resistance. This phenomenon is expected to provoke up to 10 million annual deaths by 2050 (O'Neill, 2014), possibly the first death cause worldwide. This has lead the United Nations to declare antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest threats to global public health.
Resistant bacterial infections: Choosing our project aim
Antibiotic resistance is an exponential growing problem around the world and it has a very serious social impact. Looking for a solution to this problem we focused on a gastrointestinal pathogen, Clostridioides difficile. This bacteria affected patients in 21 of the 29 hospitals of Costa Rica from 2011-2014. Even one of our team members has suffered from this illness.
Problems:
Awareness for antibiotic resistance is lacking
There is a worldwide lack of knowledge on the subject of microbial resistance to antibiotics and Costa Rica is not the exception. Globally, the main cause of this problem is the misuse of antibiotics, leading to the survival of some resistant bacteria, able to spread again. Also, the bad waste management of these drugs contributes to increase resistant bacteria. This bacteria can later transfer their resistance to human microbiota (van Rijn et al., 2019).
Research is being conducted to discover new antibiotics. However, only two new antibiotic classes (lipopeptides and oxazolidinones) have been developed and approved by international drug agencies (US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency) in the last three decades (Tacconelli et al., 2018). The field of antibiotics is not lucrative enough for pharmaceutical companies and newly discovered compounds remain similar in function to current antibiotics. As a result, only a few large companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Merck and Roche are still actively engaged in antibiotic research and development (Jackson, Czaplewski & Piddock, 2018).
During our problems exploration we realized antibiotic resistance consists on the two problems mentioned above. Therefore, we decided to go out the lab to help create awareness on antibiotic resistance in our country and prove the prevalence of antibiotic resistance bacteria using the agar antibiotic resistance test.
Larger agar antibiotic resistance test
We went to the streets to have a closer encounter with people. In total we sampled 10 different places of Costa Rica: La Agonía Park in Alajuela, Central Park in Heredia, Central Park in Cartago and seven different places in San Jose (Central Park, El Mercado Central, La Sabana Metropolitan Park, France Park and the buses stations from Limón, Puntarenas and Liberia). We talked to 100 Costa Ricans, explained them a little bit of our problem and sampled their mouth with sterile swabs and following the National Health Ministry regulations. Samples were grown in petri dishes supplemented with amoxicillin (antibiotic most commonly used in Costa Rica) for 24h at 37 °C.
Experts feedback
When we attended hospital Dr. Raúl Blanco Cervantes for our Public Engagement, we talked with doctors about our project. The questions they asked and the information they provided helped us improve our solution. One of their inquietudes was whether the lysis protein will produce an immunological response in the patients. Based on that, we are considering for further research to test our enzyme in cell lines which are generally used to simulate gut responses. Also, doctors asked us if our treatment could eventually be used in complement with actual antibiotic treatments. To which we investigated more and found out that our probiotic is resistant to vancomycin, currently used to treat C.difficile, so it is expected that they could work together.
Our meetings with doctors also helped us empathize more with our problem. It was important for us never to lose of mind that patients are the most relevant part of our project. By visiting the hospital isolation rooms for C.difficile patients and getting to know how are diagnostic and treatment methods carried out, it was easier for us to understand their needs and reaffirm the necessity of alternative methods, more effective and less disgusting, to treat this illness.
Video
References
Jackson, N., Czaplewski, L., & Piddock, L. J. (2018). Discovery and development of new antibacterial drugs: learning from experience?. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 73(6), 1452-1459.
O’Neill, J. (2014). Antimicrobial resistance. Tackling a Crisis for the Health and Wealth of Nations.
Tacconelli, E., Carrara, E., Savoldi, A., Harbarth, S., Mendelson, M., Monnet, D. L., ... & Ouellette, M. (2018). Discovery, research, and development of new antibiotics: the WHO priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and tuberculosis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 18(3), 318-327.
van Rijn, M., Haverkate, M., Achterberg, P., & Timen, A. (2019). The public uptake of information about antibiotic resistance in the Netherlands. Public Understanding of Science, 28(4), 486-503.