iGEM German Meetup: Panel discussion
A big attraction for our iGEM German Meetup was the panel discussion with the topic “Ethics or Success”. The discussion took place on the fifth of July and was available for the registered iGEM teams and also for the public.
We invited five experts to hold the panel discussion. Our first guest was Dr. Mark Benecke, who was able to combine the topic of this discussion with his work as a forensic scientist. He is also Chairman of “die PARTEI” (the party) in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and so he could show the audience the view of the politics about the topic Synthetic Biology and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). He is as well dedicated in animal welfare and ethics and tries to disprove untrue scientific claims with facts.
Additionally, we invited Dr. Lutz Schmitt from the institute for Biochemistry and Dr. Matias Zurbriggen from the Institute for Synthetic Biology to show the scientific part of the discussion. They were also able to show how ethics and success can be combined and used for a better world.
From the institute of Philosophy, we invited Dr. Amrei Bahr, who was able to present the importance of ethical discussion in the natural sciences, but also pointed out the positive impact of Synthetic Biology for the future.
Finally, Susanne Günther joined our panel discussion. She is an expert for agriculture and has studied philosophy. For the discussion she was a great completion for questions like how GMOs can be used for the food production and which complications we have to overcome.
As moderator, Dr. Peter Westhoff, the prorector for research and transfer at the Heinrich-Heine university kindly led the discussion. Since 2013, he is a member of the “Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften (Leopoldina)” (national academy of science) and guides politics, society and economy for scientific questions.
The main part of the discussion was very interactive and after a short introductory discussion among the panelists, the majority of questions for the panel discussion came from the audience. Focal points were the possibilities and risks of the CRISPR/Cas system, the problems of the education in Germany and how big companies can utilize their position in the economy. This panel discussion was intensive for the experts, because of the great number of guests they did not get any break from the questions.
All in all, the panel discussion was a big success and we could see that the topic, which is relevant for every person and not only for scientists, need to be discussed even more intense to make the public aware of it. We are also happy to report that beside the iGEM teams, many other students from our University joined the discussion and brought many questions with them.
Education series
Another aspect of the iGEM competition is the category “education and public engagement” in “Human Practice”, in which teams look beyond the horizon of scientific aspects and discuss synthetic biology and their project with the public.
Ninth graders
First, we visited a ninth grade of a secondary school. We started the day with a discussion about the “non-GMO/GMO-free” label and asked the kids if they are familiar with it and whether they know what it stands for.
Surprisingly, a lot of kids were open minded towards products that are not labeled, but a few were unsure about the safety of those. With the discussion started, we began a presentation about synthetic biology to explain and discuss the negative and positive aspects of GMOs. Afterwards, we introduced our SynMylk project and the iGEM competition. The children were highly interested to hear about such a big, international competition and one boy even told us that he wants to compete later on in his career.
After a nice chat with all of the pupils, we started easy experiments, which the kids were able to do on their own. The first experiment was the isolation of DNA from tomato or banana. Most of the children were utterly curious about the used materials, even about the simple snap cap tubes "Eppis", which is a common nickname for Eppendorf microcentrifuge tubes used in Germany.
The second experiment was the extraction of phycocyanin from cyanobacteria. In contrast to the very well done previous experiment, this one did not work, because of high temperatures on this summer day. It was so hot, that the children were dismissed early after a group photo because of excessively hot weather (Fig. 2).
All in all, we are confident that all of these kids have a more positive opinion about synthetic biology, GMO's and products that are not labelled as GMO-free after this day. It was an amazing feeling to have such an impact on children and we are also confident that we have recruited future iGEMers.
After teaching the ninth graders, we met an Anna foundation youth group. Members in this group are struggling with life and have not attended school for years and are therefore more or less educationally alienated. Because of this, we wanted to show them the beauty of science, too. We wanted to show them further perspectives and opportunities for their future as well.
We started with an introductory presentation in which we explained synthetic biology and the related genetic engineering. With everyday examples, we explained that genetically modified organisms can be found in many places, such as in the production of citric acid, which is used for the glaze on lemon cake. Many of them were very surprised by this fact. Other fascinating examples included detergents, cash and insulin; products that contribute greatly to our well-being. After the brief introduction to the world of synthetic biology, there was a small round of questions and lively discussions about genetic engineering and genetically modified organisms.
Using simplified experiments such as DNA isolation from tomatoes and bananas and thin-layer chromatography, we then tried to give the young people an understanding of the practical part of the scientific work.
What turned out to be a complete success was the great interest and enthusiasm of all participants. After a very productive day a girl informed herself about a possible education or study in the field of biology. We are very happy that we were able to attract the interest of the young people with synthetic biology and that we might have won an interested person for the next generation of researchers.
SynMylk at the CEPLAS Friday
The Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) is a joint effort by the universities of Düsseldorf, Cologne, the Max-Planck-Institute in Cologne, and the research center Jülich. CEPLAS creates a support structure for research that helps to gain knowledge about plants, plant metabolism and related fields and supports these researchers with many resources and connections to other labs.
One Friday each month, all CEPLAS researchers are invited to one of the four participating places to speak about various topics, to exchange ideas and hear about progress that research groups have made. Our team was invited to speak at the CEPLAS Friday which took place in Düsseldorf on the 28.06.2019.
Two of our members presented SynMylk to approximately 50 CEPLAS members from research groups in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Jülich. We received feedback on our chosen methods as well as the public perception of a food product being made using genetic engineering. We met a researcher in the field of lipid and fatty acid production and purification who offered her support whenever we needed assistance with these steps, which is a great help considering the complexity of the topic.
Overall the feedback from the audience was very positive. We managed to demonstrate the impact of dairy farming on the environment and the urgent need for a solution that does not involve animals. There was a strong opinion from some audience members that dairy in general is so wasteful that no one should consume it. In their opinion, restrictions should be placed on the industry or consumers to limit the impact of dairy farming.
We created our project to replace cow’s milk, so we do agree that natural dairy is a wasteful product. However, we believe that our vision of creating an alternative is a better solution than restrictions on dairy, since there is a great demand for dairy that will not disappear any time soon.
Art Exhibition – Collaboration with Bielefeld
“Was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält” (translated: “Whatever holds the world together in its inmost folds”) was the theme for the art exhibition we organized with the iGEM Team CeBiTec Bielefeld at the Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf after they got in touch with us and suggested a collaboration like this.
A few weeks before the event took place, we had a meeting with Damian Mallepree, the curator of the art exhibition to prepare and discuss our project. We talked about the Faust-Labor. It is an exhibition about Goethe’s Faust in all its facets. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a famous German author who lived from 1749 to 1832. The book “Faust” is one of his well-known creations. It is about a scientist named Faust, who searches for the meaning of life.
For the art exhibition related we created exhibits to the history of synthetic biology and the modern laboratory and merged Goethe's concept of the homunculus with our project ideas in the iGEM competition. The homunculus is an imitation of a human out of organic material. Goethe was convinced of the existence of a “lifeblood” which is in all creatures to divide organic and mineral material. The theme of the homunculus is combined with the idea of a successful natural sciences.
With this possibility, we wanted to link synthetic biology with lyricism, by merging both subjects together, to engage people with an interest in poetry and art rather than science. Synthetic biology has a long history which can also be seen in features of Goethe´s stories. His interests in natural sciences influenced his writing. Nowadays, the idea of a synthetic life is still present in the search of the minimal organism as part of synthetic biology.
We started to plan this collaboration early to create a successful art exhibition. On the 18th of May, we met with the curator of the museum Damian Mallepree and members of the iGEM Team CeBiTec Bielefeld. Damian welcomed us with drinks and snacks and together with CeBiTec, we started to brainstorm what exactly we want to show to the visitors. The basic framework was formed and the project took shape. It was interesting to see what exactly Damian, as someone who does not have a connection to biology and the everyday lab work and we, as future scientists with no great knowledge about lyricism, imagined for the art exhibition. But still, this kind of confrontation was our goal. On the one hand, to reach a lot of people, with no connection to biology as it first seemed to be. On the other hand, to learn from other people about non-scientific issues, which can be affected by genetic engineering.
This exhibition was an amazing possibility to connect to people outside the laboratory and create a collaboration which can be developed in the future for future teams.
Night of science
As the introduction of our product will likely affect the consumers daily life, their opinions and concerns are very important to us.
To get some personal feedback on our project, we teamed up with the Cluster of Excellence in Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) and participated in our city’s night of science where the major institutions of the university display what they are researching and working on.
Our booth was at the area “medicine and nutrition” where we displayed genetically modified crops and their products, like sweets containing corn syrup from modified corn. Additionally we were also able to present our survey on consumer behavior towards milk and aspects relating to the environment.
While we communicated that genetically modified organism (GMOs) are very valuable to mankind, we patiently listened to the people’s concerns and answered their questions about GMOs and our project. We believe, that It is of utmost importance that every scientist participates in these personal conversations, because they deliver more trust to people than an article ever could.
We concluded the two most frequent questions and adjusted how we communicate our project about those, so that these questions do not come up anymore. Firstly, we realized that the term “synthetic milk” may be misleading and that we therefore need to clarify earlier that not only the components are the same but the whole taste and the handling is. Secondly, it is important when communicating with non-scientists, that after mentioning the word “microorganism” it needs to be followed by a short sentence explaining that they’re harmless and already involved in our daily life.
#DüsseldorfTalksFuture
As our team believes that it is our task to represent the field of science, and to inform about climate change, in the broad public we hosted an interactive symposium that drew attention to innovative research in our region.
Named “#DüsseldorfTalksFuture” it gave five groups, including us, the unique chance to present their innovative work to the citizens of Düsseldorf. Talks were given about networking and ethics in science, the future production of peptides, innovative farming of marine animals and the production of synthetic milk.
With provided beverages in the best event location possible, the “house of university” in the city centre, people enjoyed the talks and could directly ask questions via a live Q&A tool. After the symposium, the groups and visitors had the chance to connect in the foyer to discuss the presented topics and to get in touch with each other. We hope the event lead to good connections for the future and brought science closer to the people.
March for Science
4th May 2019: We saved the date! Every year hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are marching for free, independent and unrepressed scientific research. The march of Science is an important event to communicate scientific issues in public and to reduce fears through clarification and transparency.
We met at the Domplatte at 12.00 and marched together to the Rudolfsplatz. There were a variety of speeches and talks of journalists, scientists, climate activists and more.
This year climate change was a main topic because of the present Friday For Future Movement. One of the main messages was that political issues should be solved with facts and evidence and not with emotion. Ranga Yogeshwar (Science Journalist), who also talked on stage thinks that also Science has to be more open to the public. We felt more convinced of our own iGEM-project “SynMylk”, the reduction of greenhouse gases with it and “SynMylk” as a product for the public.
