Team:IISER Kolkata/Public Engagement

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Engagement

Street play

Our interaction with the residents of Dalaipur village in the Nadia district of West Bengal, was an eye-opener for us. After discussing with them at length, we identified the specific points that we needed to tackle, in order to help them understand the exact implications of this disease. And that was when we realised that there is no better and more engaging way to communicate, than via a play! The concept of street plays is deeply rooted in Indian culture, where they are known as ‘nukkad naatak’, literally translating to ‘street corner plays’.

Our naatak targeted three information points that we identified as necessary to convey - sanitation for prevention, recognition of symptoms and technical features of the disease.

The first act of our play revolved around sanitation. The Leishmania parasite thrives in open sewers, clogged gutters, animal faeces and cracks in brick walls, such as those of village houses, and though it prefers a humid environment, is able to breed in a wide range of conditions. The act demonstrated the importance of preventing this breeding, and the consequences of negligence.

In our second act, we tried to help them recognise the presence and symptoms of leishmaniasis. They were told about the appearance of the sandfly, and the times of day and seasons of breeding. Early detection is crucial to prevent full-blown disease. A fever of over a week, weight loss, abdominal swelling or pain and skin darkening were some of the markers they were urged to look out for. We tried to stress how PKDL and its rash-like symptoms are very often ignored, and can cause an outbreak in the village if left untreated. And through the play, we also informed them of the nearest health centres they could visit.

The residents of the village gave great feedback about the play, and even let us know that the interaction had made a significant impact on them. This was all we needed to make the effort worth it.

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Educational engagement

The concept of synthetic biology and genetic engineering is almost alien to most individuals that are not from a science background or professionally involved with these fields. With the emerging applications of genetic engineering in areas such as medicine, environment and food, the field is still steeped in secrecy as to the details of the technology, making people not only wary of any new developments, but also ill-equipped to make policy decisions regarding such issues.

Being products of our educational system, we realised that the information we were provided about gene modification while studying was primarily theoretical, and we were never pushed to truly understand its potential and implications, local as well as global. And yet it is so essential that the new generation, who will make decisions for our future, are informed today about the consequences of this technology. Students need to be equipped such that they can slowly build responsible opinions about these emerging concepts, so that when the time comes, they can help make rational, conscientious and effective decisions that will better society.

And so, early in July 2019, the team visited a local high school, Kalyani Central Model School, to conduct a workshop on the basics of genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Our goal was to give them an unbiased, informative view of the global implications of genetic engineering today. We began right from the origin of life and transitioned to the world of GMOs, using an interactive activity-based approach to help them understand the essential concepts as well as the real-world applications.

But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And so, after the workshop, we had an interactive team game where they implemented the concepts of genetic modification that they had learnt during the talk, to solve engaging and application-based problems. The students themselves created new genetic circuits by selecting and rearranging the ‘parts’ that we provided, in an attempt to solve several interesting, real-world scenarios.

We ended with an informal session where we explained the vision of iGEM, and how students such as them could participate in iGEM as well! Our team of twelve then attempted to answer their torrent of questions about topics ranging from basic sciences studies in India, to iGEM, to the relevance of GMOs today. And their questions and opinions are still coming in till date!

The students' enthusiastic participation was overwhelming, and it was amazing to see them grasp the concepts so quickly. We were elated to hear their feedback, and know that some of them had been inspired to consider genetic engineering as a career option!

We also conducted a short activity, where we helped them understand how to handle bacteria, from inoculation to disposal, safely and responsibly. We left a fun souvenir for each team of students - a plate of genetically modified red bacteria that they plated themselves.

For us, the cherry on top was when we overheard one of the students exit the room and gush to her friends, "That was so cool!"

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Campus radio

Our campus is situated in a district called Nadia, in the state of West Bengal in India. Incidentally, this is also a hotspot of Kala Azar. And yet, according to the data obtained from our survey of the residents of the IISER-Kolkata campus, very few students were aware that they were living in an area with a significant risk of Kala Azar! We realised that a part of our responsibility was to share with the people around us, the knowledge that we have gained over the course of our project.

An exciting solution that we found for this, was to collaborate with the IISER-Kolkata Campus Radio to organise a radio interview! This was a great chance for us to connect with the residents of our campus, and help make iGEM and the concepts surrounding it, more familiar to them. With Yogesh from Campus Radio interviewing Sumit and Aniruddh from our team, the discussion began with what the long-term vision of iGEM is about, followed by an account of our journey as a team. We were finally able to communicate what the significance of our project is with reference to therapeutics globally, and tried to provide a ground-level view of the realities of Kala Azar in our country. Not only did this give us a chance to explain the details of the disease and the importance of preventing it, but also allowed us to involve people in our project by talking about our motivation, the rationale behind our approach, and our journey over the past six months.

We felt that this was a small step in making our work more inclusive, while also making sure that we as researchers are aware of the ground realities of our surroundings, and try to shape our research in a direction that can contribute to society, in the short or the long term.