Team:KCL UK/Public Engagement

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JUDGING FORM ⇗

Public Engagement

Our public engagement plan

The large rift between the scientific realm and the general public is the result of a lack of successful communication between the two. This is caused by the difficult jargon that is unique to the sciences, particularly genetics, which can create a sense of fear and resentment towards certain topics, eg. genetically modified organisms (GMO’s). The problem is exacerbated by the inefficient explanation of scientific concepts by scientists themselves - a problem that we believe needs to be solved by our generation specifically. Our public engagement plan was built around the development of a solution for this problem and answers the question: how can we better communicate difficult biological concepts, such as the genetic modification of viruses, to the general public? Following our experience at the Bexley Grammar School, we felt that the best way to get others involved is by making the information engaging and interactive. Furthermore, we came to recognise that a large issue for those suffering with rare genetic diseases is the lack of information and resources available regarding their options. Consequently, we decided to carry out the following set of activities (click on them to find out more!):
To do so, we ventured away from our home in the heart of London city, across the green British fields and hilly pastures to spread the word of gene therapy! In this page we will take you through the events we joined and hosted as well as what we learnt and taught others along the way.

Bexley School Visit

The first stop on our journey was Bexley Grammar School, a prestigious secondary/sixth form college located in Welling, South-London with some of the highest achieving GCSE students in the country. Our aim here was to educate potential future synthetic biologists on the topic of synthetic biology using a range of interactive mediums. We first gave a presentation on who we were and a brief overview of what genetic engineering has done and is currently doing for the agricultural and medicinal industries. The team then divided the students and began their activities...

Abby and Jack wanted to teach the students about DNA profiling while placing emphasis on its importance within forensics so they created a murder mystery involving sets of DNA covered evidence alongside coroners notes which would inform the student investigators on what they had to analyse at a makeshift crime scene. The activities objective was to eliminate each of the five suspects until only one remained; the culprit of the murder. To eliminate a suspect the students had to collect and analyse the DNA from the evidence so that they could obtain its corresponding DNA profile which would allow a comparison to be made to the culprit’s DNA profile.

Christian and Dan created a game in which the students became ribosomes. A typical ribosome has the job of DNA translation within a cell and so the students had to produce protein chains from a pool of amino acid and anticodon complexes and an mRNA template. The ‘ribosomes’ were in a race against the clock and their peers to finish the protein and ensure that the sequence of amino acids were correct to claim their prize.

Steph’s activity got the students to build DNA molecules out of sweets. Strawberry cables acted as sugar phosphate backbones while marshmallows and gumdrops attached to toothpicks formed the base pairs and held the structures together.

Josephine and Megha wanted to get the students thinking about what they had previously learnt in their biology classes. Their activity used a range of seemingly random objects which the students had to relate to something within their GCSE biology syllabus.

After everybody had participated in all of the activities the team sat down with the students to have an ethical debate over the pros and cons of genetic engineering. Josephine mediated the discussion while the rest of the team sat amongst the students to help them back up their arguments. Our success at Bexley inspired some of the team to improve upon the design of their activities and make them available for other students to use.

What we gained from our experience at Bexley:

  1. Firstly, we saw that it is extremely important to get involved with kids from a young age, to help deter them from misconceptions that are present in society. We recognise that many of the school children were unaware that they had been misinformed, and working with younger children would also us to prevent the spread of misinformation earlier. From this, we decided to carry out further school visits and to create activities that are directed towards young children to teenagers.
  2. Secondly, we noticed that students engage to a large extent in debate and like to challenge their own and others’ beliefs. They responded well to in depth discussion. Thus, we wanted to continue to hold discussions that are casual yet profound. Thus, we decided that we would host discussion sessions and forums with various ages groups.
  3. Finally, we saw that the best way to get people involved and thinking about synthetic biology was to make the activities really hands-on and interactive, such as the building the DNA out of candy or interacting with different shapes. Thus, we decided to produce further more interactive activities that will stick with the individual who engages with them.

Creating resources about rare genetic diseases:

Mental Health and Well Being Guide

Rare genetic diseases are often overlooked due to the low incidence, however, there are around 400 million cases of rare genetic disease patients worldwide. Furthermore, 17 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year. It has been shown that cancer patients suffer depression and other forms of mental disorders much more often compared to the general population. Gene therapy, the focus of our project, is a developing technique that can target the disease-causing mutations, and thus, offer a cure for the above disorders. Additionally, our team decided to look into mental health issues of the potential target patients and create a guideline which would improve their psychological and physical health, thus contribute to a quicker recovery.

Our efforts reached approximately 415 people of the general public, the impact of these people sharing this information with their family and friends would also raise awareness for prenatal screening for genetic conditions.

Charter Promoting Prenatal Screening

Current measures to screen for rare genetic disorders include the newborn heel prick blood spot test, screening at birth allows for timely preparation and management of these conditions. However, the accuracy of these tests can vary with some positive results having only a 50% chance of being correct, 50% of these tests lead to false positive results. This can be devastating for families who may have been forced to make life altering decisions in response to the news. The current time to diagnose a rare genetic disorder is around 4 years during which they will see up to 5 different specialists and receive 3 different misdiagnoses.

A charter shared to screen newborns for rare genetic and undiagnosed conditions has been recently released by the non-profit Genetic Alliance with the all-party parliamentary group. This topic is very controversial, and we wanted to raise the publics awareness and entice them to engage more in this debate, so we created a poster summarizing the points taken from the proposal for the public to read and to get their attention to this topic.

Further School Visits:

Brighton College Visit:

Following our success at Bexley, we decided to carry out another school visit Brighton College, a co-educational boarding school located in Brighton, England. One of our members travelled south to work with sixth form students undertaking chemistry and biology. Although these students have already shown a keen interest in the biological sciences, we wanted to inspire them further with our research. By giving a presentation outlining our work and aims, we hoped to increase their understanding of synthetic biology, encourage them to pursue a career in this field, and hopefully spark their interest in iGEM. To measure the success of our talk, we took a poll at the beginning to determine the number of students with a preexisting interest in pursuing a degree in biochemistry, biomedical sciences, or bioengineering and compared them to the number of those who felt more inclined using a poll taken at the end of our talk.

The presentation Jack gave at the Brighton College school visit.

Invicta Grammar School Pre-Med Workshop:

In previous school visits, we worked with students who had varying degrees of interest in the biological and medical sciences. However, during our time at Invicta Grammar School, located in Kent, England, we worked with students who had already applied to medicine, biochemistry, or biomedical sciences. The aim of this experience was to help develop a national culture of understanding the social and ethical implications of genetics and medical research. One of our primary aims was to increase an awareness of biosecurity and how our research has the potential to be globally destructive. We used our knowledge from interviews with Dr Frances Butcher, researchers at the Evelina Children’s Hospital, and members of the Genetic Alliance UK to demonstrate how we can approach the delicate ethics involved in genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and treating patients with rare genetic diseases. To do so, we introduced and engaged the students in our findings of our literature review and mental health protocol for those with rare genetic diseases. Additionally, we presented some of the current ethical issues involved with genetics research, which we then used to initiate a debate at the end of the session. This allowed for students to develop and question their ideals, ultimately encouraging them to be critical and aware of the social implications of current research. Furthermore, we demonstrated how to research and engage oneself in contemporary affairs involving genetics, allowing the students to independently participate and involve themselves in the politics that affect not only research but the public as a whole.

Online Videos & Interactive Games:

"Introducing Capacity": Explaining Our Aims Online

To many the nature of the iGEM competition and the research carried out by iGEM teams is somewhat unclear. A lack of understanding has the potential to obstruct our progress as a team, especially considering we are working with viruses which many only associate with being ill. Thus, we decided to make a simple and clear video that illustrates our exact aims and lessens the stigma surrounding the viruses that we will be working with. We did by using an every day issue - being late to catch the train and not being able to fit your clothes inside your suitcase - to explain the current issue of capacity within gene therapy. Using simple illustrations, we aimed to reduce the poor reputation of viruses, demonstrating that they can be and are helpful to humanity. The protagonist of the video reaches a resolution, showing the audience that our project will help others.

"A Kid's Guide to Synthetic Biology": Making our project accessible for all ages

In addition to our initial video describing our purpose and aims, we decided to create a video that explains synthetic biology and genes in a kid-friendly way to further connect with and engage younger audiences. Following our Bexley School Visit, we recognised that many children and young adults already have misconceptions about genetics and genetic engineering. Thus, we decided that we would create a short, animated video that is narrated by children to make this content easily accessible and friendly for all ages.

Release of Online Game:

One of our primary public engagement aims was to get the younger generation involved. We thought a perfect way to do this was to create an interactive board game that takes our subject material and made it fun, competitive, and captivating. Thus, our team member Dan produced an online game that puts two teams - the immune system and the virus - against each other. As a part of our game development, we asked other teams to collaborate by playing the game and subsequently giving us feedback. The game consists of two teams: team virus and team immune system. Both teams have different objectives. Team virus must arrive to the cell at the end of the game, where they can insert their genome into it, and thus, ensure their survival. Team immune system must prevent that from happening, by destroying the virus before it will firmly establish itself into the host’s genome. Both team will have 1-2 players, and each turn, they will roll a die and move that many tiles. Team virus will win when they land on the final cell tile, or when there are no more immune cells left on the table. Team immune system will win when there are no viruses left on the table; either due to destroying them, or the viruses dying due to other causes (such as mutations).

Check out the video below for how to play, and play the game here!

Talks & Discussion Forums:

Funzig Talk:

We hosted an informal evening talk to engage with the public about genome sequencing, pre-natal testing and the potential of genetic sequencing for pre-natal testing, as well as if the UK should increase the amount of diseases tested for in the new born pin prick test. We introduced social and ethical issues that come into play when making these decisions and how they can affect peoples lives. Subsequently, we discussed the topic of pre-natal gene editing, discussing recent events in this field such as the CRISPR babies born in October 2018 in China, as well as the possible benefits of removing rare genetic diseases but also the drawbacks of doing so. We introduced the idea of pre-natal testing to encourage the public to think about where they stand on how many tests should be offered routinely. Genetic Alliance have launched a campaign and petition to raise awareness of the fact that Britain as one of the lowest number of pre-natal conditions being routinely tested for compared to other high income countries. As part of our human practises and public engagement we are raising awareness of this petition and encouraging the public to engage in such matters, either to support petitions or voice their concerns. Introducing the idea of Pre-natal testing to the audience allowed us to progress to introducing genome sequencing and the implication of sequencing the genomes of unborn or new born babies. The audience, a mixture of university students as well as members of the local community successfully engaged with the content and the team. The feedback after the talk was positive, with the audience saying they found the talk informative and thought- provoking.

Steph presenting her topic at the Funzig Talk!

Bake-Off & Discussion:

Our team members Steph and Avi are both very successful bakers, so we thought we would make the best of their talents and host a bake off modelled after The Great British Bake Off. We hosted this event at Great Dover Street Apartments, one of the many King’s accommodations, and engaged a variety of students of all year groups and fields. Steph and Avi made different desserts that were judged by the audience. While they were baking, we had a casual chat with the students about our project, looking to both inform and inspire. At the end, we sold our desserts to help with our funding.