Team:KUAS Korea/Public Engagement
Public Engagement & Outreach
Kuas spring open seminar
Popularization of synthetic biology has always been a major objective of iGEM. KUAS has(We have?) put much emphasis on this, as synthetic biology is still a relatively new and unknown field in Korea.
One of our efforts to achieve this is our annual SynBio seminar, held at Korea University. We sought to help undergraduate students get familiar with the term synthetic biology and show them how it can interact with the public in various ways. We also had a discussion on the public’s understanding of synthetic biology, and how we can help to improve the situation.
In the first part of our seminar, we introduced the concepts and core values of synthetic biology. We started with the idea of standardization and modularization, two key concepts of synthetic biology. Then we briefly went over the history of synthetic biology, and its current situation. We introduced some exemplary projects, including several iGEM projects.
That led us to the second part of our seminar, about iGEM and the Giant Jamboree. We shared experiences from our past Jamborees and what we had learned from them. The audience seemed to be particularly interested in the hardships of preparing and developing a project, and how we managed to overcome the difficulties.
Our final part was about the feelings and thoughts of the public on synthetic biology. The gap between those who have studied biology or other related fields and those without such backgrounds was surprisingly large. Many seemed to get their information on the matter from SNS or news articles, and the ones with the largest exposure tends to have negative tones on the matter. This emphasized the need of more educational materials, and the means to spread them.
To sum things up, we introduced synthetic biology to many students, and this will surely contribute to its propagation here in Korea. We also managed to gain many invaluable insights on how the public, or specifically college students thought about synthetic biology. It motivated us to redouble our efforts to reach out to the public.
High school education session in Jamshin high school
For the purpose of popularizing the concept of synthetic biology, our team opened a seminar in Jamshin high school. It was prepared precisely for the high school students who are talented or interested in studying biology.
Synthetic biology is not yet a widely recognized field in Korea, and not many students have heard of it before. This is problematic since high school years play a vital role in investigating and deciding one’s own majors and careers. Therefore, we wanted to give these students a chance to learn about another aspect of biology, and share some first-hand experience as to how this field actually is in a easy and fun way.
Figure 1. Giving a lecture about 'what is synthetic biology'
This seminar was divided into two sessions; lecture session and team project session. In lecture session, we provided information about basic concept of synthetic biology, explained what is iGEM and our team’s this year project, and did Q&As. Considering the audiences’ background knowledge and last year’s high school mentoring experience, we first explained key vocabularies of this field and mainly dealt with intriguing examples of synthetic biology in order to gain students’ interest. Also, we briefly explained what iGEM is, what is it for, and what kind of accomplishments have achieved there. Lastly, we introduced our team’s this year project and what can be expected if our idea comes ture. Additionally, for some students who wanted to get advices from college students, we did Q&As and mentoring, too.
The fun part was the team project session. After lecturing how synthetic biology works, we thought it could help more to understand materials if we provide students an opportunity to learn it by hands – letting them build their own creative genes which would solve individual or social problems.
Figure 2. Students having group discussion with KUAS memebers
We divided the class into several groups and placed at least one of our members in each group for advising and correcting critical errors. Each group was given examples of environmental/social/medical issues and several kinds of bio bricks. After brainstorming solutions, they made puzzle-shaped paper biobricks, and glued them in a line onto another paper, ‘recombining’ biobricks to build their genes. Lastly, they wrote down how it would give solutions, and give a short presentation to share the idea with other groups.
Figure 3. Students giving short presentation
To our surprise, the high school students were much more creative than we expected, figuring out inventive and even ‘iGEM worthy’ ideas. Through this session, they were able to learn what synthetic biology is in an interesting way, and experience how biological problem solving works. For us, it was an amazing opportunity to advertise ‘fun synthetic biology’. At the same time, we could take a look at some brilliant ideas that our team had never thought of.
Figure 4. A group photo of KUAS members and Jamshin high school students
STEPI
STEPI is a government-funded research institute that conducts research activities throughout the ST(science and technology) policy. This year, STEPI has decided to pick synthetic biology as their annual research topic and contacted KUAS to get opinions of college students who are currently working in the field. We had a meeting and talked about synthetic biology and why it needs investments on a government level.
Overall, the meeting was successful and STEPI funded to our project and gave us various opportunities by connecting KUAS with big biotechnology companies such as Biolab Seoul. Synthetic biology might not be a big deal right now, but with the help of STEPI and the Korean government, we believe that it has potentials to become one of the most widely researched science field in Korea. And KUAS takes pride in the fact that we took part in the process.
Figure 5. The first meeting with STEPI
Figure 6. The second meeting with STEPI
Biolab
After more than ten years of promoting synthetic biology, we reached the conclusion that an opportunity for future synthetic biologists to realize their dreams was essential to expand the base of synthetic biology here in Korea. This year’s KUAS sought to launch a community lab for this, and we were able to contact Fab Lab Seoul.
Fab Lab Seoul is a community-based workshop which specializes in digital fabrication and rapid prototyping using 3D printers, various machining tools and PCB printers. They had taken an interest in synthetic biology, and were feeling the need for a DIY (Do It Yourself) bio lab just like us. After two meeting sessions, we agreed to help them found a full-scale bio lab, co-working to set the necessary equipment and layouts of the lab and taking on the job of troubleshooting. We also agreed to cooperate on public engagement issues, preparing programs on synthetic biology with Fab Lab Seoul and carrying out research projects with future synthetic biologists.
Through this exchange, we gained a valuable ally on publicizing synthetic biology and starting a DIY bio grassroots movement in Korea, and will continue to collaborate with them to further these efforts.
Figure 7. Team meeting at the fablab office
Figure 8. KUAS team visiting Biolab Seoul
Homecoming Day
In 29th June, Korea University Association of Synthetic Biology (KUAS) invited seniors who participated in International Genetically Engineering Machine Competition (IGEM) since the founding of the club and had time to talk together. Asking various questions about the curious things that we had, we discussed the past footsteps of KUAS and the future direction of it. We had an opportunity to think deeply about our commitment to work hard with the pride of being the only undergraduate student for iGEM in our nation, recalling the purpose of the club, “Solving the issues of society through a synthetic biological point of view."In addition, we discussed publishing out experience of participating in iGEM.
Figure 9. Having a discussion with KUAS alumni
As the only undergraduate iGEM team in Korea, knowledge and information about participating in the competition are limited to KUAS, so the importance of publishing in terms of experience sharing emphasized again. Therefore, not only the purpose and direction of publishing, but also the explanation of project and review of seniors have discussed actively. Finally, we were able to get advices about future career by talking about the work and field of seniors. Based on this meeting, we could get various feedbacks and advices in related to our project and operation of the club, and we plan to further discuss the role of club practice.
Figure 10. Homecoming day group photo