Team:Lund/Public Engagement
Public Engagement
We in iGEM Lund wanted to educate the public about synthetic biology and our project and thought of the most efficient ways to do so. We also wanted to make sure we targeted a broad range of audiences, ranging from the youth to university students to the general public. We can happily say that we’ve done so, and that we’re proud to have contributed in spreading awareness about synthetic biology and science.
Summer-science-camp
In means to engage the youth in synthetic biology we collaborated with iGEM Stockholm. We conducted laborations and held lectures relating to synthetic biology and our project for students at a summer science camp.
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Articles
To engage university students we realized through peer investigation that articles was an efficient way to reach a broad audience. Throughout our project, we’ve been posting articles on our blog. The articles aim to educate other students on many aspects of synthetic biology and our project.
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Podcast
With podcast growing more and more popular amongst the youth but also the general public, we thought it would be a great platform to spread awareness about synthetic biology. We invited several iGEM-teams and other parties of interest to join and be a part of our project.
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Events we've attended
During the course of our project we attended the BioBrick event hosted by the BioBuilders (iGEM DTU) and the NiC conference hosted by iGEM Team Copenhagen.
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AstraZeneca Summer Science Camp
iGEM Lund collaborated with iGEM Stockholm in contacting and preparing a visit to Astrazeneca summer science camp. On the twenty fifth of June, two members of iGEM Lund team travelled to KTH, Stockholm with the Stockholm iGEM team to meet the students of the Astrazeneca science summer camp. The thought behind the collaboration is to engage the curious minds of teenage students in a fun and interactive way. Therefore, instead of giving them a cryptic lecture on synthetic biology, we had them conduct experiments on their own with our guidance and assistance. From performing transformations on bacteria to plating them and then testing their antibiotic resistance, the students tinkered with most of the basic tools and procedures one would find in a synthetic biology lab. After every experiment they performed, we demonstrated through a short talk how the science is applied in the real world and what they can do to further develop this field and help protect against antibiotic resistance as mere students. To wrap up our event, both teams Lund and Stockholm presented their iGEM project to the students and engaged with them through a Q&A where the students showcased great interest in the whole topic. Overall, it was a successful event where we managed to engage the youth in the field of synthetic biology.
Events we've attended
Biobrick Tutorial at DTU
In early April, the iGEM Lund team was invited to attend the BioBrick tutorial hosted by DTU in their Lyngby campus. The event was held at a time when most teams were still in their early tracks and hadn’t started any lab work. In turn, this incentivized the organizers to come up with very creative and engaging ideas. Ranging from seminars given by previous iGEM participants about their experiences to lab-work where inexperienced people got together with experienced ones from different teams and worked together on basic synthetic biology techniques. The schedule they planned out kept us excited and intrigued. All in all, the experience allowed every member from the Lund iGEM team to feel the sense of community that belongs to people working in the domain of synthetic biology. For members that had no clue what a grown colony of bacteria looks like, the carefully instructed program they planned out gave them close insight and grew their interest and curiosity. This is also where the cooperation between iGEM Lund and iGEM Copenhagen began.
Nordic iGEM Conference
Not long after the BioBrick tutorial, the Lund iGEM team revisited Copenhagen to participate in the Nordic iGEM Conference. We got to catch up with teams and people we had met in the previous event and share our progress with them. We were met with a welcoming attitude that furthered the sense of community we had experienced previously. In general, the event was aimed at teaching science communication and how to convey our findings as scientists to the general population. Every team presented their project idea and received constructive feedback from the judges and other participants. In addition to that, teams had prepared posters that captured the essence of their projects. Some of these posters were very aesthetically pleasing and memorable such as UCPH’s poster of their gum that tests fertility. During the weekend we had our first physical meeting with iGEM Stockholm and iGEM Copenhagen regarding our cooperation. We left Copenhagen after that weekend excited to meet these teams again and catch up on their progress as well as share ours with them.
Podcast
In today’s society we can see an ever increasing amount of people listening to podcasts. Since one can publish podcasts on a lot of different platforms, they are usually very easily accessible. This allows people to listen to whatever peaks their interest while they are walking, driving a car, or sitting on their couch at home. In other words, one can basically listen to a podcast whenever and wherever. This is exactly why we thought it would be a great idea to create our own podcast, where we could interview people from different iGEM teams. The podcast was mainly aimed for people interested in science, synthetic biology and iGEM in general, and by posting our episodes on both Youtube and Soundcloud, we thought that we would make it very accessible for anyone who would want to listen to it.
Each episode tackles both our team and other iGEM teams’ projects in addition to some experiences, insights, and general thoughts about iGEM. By including some discussion about personal experiences we thought the episodes would not only be entertaining for people interested in this field, but it would also be greatly beneficial for people who are considering joining an iGEM team and participate in this contest.
After we'd established a structure for our episodes, we started to contact different teams, and the teams we interviewed were iGEM team: Aalto-helsinki, Stockholm, UCopenhagen, UiOslo_Norway, WLC-Milwaukee, and also an internal interview with our own team, Lund.
iGEM Aalto-helsinki
In this episode, Hampus interviews Neja from iGEM Aalto-Helsinki. iGEM Aalto-Helsinki’s project, VibXPresso, aims to improve the efficacy of the production of recombinant proteins by secretion optimization and improving the protein expression of the next-generation synthetic biology chassis organism Vibrio natriegens.
iGEM Stockholm
In this episode, Hampus interviews Joost from iGEM Stockholm. iGEM Stockholm’s project is called Esther and its goal is to combat antibiotic resistance by improving phage therapy with the use of temperate phages. Phages, they think, offer a great alternative to antibiotics.
iGEM UCopenhagen
In this episode, Hampus interviews Jonas Hansen from the iGEM team of Copenhagen University. They are developing a novel ovulation detection system, called Ovulaid, using synthetic biology.
iGEM UIOslo_Norway
In this episode, Viktor Ekström interviews Marthe Ueland and Linnea Dahle from the iGEM team UiOslo. They are creating a system that can harvest energy from the sun by utilizing genetically modified Escherichia coli (E. coli).
iGEM WLC-Milwaukee
In this episode, Viktor Ekström interviews Alyssa Leitzke, Ben Bateman, and Laura Sanford from the iGEM team WLC-Milwaukee. They are not only working on a sensor for lead contamination in water, but also a filter to specifically remove lead from water.
iGEM Lund
In this episode, Viktor Ekström interviews Amr Ghazal from the team iGEM Lund 2019. Topics such as toxic metals in Lebanon and iGEM Lund's project this year is discussed.
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