Team:TU Darmstadt/Public Engagement
Public engagement
During the development of our project, when the topic of Virus-like particles (VLPs) emerged, we asked ourselves: How do we start our Human Practice approach? It was clear that people may think differently about our project than we do and that we have to consider their opinions. We were particularly interested in the impact our work with VLPs has on society. To get to know other points of view and to gain new ideas for our project we wanted to contact people who are outside of the "Science Bubble". By getting in contact with many different age groups with various levels of education about synthetic biology we wanted to generate a broad overview of different opinions. From this, we could gather some interesting ideas for making further progress on our project while simultaneously expanding the knowledge of those people. Our efforts should show society that most scientists try to act responsibly instead of generating possibly harmful tools. We want to increase the understanding for scientists in society and vice versa.
Hessentag
Together with the promotion program "ProLOEWE" we went to the annual "Hessentag" in Bad Hersfeld. "Hessentag" is a cultural festival in the
German state of Hesse where a lot of people gather. This allowed us to get an insight
into people’s opinions on synthetic biology and our project.
During our conversations, we noticed that synthetic biology is a term not everybody knows.
Moreover, even people who studied scientific subjects handle the topic with caution and it is
challenging to keep up with constant progress in research. Some people have fears about vast
genome manipulation and were for example interested in the use of antibiotic resistance and
how we prevent these antibiotics resistant bacteria from getting into the environment. When we
asked people about future applications for our VLPs they thought about clinical applications
like vaccinations or drug delivery.
We conclude that fears and rejection of synthetic biology often stem from a lack of education in this field.
And as scientists it is in our responsibility to communicate research in a way that is easy to
understand but still scientifically accurate to prevent misinformation and fears.
If you want to know more about our impressions of the "Hessentag", we encourage you to have a
look at our report.
Synthetic biology meets architecture
A big aspect of iGEM and also TU Darmstadt is the focus on interdisciplinary. We were happy to collaborate with architects from different working groups in Darmstadt. One project involved our team directly: One team members bother was inspired by our work and designed a house for two scientists that live and work together. He liked the idea of improving one’s own work by communicating with other people that might bring new and original ideas. Under the title of "inter living" he designed a house where each scientist has his own space for working and also big areas for exchange on a daily basis. We felt honored that our work inspired other people which is why we decided to improve our projects by working with other faculties as well. One PhD candidates from the "Digital Design Unit" of our university approached us after he overheard some team members talking about our project and wanted to know more about it. As their working group also works with modular systems based on variable building blocks, we thought it would be a great idea to visit their offices and tell them about our modular system. Just as we do, they want to establish a toolbox useable for all architects. Therefore, we chose to focus our collaboration on modularity and the similarities between their and our work. Further information on the details of the project and our collaborations can be found in the detailed report about our Human Practices work.
Inspired: Cell engineers teach real engineers
Interdisciplinarity is a big issue in the iGEM community. Therefore, we wanted to broaden our minds by working together with scientists from different fields of our university. With the motto: “cell engineers teach real engineers” we were supporting two groups of thirty people in their lab work. Each group consisted of mechanical engineers, material scientists and biologists. The comparison between the way of working as an engineer with machines and the way we work in our lab was very helpful. Both modes of operation follow a certain protocol but differ in the way of thinking. Biologists deconstruct existing biological machines and try to analyze their composition in a Top-Down manner, whereas engineers construct new parts by combining smaller ones going the other way of a Bottom-Up system. Engineers have another point of view when they think of the parts they are working with and then try to construct and optimize their machine based on their parts. Having an insight how other scientists are working and to talk with them about our project broadened our minds.
Education in schools
Education is the key for modern society and especially for science. It is important to start to educate young people as early as possible and to foster the new generation. Future scientists are now in school and we want to arouse their interest in our work. Therefore, we visited schools and also invited classes into our lab to share our knowledge and the experiences we made. Hoping to have an influence on them showing science is something reachable. A few years from now, they might have the opportunity to do their own research. At school we held presentations and discussed iGEM and synthetic biology in general. Often the first opinion that popped up was that synthetic biology might be dangerous and hardly controllable, even if it might be the future way to solve problems of our time. Concerns about synthetic biology arise when it becomes a tool with unpredictable consequences. We told the students that not only they must play by the rules, but we also follow strict rules to prevent abuse of science. Another topic that seemed strongly emphasized by the students was the issue of dual use of a modular platform like ours, "The Real MVP" which is accessible for everyone. Although they had many concerns about the topic of synthetic biology and its applications, in the end they agreed that it would be better to take these risks if our VLPs were able to cure life-threatening illnesses. These discussions gave us the impression that the younger generation is really interested in science and their curiosity is stronger than their fear. It showed us once again how important it is to talk about ethical questions and the responsibility that comes with working in science. For this reason, it is crucial to confront them with the necessity to reflect ethical issues and dangers of major breakthroughs. The more these issues are discussed early on, the better the young scientists will be prepared for their work. If you want to read more about the interesting exchange with young upcoming scientists please have a look at our report.
