Team:Thessaly/Public Engagement
During our project, we organized and participated in various activities with the goal to spread the word of Synthetic Biology, iGEM, and our project to society. On this page, we present the ways that we tried to achieve that, along with the feedback we received from the different communities.
Our Human Practices Thoughts
As a team, we understand the importance of communicating science to the public, especially when it comes to Synthetic Biology, a field that is meant to be built on society’s needs. Initially, in order to get an idea of how familiar people are with Synthetic Biology and iGEM, we conducted a survey that showed a lack of knowledge in both. For this reason, we wanted to incorporate public outreach in our project and tried to engage with as many members of our community as possible and receive feedback from various views outside the lab.
During this effort, we truly diversified the groups of people we reached to and promoted equality in learning with educational activities addressing refugee children and inmates receiving correctional education.
Outreach
In our effort to attract more members of our community to get to know Synthetic Biology, iGEM, and Odyssee, we decided to design our activities tailored to the general public’s preferable ways of engaging with something new.
It's Time to END TB!
The 24th of March was the World Tuberculosis Day for 2019. We seized this opportunity and organized an event at the central square of Larissa, Thessaly to inform the general public on the disease- how it can be caused, transmitted and treated- and on what iGEM competition is about.
Images 1 - 3. Our team interacting with the public and informing it about TB.
This event gave us the opportunity to interact with the local community which led us to understand that the majority is not informed on the current TB burden, believing is an eliminated disease. This confirmed the need for raising awareness, which was our initial goal, and we hope we have achieved it through our effort.
To make people feel that they became a part of our effort to contribute to the fight against TB, we brought a banner and let them make their own statement to “END TB”, in a creative way.
SynArt
To reach into our local community, we decided to organize a series of events that combine science with art: SynArt by iGEM Thessaly.
Besides the graphic designer, our team consists of members engaging with different art fields, something we decided to incorporate in our Human Practices. The merge of our two passions which are Synthetic Biology and Art resulted in “SynArt”.
When Art meets Tuberculosis
On May 5, we conducted the first “SynArt by iGEM Thessaly event” at the Thessalian Theatre to introduce the public to Synthetic Biology, the iGEM Competition, and Odyssee through our talk. Τhe people that attended our event had also the opportunity to learn and discuss about Tuberculosis through history, and watch the documentary "A breath of Life" ; A film about Tuberculosis and Love” concerning the first sanatorium in Greece that was located in Thessaly.
During our preparation for the event, we met with our PI, Dr. Gourgoulianis. He shared with us his experience from the sanatorium, together with a book he wrote concerning this matter, and an album about life there.
Images 4 – 6. Moments from the speeches and the music and cinematographic sessions of our event.
Migration from an artistic perspective
As our project concerns a defining and sensitive phenomenon of our times; migration; we wanted to receive feedback on how it affects the community in different aspects of human life. In collaboration with the Deputy Mayor of Culture and Science, Panagiotis Sapkas, we conducted an event at the Mill of Pappas, the cultural heritage museum of our city, and invited UNHCR and DRC representatives who intensely imprinted the refugee crisis. We followed by presenting “Odyssee”, a promising tool for improving access to healthcare.
Images 7 – 9. Talks about the migration issue in our country and the presentation of ODYSSEE.
People from different backgrounds that attended our event showed great interest in expressing their view concerning the issue of migration in our country and share ideas on what could be done to improve things.
To make local community see migration from an artistic point of view and understand the public health challenges and humanitarian needs faced by forcibly displaced populations, we included in our event a theatrical play and a photo exhibition reflecting these issues. Our fellow student at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology and Photo reporter Dimitris Kiriakopoulos provided us with photos from his gallery.
Images 10 – 11. Our exhibition contained photos from refugee camps including “Moria” and “Idomeni”, together with letters from children living there.
As three of our team members were at the University’s theatrical team before joining iGEM, we thought it would be a great idea to reach out to the students that are still on the team, and ask them to perform in our event. We firstly came in touch with an older member of the theatrical team, Klelia, who is still involved with acting, to lead and direct this effort.
Together with Klelia, we read many plays about migration. Under her direction, the performance that took place in our event was the result of improvisations based on the combination of these plays.
During the rehearsals, it was our pleasure to realize that by giving them the chance to be a part of this, we inspired them to perform art from a scientific project.
Images 12 - 13. Moments from the performance “My nationality is the color of the wind”, based on a combination of Visniec Matei’s plays and a workshop conducted for refugee children at temporary accommodation facilities in Athens and Patras, Greece.
Land of All- ODYSSEE through dance
“I took a chance to build a world of mine
A one-way ticket for another life
On a petrol stained sailboat”
A life filled with drama and hardship, until someone decides to take the first step in search of a better life. So, the others follow in a journey towards a better future, with companionship, turmoil, loss. A fight to save and be saved. Their only goal, the “Land of All”. All they need is a helping hand from the “other” side. – Note by the choreographer
The students of our University are really active when it comes to art and different ways of expression. The departments of Medicine and Biochemistry & Biotechnology have created a dance team since 2012. As some of our members were part of the team, we thought to communicate our project to the class of modern dance. Our goal was to inspire them to create a project based on the inspiration that led us to develop ODYSSEE.
Website
The fact that we are the first team from Thessaly participating in iGEM, along with the lack of knowledge on the competition in Greece, led us to create our website. This way, we wanted to invite more people to get to know us, read about the competition and our project and keep up with our progress. The feedback we got later showed us that, building a website that includes our project description, information on our team, as well as news on our activities was a great way to reach out to a wider audience.
Images 14 – 15. Our home and iGEM Competition pages.
In Greece, Synthetic Biology is not yet quite widespread even as far as the scientific community is concerned and, subsequently, iGEM is not really known either. In fact, the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the University of Thessaly is the only one in our country that has Synthetic Biology as an elective course at an undergraduate level.
Along with our need for feedback from scientists, we also aimed at spreading the word about Synthetic Biology and iGEM, popularizing our project, and interacting with the academic community. For these reasons, we organized events and conducted several talks at various institutes.
OmicEngine's annual meeting
OmicEngine is a Synthetic Biology infrastructure for which 8 Greek Universities have joined forces, bringing together Biochemists, Biotechnologists, Molecular Biologists, Chemists, Engineers, and Bioinformaticians, in order to promote Synthetic Biology research.
On November 21, Omic-Engine’s annual meeting took place at the Department of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Greece. We participated with a talk introducing iGEM Competition and our team to scientists from labs all around Greece. We received feedback and advice on how to work for a scientific project.
Image 16. Our project leaders presenting iGEM Thessaly’s vision.
Panhellenic Conference of the Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
We got our first opportunity to present iGEM Competition and our team at a conference on November 23, when the 69th National Conference of the Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology took place.
By participating in the conference, we wanted to popularize iGEM competition to the scientific community as well as to the students attending. So, we conducted a talk presenting the competition and making our participation in it known. We didn’t stay at the talk though; we also distributed brochures containing information on iGEM and iGEM Thessaly 2019 and made a questionnaire to find out the view of the scientific community on Synthetic Biology and it’s opinion on problems that plague modern society and need an immediate solution.
Image 17. Short speech regarding the competition and the formation of our team.
There, Alkmini Kalousi, Post-doctoral fellow, Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genome Integrity, IGBMC, reached to us wanting to find out about our effort. Being a former student at the University of Thessaly, she was impressed by our initiative and after talking with us she presented our effort during her talk at the Round Table: Career Session. She pointed out the opportunities and skills that someone our age can gain by participating in the iGEM Competition and recommended it as a way to explore fields beyond the University’s educational program.
Project Reveal
On March 27th, our team presented its complete research proposal for the competition at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the University of Thessaly. Many professors and students attended the event in order to learn about our progress and future goals and also share with us their views and observations on our work. During this event, we received important feedback on our design together with useful comments about our project’s impact on society from our professors as well as our fellow students.
Images 18 - 20. The first time presenting our idea to our scientific peers and professors, with the support of our PIs.
First SynBio Conference in Cyprus
The first SynBio Conference in Cyprus was co-organized by iGEM, the University of Nicosia, the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, the Institute of Neurology and Genetics and the European University of Cyprus on the 29th and 30th of March, 2019.
We were invited by the European iGEM Ambassador Thea Chrysostomou to present our project to leading scientists in the field of Synthetic Biology and iGEMers that had participated in the competition before. We found it important to point out the significant increase of Greek teams participating this year and urge the formation of the first iGEM Cyprus in 2020. The communication of our project led to valuable feedback on our design and interesting points of view concerning its ethical aspect.
Images 21 - 22. Representing our team at Cyprus among important people of the iGEM and Synthetic Biology world.
Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens
On April 3, we interacted with the research teams at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA). Our talk on iGEM and our project sparked new scientific curiosity leading to a fruitful discussion about our design, as well as about social justice and public values.
The excitement and interest shown by the scientists at the BRFAA were surprising and led them to keep in touch throughout our effort while urging their young scientists to look into iGEM competition and it’s potential.
Images 23 - 25. Our interaction with scientists of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens.
Talk at the Pulmonology Clinic
One of our PIs, Konstantinos Gourgoulianis, is the head of the Pulmonology Clinic of the University of Thessaly. He, together with a few doctors from the clinic attended our “Project Reveal” event and so, they got the opportunity to become familiar with the iGEM competition as well as with our project. However, we wanted to reach out to everyone in the clinic, so we arranged a talk at their last meeting before summer where we elaborated on Synthetic Biology, iGEM, and our project design and Human Practices as the doctors of the clinic showed great interest in finding ways to fight Tuberculosis and provide healthcare to refugees.
Images 26. Our presentation at the General University Hospital of Larissa, Thessaly.
As a team, we had the vision to take a step towards bridging the gap between innovative research projects and industry. To achieve that, we reached out to medical companies and facilities supporting entrepreneurship.
Introducing ODYSSEE to the pharmaceutical company Novartis
Our first interaction with the company was about them getting to know us. We initially met with Natassa Chatziprimou, External Communications & Patient Relations Manager GenMed, Novartis Hellas and Panayiotis Batziolas, Senior Brand Manager Rheumatology, Novartis Hellas. After our discussion, they decided they could support our effort financially and we then talked about communicating our project at their monthly meeting, when the whole company’s personnel comes together.
We introduced everyone to iGEM and how it allows incorporating Synthetic Biology in projects aiming at solving crucial problems that our society encounters these days. The excitement about both the competition and our project ODYSSEE was in a great way surprising. The company’s staff found our project a great effort to offer a solution to healthcare providers. They commented that ODYSSEE has great potential for contributing to their goal, which is to bring innovative medicine tools to the market to enhance health outcomes for patients.
Joining the world of entrepreneurship
As a team, we made it our goal to do our best to integrate our project into the community it impacts. For this reason, we developed a product design and a business plan. This way, we can propose an applicable solution to the problem we decided to address.
In our effort to consult and get advice from experts in this field, we reached out to the Entrepreneurship Supporting Facility “Corallia”. The Pulmonology Clinic of the University of Thessaly hosted a meeting and invited some very important people from the entrepreneurship world. The purpose of the meeting was to hear innovative ideas and discuss ways to value them properly in terms of business.
Our team, after talking about Synthetic Biology and the competition, presented ODYSSEE and analyzed the product design and market analysis. We received positive feedback on our project and were encouraged to continue working on our initiative. Jorge-A. Sanchez, Ph.D., MPM, Dipl. Ing Chief Strategy and Financial Officer pointed out that, the fact that we are an interdisciplinary team contributed a lot to making our proposal complete and promising.
Images 27 - 29. Presentation of our product design, following Jorge Sanchez’s enlightening talk.
One of our goals throughout the past year was to inspire students with the opportunities that Synthetic Biology can offer to solve global problems. For this reason, we created two games and a workshop addressing junior and high school students.
On March 6, 7 and 8, the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the University of Thessaly organized the “Open Days 2019”. During this event, students had the opportunity to explore different scientific fields. We participated in this with a game and a Synthetic Biology workshop addressing 270 students.
Bringing the pieces of life together
To spark the interest in Synthetic Biology and enable students to observe real-world applications of this field, we built a game based on something we all have played as children, a puzzle. The students were asked to combine in the right way DNA pieces and perform "transformations" in microorganisms. In this way, we wanted for them to understand that, by using synthetic biology they are able to engineer biological systems and cells at a genetic level to solve specific problems of our world and at the same time to see the unique opportunities that iGEM competition offers to its participants.
Images 30 - 31. Students playing “Bringing the pieces of life together” at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly.
We also played this game at an evening dedicated to High School students' summer break that took place at one of Larissa’s central squares. The event intended to motivate students to be creative and participate in extracurricular activities. We gladly became part of this effort and carried “Bringing the pieces of life together.” out
The feedback and ideas we heard from students were surprisingly inspiring and innovative, so we hope we have sowed the seed for the next generation of iGEMers.
Images 32 - 33. Our game installed at the Larissa square for students.
"CRISPR/Cas9; The molecular scissors of the DNA”- a Synthetic Biology workshop
During the “Open Days 2019” event, we also conducted a workshop for high school students giving them the chance to handle a key tool of Synthetic Biology, the CRISPR/Cas9 System.
From our experience as students, we know that at this age we are not exposed to as many fields and existing knowledge as we would like to. For this reason, we wanted to let the upcoming generation of possible scientists witness a real-world application of Synthetic Biology.
For about one hour, we talked to them about this rapidly evolving field, presented them with a local problem of our country that is crucial in agriculture, and finally let them design a solution using the CRISPR/Cas9 system.
Images 34 - 35. High school students participating in our SynBio workshop.
“Won’t the use of this tool that saves the olive tree lead to the elimination of a species after releasing modified Bactrocera oleae to the environment?”
Images 36. High school students solving the biological question we raised.
With this workshop, we observed the unique two- way dialogue experience happening when you communicate science. Students expressed their ideas on alternative solutions and raised important questions on bioethical issues and public values. We hope to inspire other iGEM teams to put students into the position of trying to propose a solution to a local problem utilizing the principles of Synthetic Biology.
SYNvivor: the ultimate SynBio battle
On April 2, 3 and 4, we participated in the Athens Science Festival, a festival devoted to Science and Innovation, organized annually by the educational organization “Science Communication – SciCo”, the British Council, the Technopolis of the City of Athens, the Onassis Foundation Scholars’ Association, and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology.
Images 37 - 38. SYNnvivor installed at “Technopolis” in Athens, with the kids competing to its final station for the win.
To motivate high school students to find out interactively that Synthetic Biology is a multidisciplinary field, we designed SYNvivor. We were inspired by the very popular television show “Survivor” after we realized it has a great influence on kids, who get really passionate about it. In order to be the first to achieve the transformation of a microorganism, each team had to pass 3 stations using their knowledge on both mathematics and biology. After playing SYNvivor, students realized the importance of collaboration between people with different skills, in order to achieve the goal of giving new traits to an organism, which is an opportunity that Synthetic Biology gives you.
Images 39 - 41. SYNvivor's different stations.
Scientific Congress of Hellenic Medical Students
On May 10, the 25th Scientific Congress of Hellenic Medical Students was held, at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall. Our team, in collaborationwith iGEM Athens 2019 and iGEM Thessaloniki 2019, presented different aspects of Synthetic Biology and the competition to medicine students.
Our talk, specifically, was about innovative tools that are widely used in Synthetic Biology to help face the challenges of modern society. The audience showed remarkable interest in the science behind Synthetic Biology and in iGEM’s values.
Images 42 - 44. Our head of Human Practices elaborating on innovative tools together with our fellow Greek iGEMers.
We often take things for granted in our life; education is one of them. However, through our project, we got to see that there are vulnerable groups of people amongst us that are not equally offered the opportunities we do. In an effort to change that, we decided to introduce our science to refugee children and imprisoned people who are provided with correctional education.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 3.7 million refugee children are out of a school, more than half of all refugee children. UNHCR’s data also showed that only 24% of refugee adolescents attend secondary school compared to 84% globally.
Images 45 - 46. Statistics on education opportunities for refugee children.
Open Days at the Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology
In collaboration with the Danish Refugee School, Greece, another “Open Days” was organized on April 10. Our team participated again giving the opportunity to about 30 refugee children from the temporary accommodation centre “Koutsoxero” to play the game “Bringing the pieces of life together” and engage with the learning process. The children became familiar with the impressive world of Synthetic Biology and identified their potential and skills.
Images 47 - 49. Our activities with children from the accommodation center “Koutsoxero”.
During this event, we also demonstrateδ a DNA extraction from banana to inmates that are provided with correctional education from the "Second Chance" School at Larissa via Skype. Their enthusiasm for Biology was surprising; they participated by raising questions on techniques used for processing DNA. They were particularly interested in the techniques used for DNA identification in forensic sciences.
Images 50 - 51. Live broadcasting the DNA extraction experiment for correctional education purposes.
Activities at the Accommodation Facility "Ayia Eleni"
In early October, we came in touch with the stakeholder INTERSOS for a visit at their Accommodation Facility regarding our Integrated Human Practices. During our conversation with the Facility Manager, though, we proposed to combine the presentation of our project there with activities for the children.
We prepared 3 different activities depending on the children’s age range; DNA extraction from bananas, microorganism transmission through handshaking, and our game “Bringing the pieces of life together”.
We played with approximately 30 children that day. With the first 2 games, younger kids had the opportunity to see the DNA with a naked eye and to observe the growth of yeast.
Through the DNA extraction experiment, the children got to learn about DNA traits such us the fact that it is a water-soluble molecule, negatively charged. They also understood, among other things, that the DNA exists in banana’s cells and the use of dish soap can break their membrane and allow for it to be extracted.
For the second experiment, the kids were divided into groups of 4 with the purpose to discover the “guilty” person; responsible for transmitting pathogenic microorganisms. In reality, we used yeast with which we covered candies that the children had to touch. Then, the plates were streaked with a paper and the next couple of days it would be obvious at which plates there was yeast growth.
Finally, we played our puzzle “Bringing the pieces of life together” with the older kids with the purpose to show them the possibilities new scientific fields like Synthetic Biology can offer, in terms of building new biological systems.
According to the facility's regulations, we weren't allowed to take any pictures during the activities with the children.
Self-Education & Media
Alongside the opportunity that we were given by the competition to communicate our project and synthetic biology to the public, we also tried to engage with people with different backgrounds. We attended various events to educate ourselves in areas and issues we hadn’t met before, including Bioethics and Science Communication.
"Human Rights and Refugees" meeting, organized by the Bar Association of Larissa
"Communication of Science" seminar organized by the MSc "Applications of Molecular Biology - Genetics" of the Dept. Biochemistry & Biotechnology, University of Thessaly.
Bioethics Meeting at the Mill of Pappas, Larissa
“Synthetic/ Syn- ethics in Biology”- Dr. Oikonomidis, Research and Innovation Department, RTD, European Commission
“Models, databases and computational methods for Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Complex Metabolic Networks”- Dr. Hatzimanikatis, Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology (LCSB), École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
“Following the paths of RNA silencing”- Dr. Kalantidis, Department of Biology, University of Crete, Greece
“Understanding and expanding the cyanobacterial potential in biotechnology”- Dr. Vavitsas, Queensland University, Australia
Straight up, we are on air! Our effort to become known to our city as well as to the whole country was boosted by interviews and articles published about our work on television, radio, and the press.
Taxidromos Newspaper
“Students with a vision in Synthetic Biology”
Pagasitikos News
“iGEM Thessaly is created in Larissa.”
EuSynBioS blog
“OdysSEE: a modular platform for field diagnosis of Tuberculosis”
Protothema
“From Volos to Boston”
Lamia Now
“From Volos to Boston / A team of students at an international competition.”
PalmosEv.gr
“iGEM Thessaly: The first team from the University of Thessaly is preparing for the Global Synthetic Biology competition.”
National Broadcaster ERT
“Student’s event for awareness on Tuberculosis at Larissa’s central square.”
“SynArt by iGEM Thessaly: Students inform the public about Tuberculosis through art.”
“Migration from an artistic perspective.”
“Preparing for the Synthetic Biology Competition called iGEM”
Radiotileorasi ERT
“Students from the University of Thessaly in iGEM 2019”
Eleftheria Newspaper
“The meet up of all the Greek iGEM Teams took place at the city of Larissa on 12 – 14 July.”
EuSynBioS blog
“First Meet Up of the Greek iGEM teams”
Popaganda
“iGEM Thessaly: On the road to MIT”
Television Interviews at the National Broadcaster ERT
Television Interview at Thessalia TV
Radio Interview at Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency
