Questionnaire surveys have made us realize that the public is still concerned about arsenic pollution. Only little is known about synthetic biology. However, there is great expectation that we can use synthetic biology to make a convenient, low-price biological device for detecting and adsorbing arsenic. These prompted us to give more publicity to the public about popular science synthetic biology and our projects, and to have more positive impact on society.
On July 23, our team's Houang Yiming and Xutianli students carried out a public lecture with our project to a large pair of biologically interested students at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. We introduced the hazards of arsenic and the highlights of our project. And share what synthetic biology is. We also had a full discussion and knowledge sharing. Both we and the other side have benefited a lot.
On September 24, our XHD-WS-Wuhan-A team Li Yanchen and Huang Kexin and XHD-WS-Wuhan-B team Luo Xiangsheng and Zhang Rongli, WSWH team Huang Yiming and Wang Sijia gave joint public lectures in Wuwaiying.
The lecture first introduced the basic concepts and experiments of synthetic biology and the contents of iGEM competition. Then it introduced the items of three teams, namely, the detection and treatment of arsenic contamination in Wuhan United Team, the early diagnosis of XHD-A's microRNA gastric cancer, and the detection and treatment of XHD-B's lead contamination.
Students are very interested in our IGEM project and have a lot of interaction with us. Through our lectures, they realized that synthetic biology is not a distant, laboratory-only subject, but a new subject closely related to our lives, which can be used to solve many problems in real life. Just as our teams are doing, even high school students can understand, learn and apply the knowledge of synthetic biology, and the society also provides such a platform for us, such as the iGEM competition.
