Team:JiangnanU China/Public Engagement
Human Practices
Bacteriophage infection occurs accidentally under different circumstances, so we made field
investigations among several fermentation industries and got some anti-phage strategies from
experts. We incorporated their suggestions into our design to make it easier and more economical for
industrial application. We optimized it with mathematical model according to the weight data given
by experts, making it more valuable in manufacture practice.
Despite some traditional education activities like science popularization among kids and science day in community, which were direct output to the public, we have organized some other heated activities to get people involved in synthetic biology. We held a heated debate between students from Biotechnology and Humanities School on GM technology, and organized a moot court with students of Law School based on a hypothetical case about “biosecurity accident”. To sum up, the safety, legality and economy of Biotechnology should be fully considered.
Despite some traditional education activities like science popularization among kids and science day in community, which were direct output to the public, we have organized some other heated activities to get people involved in synthetic biology. We held a heated debate between students from Biotechnology and Humanities School on GM technology, and organized a moot court with students of Law School based on a hypothetical case about “biosecurity accident”. To sum up, the safety, legality and economy of Biotechnology should be fully considered.
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Public Engagement
Moot Court
As a newly emerging subject, synthetic biology has a broad application prospect in the field of life
science in the future. However, we can not ignore security and ethical issues that synthetic biology
involves. All the researchers should take responsibility and think about how we can utilize
biological
technology to make our life a better future under the premise of avoiding safety and ethnical
issues.
In June, we exchanged ideas with professors and students in the Law School in Jiangnan
University and organized a moot court together discussing the case of biology security. On one hand, our
team members can master the legal knowledge related with biotechnology. On the other hand, we can
introduce
the knowledge of synthetic biology to students majoring in other subjects through communication with
each
other.
Finally, we found that the current law can not regulate the application of biological technology due to the lag of legislation itself and legislators' lack of knowledge about biotechnology.
For science like biotechnology, there is an important choice between raising standards to avoid the security and ethnical problems and lowering standards to satisfy the current development need. After the event, we discussed on the topic again and got some ideas in our minds.
Finally, we found that the current law can not regulate the application of biological technology due to the lag of legislation itself and legislators' lack of knowledge about biotechnology.
For science like biotechnology, there is an important choice between raising standards to avoid the security and ethnical problems and lowering standards to satisfy the current development need. After the event, we discussed on the topic again and got some ideas in our minds.
Debate
As a new life science, synthetic biology has broad prospects, but also faces many questions.
Whether the techniques involved in synthetic biology are reliable? Whether genetically modified food will
cause harm to human body? Whether transgenic products will have an unknown impact on humans? Whether gene
editing could have serious consequences in humans……These problems are facing us.
In order to improve students' understanding and thinking about the importance of ethical and safety
issues related to biotechnology, on October 13, JiangnanU_China team and the debate team of jiangnan
university's school of bioengineering jointly held a debate competition with the topic "Gene editing is
a nightmare or a gospel".
During the debate competition, eight debaters from both sides expressed their opinions and carried out the attack and defense based on different viewpoints. They cited many examples of the application of biotechnology and also imagined the application of biotechnology in the future, contributing to a wonderful and intense competition for everyone.
After the competition, the judges of the debate competition also gave excellent comments, and the students watching the competition also actively discussed. Students' positive thinking and debate also reached the original intention of our debate competition.
As responsible iGEMers, we believe that it is the responsibility of every scientific researcher to think comprehensively and rigorously about the safety and ethical issues involved in biotechnology. Before carrying out experimental work, researchers should weigh the pros and cons, improve their moral level, restrict their behavior and shoulder more responsibilities, so as to avoid the negative effects brought by biotechnology to the greatest extent, so that synthetic biology can bring benefits to human beings to the greatest extent in the future and promote the peace and stability of human society.
During the debate competition, eight debaters from both sides expressed their opinions and carried out the attack and defense based on different viewpoints. They cited many examples of the application of biotechnology and also imagined the application of biotechnology in the future, contributing to a wonderful and intense competition for everyone.
After the competition, the judges of the debate competition also gave excellent comments, and the students watching the competition also actively discussed. Students' positive thinking and debate also reached the original intention of our debate competition.
As responsible iGEMers, we believe that it is the responsibility of every scientific researcher to think comprehensively and rigorously about the safety and ethical issues involved in biotechnology. Before carrying out experimental work, researchers should weigh the pros and cons, improve their moral level, restrict their behavior and shoulder more responsibilities, so as to avoid the negative effects brought by biotechnology to the greatest extent, so that synthetic biology can bring benefits to human beings to the greatest extent in the future and promote the peace and stability of human society.
Heated debate
Community
Our team members came to the community to carry out some activities for dissemination of science. We
introduced the knowledge of microbiology to young kids by doing some relevant games and sent them
presents such as bookmarks and postcards afterwards. Besides, we explained our project to people by
showing our panel and poster and taught them about the application of synthetic biology in daily
life.
We tried our best to popularize the basic knowledge of synthetic biology because we wanted it more than
just be a subject studied in the lab but a technology that can be accepted by public and make our life a
better future.
Kindergarten
We went to the kindergarten and shared a pleasant and meaningful morning with the children there.
We made an elaborate powerpoint and a video to explain the concept of what is virus and what results can
virus bring to human bodies to young kids, and stressed the importance of personal hygiene to the kids.
After that, we encouraged children to use their imagination and draw the images of virus in their minds.
We also helped them finish the puzzle that has an image of virus .
The children took an active part in the activity and showed strong interests in the knowledge we taught them. Even though they might not have a deep understanding of synthetic biology, they can still learn something from this activity. What’s more, we got a profound understanding during the process of preparing this activity.
The children took an active part in the activity and showed strong interests in the knowledge we taught them. Even though they might not have a deep understanding of synthetic biology, they can still learn something from this activity. What’s more, we got a profound understanding during the process of preparing this activity.
Academic Exchange 5.29
Professor Chun Li，the director of the 2018 gold medal team from Beijing institute of technology came
to our school for an academic exchange. He expounded his view on synthetic biology profoundly. At
the same time, after each team displayed, he reviewed one by one and made the project optimization
of overall. And he also gave us some useful advices on our team building about how to select team
members and how to discover personal potential.
Synbio Lecture Week6.19-6.23
As a brand-new iGEM team, we attended the synbio lecture week held by our school during the summer
holiday.
There we listened to lectures given by foreign experts in synthetic biology, and tried to get some inspirations. We consulted the professor about our experimental problems: the effect of the anti-protein AbpA and AbpB we had searched from papers now was not very good. The professor advised us to get mutant strains and screening anti-protein by ourselves. After this lecture week, we developed the program of screening experiment and implemented it.
There we listened to lectures given by foreign experts in synthetic biology, and tried to get some inspirations. We consulted the professor about our experimental problems: the effect of the anti-protein AbpA and AbpB we had searched from papers now was not very good. The professor advised us to get mutant strains and screening anti-protein by ourselves. After this lecture week, we developed the program of screening experiment and implemented it.
