Team:St Andrews/Public-outreach

From 2012.igem.org

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       <li><a href="#science-discovery-day">NSEW Science Discovery Day</a></li>
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      <li><a href="#slovenia">Conference of Young Researchers</a></li>
       <li><a href="#fun">Outside the lab</a></li>
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<h1><i>First Conference of Slovenian Young Researchers</i></h1>
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<p>A member of our team, Veronica Rezelj, was invited to speak at the First Conference of Slovenian Young Researchers, Postgraduate and Undergraduate Students from Slovenia and Abroad. Her talk presented her experiences of studying in Scotland and taking part in iGEM to an audience of about 200 people. She was asked to give a radio interview for Radio Slovenija, and an interview for the Slovenian main newspaper Delo.</p>
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  <p>Veronica Valentina Rezelj was born and raised in Argentina. She moved to Slovenia during high school, where she completed the international Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Now she studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, which has a strong reputation for academic excellence.</p>
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<p>In the three years of her studies she was included in the University Dean’s list, and she is now involved in a undergraduate team taking part in the iGEM synthetic biology competition. Competitors construct and operate biological systems in living cells. ThisiGEM team seeksto use the combined dynamics of synthetic biology, computer science and engineering to create both a novel precious metal recycling scheme as well as a renewable source of essential fatty acids Omega-3. They are planning to recreate an Omega-3 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in E. Coli, while also trying to produce a series of metal-binding proteins, through which they intend to create a new way of recycling them. By representing her Scottish university in this competition, she is not only gaining experience and knowledge in laboratory research, but she is also able to contact the global scientific community and with Slovenia, where she is planning to return after her studies. “</p>
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<p>Participants were invited to visit the Honorary sponsor of the conference, President of Slovenia, Dr. Danilo Türk, who emphasised international cooperation in science is crucial. </p>
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<p>Before the conference started on the 19thof July, Veronica was able to visit the Slovenian iGEM team, who have been very successful in the past. This was an informal and friendly meeting, where they got to know each other and shared experiences in the progress of the projects.</p>
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Revision as of 22:52, 26 September 2012

Get Involved!

Synthetic Biology is too exciting - we can't keep it to ourselves. We want you to get involved!

We had a stall at the Scottish National Science and Engineering Week and participated in our University's 600th anniversary event Food For Thought. In May, we delivered a well received TEDx talk. We're also active online on Twitter and Facebook, where we hold little online debates and give you a peek into synthetic biology research!

Fife Science Festival 2012 logo

National Science and Engineering Week exploded in Fife, Scotland with a regional "Science Discovery Day". Team St Andrews worked to convey the fundamental concepts of synthetic biology in new and exciting ways.

We had a number of exhibits, each catering to a different audience:

  • For the littlest kids, we ran an interactive "Codon Game", where children could "build a gene" from little paper parts.
  • We had interactive visualizations of DNA and Thermus aquaticus polymerase III, complete with 3D glasses, thanks to an impromptu collaboration with the Psychology department!
  • For those who like to see the things we work with, we had a display of of E. coli on plates, under a microscope and in broth. Children and adults alike were fascinated by our live experiment, extracting DNA from bananas using everyday kitchen equipment.

We took every chance to mingle with the crowd and to answer questions. The varying exhibits were helpful in starting discussions. Being able to refer to an actual colony of E. coli or the 3D structure of Taq pol III made these discussions more interesting.

TEDxUniversityofStAndrews logo

Team member Josi Buerger presented a lively talk "Spider Mutants and Bioterrorism - an Overview of Synthetic Biology as an Emerging Scientific Discipline" to an audience over eighty strong at TEDx University of St Andrews. She revealed the ground-breaking but occasionally controversial nature of synthetic biology and iGEM's role within it. Members of the audience showed surprise at the progress, discussions and possibilities that synthetic biology represents.

Josi recounts that the other talks and the audience were mainly in the field of the social sciences and that her talk had impressed and rattled the audience with its originality and raised questions they would otherwise have left unasked.

Here's the TEDx profile for the event at the main TED website.

Superhero or Supervillain?

Who would you be?

Who will you be?

Synthetic biology has already made a spider goat possible. How long will it be before Spider-Man steps out fiction and into reality?

Team St Andrews spoke to crowds at University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Event Food for Thought on Sunday. The DNA extraction from bananas and a "create your own superhero" game were popular with the kids again. We took full advantage of having a stand next to the tent entrance: At least two of us were constantly engaged in conversation with visitors, giving mini-lectures explaining the basic principles of synthetic biology, DNA and iGEM and discussing the surrounding ethical and safety concerns.

The event's flyer

We also made these graphics to explain synthetic biology:

  • Demystifying plasmids

    Plasmids are like machine parts. Naturally, bacteria trade them around to disperse useful genes. This mechanism is useful if we deliberately put genes (and other useful stuff) into them.

  • Demystifying bacterial transformation

    And this is how you get a plasmid into a bacterium!

  • Back to top

    University of St Andrews, 2012.

    Contact us: igem2012@st-andrews.ac.uk, Twitter, Facebook

    This iGEM team has been funded by the MSD Scottish Life Sciences Fund. The opinions expressed by this iGEM team are those of the team members and do not necessarily represent those of Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited, nor its Affiliates.