Team:MIT/HumanPractices

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<br>Internationalization Project of Synthetic Biology (IPSB) is a project aiming at introducing synthetic biology to Palestinians, promoting it in Israel, and creating understanding between future Palestinian and Israeli biotechnology leaders. It aims to do so by bringing together gifted Jewish and Arab residents of Israel for multiple years, teaching them the principles of bioengineering and bio-entrepreneurship, and letting them take part in the internationally Genetically Engineered Machines. iGEM competition. The labs would be provided by TAU. The program’s founder is Ala’a Siam, an MIT sophomore double majoring in chemical-biological engineering and biology. His advisors include Professor Ron Weiss, David Dolev from MIST-Israel, iGEM and MEET (Middle EAST Educatio through Technology) executive members, and TAU members.
 
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iGEM currently runs three contests: college, high school, and entrepreneurship contests. IPSB’s pilot program will target high school students, and run for one year (June 2012 – June 2013). MIT students would teach the students in the summer, and TAU student instructors will take over supervision throughout the academic year. Students would work full time for three months in the summer, and meet once a week during the academic year. Later on, the program would be expanded such that students can work on their project for multiple years. Also, IPSB would revolutionize the way iGEM is running by making technical students write business plans for their own project and run for the entrepreneurship contest. This will hopefully strengthen students’ connections’ to business leaders in the area, and help commercialize synthetic biology products in the Middle East.
 
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<br><b>Brief Abstract</b>
 
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<br>
 
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<br>Internationalization Project of Synthetic Biology (IPSB) is a project aiming at introducing synthetic biology to Palestinians, promoting it in Israel, and creating understanding between future Palestinian and Israeli biotechnology leaders. It aims to do so by bringing together gifted Jewish and Arab residents of Israel for multiple years, teaching them the principles of bioengineering and bio-entrepreneurship, and letting them take part in the internationally Genetically Engineered Machines. iGEM competition. The labs would be provided by TAU.
 
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<br>
 
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<br>
 
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<br>iGEM currently runs three contests: college, high school, and entrepreneurship contests. IPSB’s pilot program will target high school students, and run for one year (June 2012 – June 2013). MIT students would teach the students in the summer, and TAU student instructors will take over supervision throughout the academic year. Students would work full time for three months in the summer, and meet once a week during the academic year. Later on, the program would be expanded such that students can work on their project for multiple years. Also, IPSB would revolutionize the way iGEM is running by making technical students write business plans for their own project and run for the entrepreneurship contest. This will hopefully strengthen students’ connections’ to business leaders in the area, and help commercialize synthetic biology products in the Middle East.
 
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<br><b>Description of Collaboration</b>
 
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<br>MIT has a similar program running in collaboration with the Hebrew University called the Middle East Education through Technology (MEET). MEET brings gifted Palestinian and Israeli high school students together for three years, and teaches them computer science and entrepreneurship. The goal of the project is to create a network of Arab and Israeli leaders who can together advance the computer science industry in the region. MEET believes that the best way to create mutual understanding among Palestinians and Israelis is by making them interact with each other over a three-year span and work together on big projects. MEET is currently a huge success and is working on starting new branches in the area. The logistics of the program include sending MIT students to Jerusalem for a month in the summer, during which they teach intense courses to the high school students. Over the academic year, the high school students meet once every week to be taught by Hebrew University members. The program covers transportation and food expenses for MIT instructors and the high school students.
 
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<br>
 
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Our project builds on the philosophy of MEET, but focuses on biotechnology as opposed to computer science. Our program aims to introduce synthetic biology as a growing technology field to Palestinians, and to promote Israeli interest in developing their biotechnology hub in Tel Aviv. Our program is different in MEET in that the students will run for an international contest together, which we hope will make bond together more strongly than they would working on an academic project.
 
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<b>Desired Social Impact</b>
 
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<br>
 
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<br>1. Introduce synthetic biology to developing nations: In a world where biotechnology applications are of increasing significance, it is important to allow developing nations to keep up with the growing technology by introducing essential techniques to young minds. IPSB will hopefully provide funding for equipment, materials, and lab space where necessary.
 
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<br>2. Present biotechnology as a promising field to youth in developed nations: Many countries, like European countries and Israel, are becoming hubs of biotechnology research and entrepreneurship. Yet, biotechnology there is not as celebrated as in the US, and still loses great minds to other fields of technology. IPSB will potentially increase the number of youth considering biological manipulation as a career, thus providing entrepreneurial enthusiasm and research labor in such nations.
 
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3. Create synthetic biology networks in regions of application: IPSB will not only have classroom and lab components for synthetic biology, but also team building exercises to strengthen the bonds of team members. Most importantly it will focus on alumni events, to ensure that the relations are sustained beyond iGEM and the program.
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4. Create peace and mutual understanding between peoples of conflicting nations: IPSB will brig students from conflicting together and teach them the common languages of reasoning and planning. By brining young minds together for several years, and making them work together on one project, mutual and sustainable understanding will be established between these.
 
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5. Accelerate the global development of synthetic biology: IPSB will offer high quality education and direct interactions with business and policy leaders. This will help technical, political, and entrepreneurial establishment of synthetic biology to accelerate. Working on projects for multiple years will hopefully raise the complexity of the systems dealt with.
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<h3><a href="#">Educational Initiatives</a></h3>
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          <ul>
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            <li id="stw1">Community Outreach </li>
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            <li id="stw2">International Outreach </li>
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            <li id="stw3">IAP Synthetic Biology Lab Class </li>
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Theory of Change
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IPSB believes that the best way to introduce synthetic biology internationally is by hands-on practice. By actually engineering cells, students worldwide will see the potentials of this exciting field, get over the barrier that bioengineering is unrealistic or hard, and gain necessary foundations to build their understanding of the field. By providing lab equipment and material, IPSB will help solve the issue of costliness of bioengineering. This is why we aim to create IPSB rather than work on incorporating synthetic biology principles in national curricula.
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<h3><a href="#">Collaboration</a></h3>
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            <li id="c1">NEGEM </li>
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A main concept of IPSB is creating mutual understanding and networks of bioengineers in areas of conflict. However, unlike specialized peace projects, IPSB does not aim to accomplish that by letting students discuss political topics explicitly. Instead, IPSB believes that the best way to reach this goal is through social activities and teamwork on one project. IPSB believes that by working together, students will spontaneously see that racial, religious, and gender differences are meaningless.
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IPSB believes that meeting for one summer and working on a project by itself may not be sufficient to build sustainable relationships between students of conflicting countries. This is why the program will hopefully span multiple years, and why IPSB is strongly concerned about networking and post-graduation events.
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IPSB also believes in interdisciplinary success. In other words, in order to firmly establish synthetic biology as a research and commercial field, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and engineers need to work together. This is why IPSB will create teams working together on the technical and social science aspects of synthetic biology. While business planners and engineers will participate in different branches of iGEM, IPSB aims to let planners make connections and create business plans to commercialize and apply the products of the engineers. The engineers, thus, will be taught how to pick projects that are of strong applied relevance, and how to scale up their products.
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Program Design and Development
 
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-Initial Project for Summer 2013
 
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The goal of the program’s first summer would be introducing iGEM, synthetic biology and our theory of change. In other words, it will aim to familiarize the Tel-Aviv University (TAU) staff with our project. Also, it will help us envision how the program will develop in the future. Most importantly, due to our limited resources, it should generate results and spread our idea in the region as fast and with as little costs as possible.
 
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Thus, Summer 2013 will only see one group of high school students joining the pre-college iGEM contest. This will enable us to show our real project in little time and with little costs, which will hopefully make IPSB more popular, giving it a strong start.
 
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The deadline for student applications will be set in April, and the project starts in June. The number of students admitted will be based on how much resources we have, but should not be less than 10. The number of Palestinian students should equal the number of Israeli students. The program will run for one year, from one summer to the other (The results of the high school contest are announced in June every year). The program would run in this manner: MIT students will travel to Tel Aviv in the summer and teach students the summer coursework. Throughout the academic year, as students continue developing their project, TAU members will take over the supervision role.
 
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It is worthy to note that while IPSB will eventually accept students regardless of their biological and engineering backgrounds, Summer 2013 will favor students with these backgrounds in order to spend as little time and resources on preparation as possible.
 
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-Expansion of the Project
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<div class = "section" id = "stw1bio">
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<h1>Community Outreach</h1>
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<h3> HSSP Class</h3>
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<br>
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<img src='https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/f/fd/FelixHSSP.png' style="width:250px">
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<img src='https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/8/8d/EerikHSSP.png' style="width:250px">
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<br>
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We are passionate about sharing the exciting advances in research in the field of synthetic biology with young minds! On August 12, 2012, we taught a course on Synthetic Biology to local Boston middle-school students through the MIT Educational Studies Program. Our fun course included introducing the central dogma and basic molecular biology background information, teaching about cool circuit parts and simple molecular biology design tools, and interesting new applications of the research. Through our engaging course, we hope to have inspired these young minds to learn more about the field and to join us as members of the synthetic biology community some day!   
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As our resources and reputation grow, the high school program will be developed such that students would be able to work on their project for two years each. This will enhance the quality of the undergraduates’ work, giving them enough time to learn and work to produce more complex feats. High school students will be given the chance to choose whatever technical aspect of synthetic biology they deem interesting, be it pure constructions of systems based on older mechanisms or working on the fundamentals of new circuit construction techniques. This will probably help them construct systems that are of great scientific and industrial significance, and will raise the standards of iGEM worldwide.  
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<h3>Splash! Class</h3>
 +
On November 17, 2012, we plan on teaching a course about Synthetic Biology to Cambridge and Boston high-school students. We hope to make a difference in the lives of a few future biologists by introducing them to tools, techniques, and exciting applications from the cutting edge of synthetic biology. Since this is for high-school students, we will be able to cover more difficult material. We're looking forward to it!
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A college program will be established later on, and the two programs will not be completely independent. For instance, undergraduates may be allowed to build upon what alumni of high school students have constructed, and vise versa. This will give the students the ability to develop “hacking skills,” or building upon projects started by others. It will also allow for one team to carry out fundamental technique projects and the other to apply into a system, or to bring different applied projects together to build a more complex one.
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IPSB aims to revolutionize the way iGEM technical and business contests are run. Currently, they are run independently, with team running for one or the other. We aim to instill to introduce an entrepreneurship component into the curriculum. By the contest students, students will not only have developed a technical product, but also business plans for commercializing that product. They would run for both the technical and entrepreneurship. IPSB believes that this the right of bringing synthetic biology into the market. Venture capitalists may not be interested in business plans without products, or products without business plans. IPSB hopes to make iGEM more of an incubator than just a contest.
 
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The program will not be independent of the outer synthetic biology world. Students will be given the chance to cooperate with industry professional, building products suggested by these companies, and to create marketing and financial plans for outer projects. However, for the final iGEM products, the teams will be forced to work on their own designs. reason behind that is to develop independent and interdisciplinary thinking skills among IPSB students, and to bring new ideas into the scientific and business realms.
 
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Curriculum Development for High School Project
 
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-Summer and Year 1: Principles of synthetic biology, circuit planning, and registry of biological parts. Introduction to relevant chemical and electrical engineering principles. Reviewing and introducing new lab techniques. Construction of simple biological circuits. Tests and homework. Presentation and literature review skills. Lectures, labs, and guests from academia and industry.
 
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-Summer and Year 2: Introduction to principles of entrepreneurship by taking into account costs and applicability. Examples from previous contests. Brainstorming for project. Journal clubs about relevant papers. Working on the actual iGEM project.
 
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-Summer 3: iGEM project.
 
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Extracurricular and Leadership Development
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<div class = "section" id = "stw2bio">
 +
<h1>International Outreach Projects </h1>
 +
<h3> Internationalization Project of Synthetic Biology </h3>
 +
Our team has laid the foundations of the Internationalization Project of Synthetic Biology (IPSB), a collaborative project between MIT and Tel-Aviv University (TAU) that aims to introduce synthetic biology to Palestinian and Israeli high school students. The project seeks to educate these students in basic synthetic biology, bioengineering, and bio-entrepreneurship principles in a combined, collaborative setting. Over the course of three years, the students would work together to develop a technical project to present in the iGEM High School Contest, as well as a business plan to commercialize their proposed project to present in the iGEM Entrepreneurial Contest. The program would allow veteran MIT iGEM students to instruct the students in Tel-Aviv over the summers, and would have TAU instructors lead supervision during the academic year. The pilot program is proposed to run from (June 2013-June 2014), with the intent of creating a Palestinian-Israeli iGEM college-division team as well in the future. 
 +
</div>
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Leadership will be developed through lectures, mixers, and mini-contests. The high school program, may involve contests for marketing products of biotechnology start-ups and titans, and mixer events. The undergraduate program will feature many academia leaders. There will be much focus in the programs on presenting new ideas and using professional language.
 
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There will also be fun activities to enhance the bonding between team members. However, IPSB believes that spontaneously, people of conflicting nations will befriend each other. Thus, the program will be void of political discussion events outside the context of technology and entrepreneurship policies. In fact, in programs bringing together students of conflicting countries, only English will be allowed to be spoken.
 
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Logistics
 
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- Criteria for Selecting Instructors
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<div class = "section" id = "stw3bio">
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<h1>IAP Synthetic Biology Class</h1>
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<p>
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Last January, students from the 2011 MIT iGEM team ran an introductory synthetic biology class to recruit students for this year's program and to spread interest in the subject.  The class was offered during MIT's storied Independent Activities Period (IAP), a four-week gap period in MIT's academic calendar.  Over two weeks, students learned biological theory and basic lab techniques, and built an inducible luciferase circuit.  Several students in the class ended up joining the 2012 iGEM team.  We plan to offer this class again next year and are currently designing the curriculum.
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</p>
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<img src='https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/2/2f/IAPClassData.png' width=400/>
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<br><i>Graph of fluorescence over time in student-constructed circuits</i>
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<p>
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<a href="http://web.mit.edu/iap/www/iap12/iap/nsbe.html">Course description</a>, and <a href="https://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/synbio-iap2011/materials.html"> course materials </a> are available.
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Instructors are expected to have strong backgrounds in the material they are teaching. Instructors will be selected such that they have different forms of experiences, including internships, research, contests, and start-ups. The reason behind this is that IPSB aims to show its students that experience can be gained through different techniques, and that working with others of different experience can lead to tackling all aspects of a project.
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There are two different kinds of instructors: summer and yearlong instructors. Summer instructors will be university students from MIT and other leading US institutions. The college bodies will interview instructors. The reason behind this is to make sure that these instructors have the required teaching and speaking skills. Entrepreneurship instructors are expected to have many biotech connections. Undergraduate instructors are expected to high strong research experience,  and will most likely be postdocs and graduate students. High school instructors are expected to have striking extracurricular pursuits. This will make the program enriching and interesting for high school students.
 
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Yearlong instructors will be faculty members, students, and members of local institutions. IPSB will make sure that the number of faculty members from either nations of the conflicting two is equal to other, e.g. the number of Palestinian instructors equals the number of Israeli ones.
 
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-Instructor Housing and Transportation
 
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Summer instructors will be provided with all the funding needed for their travel and accommodation. If possible, they will be allowed to stay where the students are staying, be that on TAU campus or in a hotel. Yearlong instructors will be provided with transportation. Instructors will not be paid for teaching IPSB students.
 
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-Criteria for Selecting Students
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<div class = "section" id = "c1bio">
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<h1> NEGEM </h1>
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<p>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/1/17/NEGEM.png" width=500/>
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</p>
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<p>
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We participated in the first New England Regional iGEM (NEGEM) meeting at Boston University! Hosted by the BU team on September 15, 2012, the NEGEM meeting allowed four local iGEM teams – Boston University, Wellesley, Brown-Stanford, and MIT – to practice presenting our respective projects in front of an audience. Each team received valuable anonymous feedback about their project and viewed presentations from members of the other three teams. We really appreciate the opportunity to have been a part of this collaborative experience!
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</p>
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<p>
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Learn more about NEGEM on the <a href="https://2012.igem.org/Team:BostonU/NEGEM"> BU iGEM team wiki</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/4/44/Negem7.jpg" width=500/>
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<br />
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<i> Teams socializing at NEGEM.  Picture by the BU iGEM team.</i>
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</p>
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</div>
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Initially, the program will look mainly for experience in applied biology lab techniques. The reason is that IPSB, before it establishes the multiple year programs, would like to decrease costs while building reputation and publicizing synthetic biology. The program will start as a one year program allowing experienced undergraduate students to design their own new organism.
 
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As the program grows, students will be admitted regardless of their biology background. They will be accepted according to three tests and two letters of recommendation. The tests will include an IQ test, a teamwork and communication test, and an interview. Students will not be charged for joining the program, and will be provided with meals.
 
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-Students Housing and Transportation
 
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As students meet once a week in the yearlong phase, transportation will be provided to all the students. In the summer, transportation will be provided to students who live near the TAU, whereas students from other cities will be provided with housing on the TAU campus or in a nearby hotel. Students from other cities will be provided with transportation on weekends to their homes and on the beginning of weekdays to TAU.
 
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Funding
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<div class = "section" id = "c2bio">
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<h1 id="collaboration"> Collaboration with Fellow iGEM Teams</h1>
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<h3>Wellesley</h3>
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<p>
 +
We collaborated with the Wellesley HCI team as beta-testers of their software! Check out <a href = "https://2012.igem.org/Team:Wellesley_HCI">their wiki</a>.  We got to play with Wellesley's touch screen MoClo planner software, on a large PixelSense-style screen (a.k.a. the old, pre-tablet Microsoft Surface).  MoClo planner makes the plasmid-building process easier by integrating research tools, computer aided design, and construction planning under one application.  Having experienced plasmid construction firsthand this summer, the MIT iGEM team wholeheartedly supports any efforts to make the task simpler.
 +
</p>
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<img src='https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/c/ca/MITcollaborationwithWellesley.JPG' style="width:500px">
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<br>
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<i> Two members of MIT's iGEM team with two members of Wellesley's iGEM team in an MIT conference room, testing Wellesley's MoClo planner. </i>
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<p>
 +
Several members of our team also tested <a href="http://www.synbiosearch.org/">SynBio Search</a>, Wellesley's semantic search website for synthetic biologists.
 +
</p>
 +
<p>
 +
In addition to testing their software, we also helped the Wellesley team by hosting Wellesley observers in our team meetings.  Through observing our team in action, the Wellesley team improved their understanding of what sorts of tools synthetic biologists need, and what challenges they face that can be solved by software.
 +
</p>
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We hope to raise funds from biotechnology and investment companies in the US, Israel, and Arab countries. We also hope to raise funds through contests and grants. Finally, we hope that universities in the Middle East and the US will support us financially. After the initial stages, we hope the project will keep on receiving financial support from other institutions but also sustaining independent funding. We have already started filling grants, and registering for international development contests.
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<h3>TU Munich</h3>
 +
Our team also participated in a survey run by TU Munich and received a collaboration medal from their team (shown below). Check out <a href = "https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich/Project/Overview">their wiki</a>.
 +
<br>
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<br>
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<img src='https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/5/5a/TUM12_Collaboration_medal2.png' style="width:200px">
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<h1>Overview</h1>
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<p>As representatives of the iGEM and synthetic biology communities, our team aims to serve as a positive influence locally and globally. We recognize significant broad impacts of our 2012 iGEM research project, both for fundamental advances in synthetic biology research and also for potential therapeutic applications stemming from our novel technology. Furthermore, we aim to promote a wider understanding of the synthetic biology field within the local and global communities and have organized several outreach and educational programs to accomplish this goal. Finally, we understand the importance of collaboration within the scientific community as a means of progress and have thus worked closely with fellow iGEM teams to foster positive connections and provide valuable assistance on their research projects.  </p><p>To promote understanding of synthetic biology, as a team we taught our favorite topics in synthetic biology to middle and high school students in the Boston area this year. We formulated plans for international iGEM outreach in Tel Aviv, and we are designing a course on synthetic biology lab techniques to teach at MIT in January. Lastly, we participated in a New England regional iGEM meet-up (NEGEM) with the Boston University, Wellesley and Stanford-Brown iGEM teams and have formally collaborated with fellow iGEM teams by testing their software.</p>
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Latest revision as of 22:54, 26 October 2012

iGEM 2012

Educational Initiatives

  • Community Outreach
  • International Outreach
  • IAP Synthetic Biology Lab Class

Collaboration

  • NEGEM
  • Fellow iGEM Teams

Community Outreach

HSSP Class



We are passionate about sharing the exciting advances in research in the field of synthetic biology with young minds! On August 12, 2012, we taught a course on Synthetic Biology to local Boston middle-school students through the MIT Educational Studies Program. Our fun course included introducing the central dogma and basic molecular biology background information, teaching about cool circuit parts and simple molecular biology design tools, and interesting new applications of the research. Through our engaging course, we hope to have inspired these young minds to learn more about the field and to join us as members of the synthetic biology community some day!

Splash! Class

On November 17, 2012, we plan on teaching a course about Synthetic Biology to Cambridge and Boston high-school students. We hope to make a difference in the lives of a few future biologists by introducing them to tools, techniques, and exciting applications from the cutting edge of synthetic biology. Since this is for high-school students, we will be able to cover more difficult material. We're looking forward to it!

International Outreach Projects

Internationalization Project of Synthetic Biology

Our team has laid the foundations of the Internationalization Project of Synthetic Biology (IPSB), a collaborative project between MIT and Tel-Aviv University (TAU) that aims to introduce synthetic biology to Palestinian and Israeli high school students. The project seeks to educate these students in basic synthetic biology, bioengineering, and bio-entrepreneurship principles in a combined, collaborative setting. Over the course of three years, the students would work together to develop a technical project to present in the iGEM High School Contest, as well as a business plan to commercialize their proposed project to present in the iGEM Entrepreneurial Contest. The program would allow veteran MIT iGEM students to instruct the students in Tel-Aviv over the summers, and would have TAU instructors lead supervision during the academic year. The pilot program is proposed to run from (June 2013-June 2014), with the intent of creating a Palestinian-Israeli iGEM college-division team as well in the future.

IAP Synthetic Biology Class

Last January, students from the 2011 MIT iGEM team ran an introductory synthetic biology class to recruit students for this year's program and to spread interest in the subject. The class was offered during MIT's storied Independent Activities Period (IAP), a four-week gap period in MIT's academic calendar. Over two weeks, students learned biological theory and basic lab techniques, and built an inducible luciferase circuit. Several students in the class ended up joining the 2012 iGEM team. We plan to offer this class again next year and are currently designing the curriculum.


Graph of fluorescence over time in student-constructed circuits

Course description, and course materials are available.

NEGEM

We participated in the first New England Regional iGEM (NEGEM) meeting at Boston University! Hosted by the BU team on September 15, 2012, the NEGEM meeting allowed four local iGEM teams – Boston University, Wellesley, Brown-Stanford, and MIT – to practice presenting our respective projects in front of an audience. Each team received valuable anonymous feedback about their project and viewed presentations from members of the other three teams. We really appreciate the opportunity to have been a part of this collaborative experience!

Learn more about NEGEM on the BU iGEM team wiki.


Teams socializing at NEGEM. Picture by the BU iGEM team.

Collaboration with Fellow iGEM Teams

Wellesley

We collaborated with the Wellesley HCI team as beta-testers of their software! Check out their wiki. We got to play with Wellesley's touch screen MoClo planner software, on a large PixelSense-style screen (a.k.a. the old, pre-tablet Microsoft Surface). MoClo planner makes the plasmid-building process easier by integrating research tools, computer aided design, and construction planning under one application. Having experienced plasmid construction firsthand this summer, the MIT iGEM team wholeheartedly supports any efforts to make the task simpler.


Two members of MIT's iGEM team with two members of Wellesley's iGEM team in an MIT conference room, testing Wellesley's MoClo planner.

Several members of our team also tested SynBio Search, Wellesley's semantic search website for synthetic biologists.

In addition to testing their software, we also helped the Wellesley team by hosting Wellesley observers in our team meetings. Through observing our team in action, the Wellesley team improved their understanding of what sorts of tools synthetic biologists need, and what challenges they face that can be solved by software.

TU Munich

Our team also participated in a survey run by TU Munich and received a collaboration medal from their team (shown below). Check out their wiki.

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