Team:Exeter/Human Practices

Human practices are the potential ethical, societal, environmental and business impacts that our synthetic biology project may have. Everything that could be affected by our project has been considered and the benefits and risks to each area discussed. From the beginning we imagined how our project may impact upon society, evolving our project with human practices in mind. It is one of the most important aspects of our project and determines the success of our project if it were to continue forward. Therefore we throughly considered human practices through our panel and regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of people, from environmentalist experts to people with a wealth of experience concerning impact-led research.

We believe our project could lead to technology that will not only revolutionise glycobiology, but could have a huge impact on all levels of society. We have therefore talked to industry-leading companies including DSTL, ISCA, Biochemicals Ltd and people in food and cosmetic manufacture. Talking about our project and the importance of Synthetic Biology has emphasised the relevance of this work. Even at the current stage of our project, it is clearly thought to be of significance to industry highlighting the huge potential of the project. Please read on to discover more detail about how we engaged with the wider community in this respect.

In addition to this work we have engaged the interest of a new generation of young people by inspiring numerous work experience students over the summer. Details can be found through our outreach pages. Briefly, we ran an A-level master class about the power of synthetic biology as part of a University open day and caught the imagination of more than 80 students. A synthetic biology club is being set up in the University and run by members of our own team to inspire other undergraduates to realise the potential, not just of our own project but the field in general. We believe that synthetic biology is more than just the science. Synthetic Biology can affect everyone and incorporates all elements of human practices.