Team:Goettingen/Human Practice/Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion

The main goal of the human practice task in the iGEM contest is to inform the public about the possibilities of the newly developed Synthetic Biology and to reduce distrust. So we thought about how we could reach many people and how we could encourage an open discussion about Synthetic Biology. The first question was of cause: how much does the public know about that topic? That is why we decided to prepare a survey and hand it out in Göttingen as well as distribute it through the internet.
Additionally we decided to organize a “Synthetic Biology information evening” on the 7th of September which should give general information as well as opposed opinions in order to reduce opposed sentiments and enable a forming of an objective view on that topic. But for an information evening of cause we need experts on the field of Synthetic Biology willing to present themselves, state their opinion and participate in a discussion.
Thus we started to invite experts with different fields of studies to be able to present a broad diversity of opinions and we are very glad that three speakers accepted our invitation!

Experts

Prof. Michael Bölker received his PH.D at the Free University of Berlin in Biochemistry and his habilitation on the fields of genetic at the University of Munich. Since 1997 he is the Professor of genetics of the University Marburg and works mainly with the fungal model organism Ustilago maydis. In detail his work group researches in the fields of signal transduction, morphogenesis, regulation of cytokinesis and glycolipid production. In this year he undertakes the supervision of the iGEM Team Marburg which is also participating in the iGEM contest for the first time! We are very delighted to welcome him in Göttingen, exchange experiences and hear about his point of view on Synthetic Biology! Click here to get to the homepage of AG Bölker!

Sascha Karberg achieved his diploma in Biology and scientific journalism at the Free University of Berlin and worked subsequently as a freelancer journalist. The main fields he is writing about are genetic engineering, biotechnology, pharmacological research, biology and medicine. His articles were published in many well-respected German journals e.g. “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Cell and Geo and his work was awarded with the “Heureka-Wissenschaftsjournalistenpreis 2004” and the “Glaxo-Smith-Kline-Publizistikpreis 2005”. For he was also able to gather experience at the MIT through a Knight Science Fellowship, we are very eager to meet him and we are looking forward to get to know his opinion on Synthetic Biology!

Only today (24.8.) we luckily received the third acceptance to our invitation and we are glad to welcome Dr. Anna Deplazes Zemp to our information evening! The Swiss biologist received her diploma on the fields of molecular biology, zoology and ethics for biologists at the University of Zürich where she also wrote her PH.D thesis in Biochemistry. After one year a postdoc and a fellowship of the Graduate Program for interdisciplinary Research in Ethics of the URPP Ethics she started to study philosophy and is now a research fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Zürich. Her studies mainly focus on Synthetic Biology and the definition and creation of life and thus we are very eager to hear about Synthetic Biology from a ethical point of view! To read more click here!

In addition, we are very pleased with the announcement of Dr. Günter Strittmatter to participate in our discussion. Dr. Strittmatter absolved his studies in biology at the University of Freiburg, where he also received his PhD. Subsequently he worked several years as a postdoc at the Rockefeller University of New York, USA. After his stay abroad he took a position as project manager at the Max Planck institute for breeding research in Köln. Here, he mainly worked on the genetic generation of fungal resistance in plants. Afterwards, Dr. Strittmatter was employed as project manager for the company Planta Genetic Systems in Gent (PGS), Belgium for a year. Since 1998 Dr. Strittmatter acts on behalf of KWS, our head sponsor, where he leads the institute for plant breeding. Hence we extend a warm welcome to him and are very excited to hear about the topic of Synthetic Biology from an enterpriser’s point of view.

Flyer of the "Day of Synthetic Biology"

Announcement in the "Göttinger Tageblatt"

In order to address further audience, we placed an advertisement in the local newspaper "Göttinger Tageblatt".
Click here to be redicected to the announcement or read the translation below:

Twelve students of the University Göttingen participate in the “International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition”.
Göttingen. On Friday, the 7th of September they will present their project and debate synthetic biology, bioethics, biotechnology and genetic engineering under the title “Legoland for natural scientists”. In the central lecture hall building of the university, room 103, starting 16 o’ clock you can listen to: Prof. Michael Bölker, Marburg; Dr. Anna Deplazes-Zemp, Zürich; science journalist Sascha Karberg, Berlin and Dr. Günter Strittmatter, Einbeck.

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