Team:Goettingen/Human Practice/Panel Discussion

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Panel Discussion Organisation

Flyer of the "Day of Synthetic Biology"

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.

Announcement in the "Göttinger Tageblatt"

In order to address further audience, we placed an advertisement in the local newspaper "Göttinger Tageblatt".

Click [http://www.goettinger-tageblatt.de/Nachrichten/Wissen/Wissen-vor-Ort/Diskussion-ueber-Biotechnologie here] to be redirected 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.

Panel Discussion Résumé

On 7th of September at 4 pm the lecture hall in the central lecture hall building of the University of Göttingen was filled with interested visitors. They came to listen to our informative event about Synthetic Biology "Legoland for Scientists".
Several weeks before, we were very busy organizing the information event. The first idea was to evaluate the survey. But to complete the planned event, we decided to invite some experts from different categories like politics, economy, ethics, journalism and science to discuss the survey results together. To win some experts over was more difficult than expected. First of all, it was holiday time in Germany and most people we invited had been on vacations. The second point was that we wanted to invite the experts by our own without any help of our advisors. Because we are actually not well known, it was difficult to contact them. In the end, we were happy to welcome four experts: Prof. Dr. Michael Bölker (Biologist and Advisor of the iGEM Team Marburg), Sascha Karberg (Scientific Journalist), Dr. Anna Deplazes-Zemp (Biomedical Ethics) and Dr. Günter Strittmatter (Representative for economy; Leader of the institute for plant breeding of KWS).
The event starts with a warm welcome given by Bianca and a short introduction into the iGEM competition, BioBricks and our project by Anna. This presentation was given in a manner that every citizen could follow. Afterwards Bianca introduced the experts to the audience. The first talk was given by Prof. Dr. Michael Bölker. He was talking about Synthetic Biology presenting the founders like Craig Venter and some applications of Synthetic Biology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbEbEu-e3Vc). Sascha Karberg as the second speaker of the evening gave a critical talk about Synthetic Biology. He pointed out the possible risks and also showed some interesting excerpts of articles he was confronted with the topic Synthetic Biology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpihAtPnbAI). The last talk was given by Dr. Anna Deplazes-Zemp. She presented the ethic and moral questions scientists have to ask themselves working with controversial discussed organisms and methods (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDBpW0fy13w). The audience, as well as we, got a versatile and interesting view into different aspects of Synthetic Biology. After a short break where the audience and experts could refresh themselves with homemade cakes and cookies, fruits and coffee, the panel discussion started. Erik was the leader of the discussion asking Bölker, Karberg, Deplazes-Zemp and Strittmatter questions. The discussion was well coordinated with the results of the survey presented by Niko (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tZbxotJ_c8). The protocol can be read in the following PDF-file: https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2012/f/f7/Protocol_of_Panel_Discussion.pdf.

Main points of the panel discussion:

• The internet is the main source to get information about Synthetic Biology but the media have the power to guide the focus on this topic. Often articles have provocative headlines.
• Synthetic Biology is not yet well known in the society, so people do not want more information but people who are in direct contact with this topic (e.g. farmers) get good support.
• In Germany, there is no need of genetic engineered crops. Companies like KWS accept that mindset.
• Genetic engineered medicals are more accepted than crops because nobody in Europe has to starve but medicals play a more important role.
• A "genetic engineered" label on products should only be put into practice if…
  • .... people really want this labeling
  • .... products provide real risks otherwise labeling would result in a certificate jungle
  • Not only labeling to stigmatize products but rather there should be real risks if a symbol is applied.
• Products also have to be labeled with "pesticides" because they are more dangerous.
• It is not possible for everyone to order toxic genes because such DNA synthesis companies check their clients.
• Microorganisms used in lab have some safety mechanisms which make them unable to survive outside the laboratory.
• An open-minded research-sphere is desired.

The event was rounded up with a dinner in Sambesi restaurant, where we discussed further with the experts. All in all, we are very satisfied and proud of what we had organized and carried out. By asking some visitors of the event, we got to know that they liked it very much and they were grateful for the interesting information. We think our contribution to Human Practice was very successful and a good new feature to inform the public with current topics of science in a manner, they can follow.

Panel Discussion Videos

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