Team:Exeter/Human Practices

Only by knowing the reality of our project could we know its potential for impact, so one key aim of our human practices exploration has been to investigate this possibility.

Our project is a gateway to developing technology that will revolutionise glycobiology and consequently have a huge impact on all levels of society. The potential impact of novel polysaccharides on medical, industrial and social sectors is vast and it is this we have been considering. We wanted to explore our ideas and whether they were commercially possible, testing if our idea had genuine, real world impact. We engaged with industry-leading businesses including the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), a leading local food manufacturer, ISCA Biochemicals Ltd. and Avon Cosmetics. Please see here to read more about our experiences with this. Discussing our project and the importance of synthetic biology has emphasised the relevance of this work: even at the level of an undergraduate competition project it is clearly thought to be of significance to industry.

A new generation of young people is needed to drive a responsible, boundary-seeking future in synthetic biology and we believe that we have passed on a legacy by inspiring several work experience students over the summer. You can read the thoughts of our work experience students here and here. We engaged with the public through Cafe Scientifique, talking about the impact of synthetic biology and by using our project as one of the examples, we were able to get direct feedback on this. Our write up for this is here. We ran an A-level master class about the power of synthetic biology and caught the imagination of more than 80 students who had the chance to explore potential projects and impacts. Please find out more about this here. We have engaged the interest of people from all walks of life, from school children to industry leading companies, such as those mentioned above. We believe that synthetic biology is more than just the science. Synthetic biology incorporates all elements of human practices.