Team:Lethbridge/ethics2

Human Practices

Lethbridge iGEM Outreach

As part of our iGEM team’s human practices, we organized a Lethbridge-wide high school iGEM team. The goal of this was to expand reach of iGEM into the wider community, in addition to providing an alternative learning opportunity for the students themselves.

Forming the team

The team, composed of 31 high school students from 5 different Lethbridge high schools, was first brought together after iGEM students from the University team gave presentations to science classes at the local high schools. In the presentations, we talked about Synthetic Biology—what it is, how it is impacting science and technology, its relation to iGEM—as well as advertising the Lethbridge high school team. Any interested student was able to join the team, regardless of academic background.

The composition of the final team was as follows:

Choosing the project

After forming the team, they began brainstorming projects.

The students came up with several innovative ideas, and continued to narrow them over several meetings.

Eventually, they were narrowed down to two:

• Stomach ulcers: engineer bacteria to inhibit the ability of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) to cause stomach ulcers
• Diabetes: engineering bacteria to sense glucose and produce insulin in order to regulate blood sugar levels

The team split up into two groups, researched each project and came up with project plans, and presented each of the projects to their teammates as well as the U of L iGEM team. Following this, they had a week to decide which project they would go ahead with. After a final meeting to discuss and debate, they unanimously decided to go with the glucose-sensing project.

The Laboratory

One obstacle to overcome was the varying knowledge backgrounds of the students. To overcome this, the U of L iGEM team held tutorials and training sessions for all of the students. Topics covered included:

• Transcription and translation
• Synthetic biology ethics
• Laboratory safety training
• Lab technique tutorials

Once the students had a basic understanding of genetics, as well as the basics of the lab down, they came up with a plan of action to complete the project. The students spent the next couple of months in the lab under the guidance of the University’s iGEM team!

The Competition

After working hard in the lab, in front of the computer, and out in the community, the students had the opportunity to attend the iGEM high school competition in Greenfield, Indiana at the end of June.

The Lethbridge iGEM high school team was the only Canadian team participating in the high school division. They ended up coming home with the trophy for best poster presentation (tied with Kansas)!

Media

After coming home with a trophy, the students were featured in the University’s newspaper, and the local Lethbridge paper. As well, they participated in T.V. interviews and were featured on the radio! All of these media opportunities helped to advance iGEM in our community. Additionally, the students will be presenting to their schools in the fall, furthering the impact of the program and hopefully encouraging others to participate.