Team:TU-Eindhoven/Human Practices

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Throughout the years, synthetic biology has received more and more attention from the general public. In order to help create even more awareness we participated in organizing the Discovery Festival and taught high-school students about the wonders of synthetic biology. For both events, we encouraged the participants to share their thoughts on the iGEM competition and come up with with new ideas for upcoming competitions. By showing visitors of the festival and school children what can be accomplished within the world of biotechnology we hope we inspired them, sparked their interest and helped them view synthetic biology in another light!

Discovery Festival

A photo of our brainstorm session in Utrecht with the other Dutch teams.

Together with the iGEM teams of the VU University Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, the Wageningen University and the University of Groningen, we will attend the Discovery Festival in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven on Friday September 28th.

The Discovery Festival is an annual festival in NEMO Amsterdam and is organized for the first time in Erasmus MC Rotterdam and STRP Eindhoven this year. We expect over 5000 visitors during the night where science meets art.

We will take our visitors on a tour in our provisional laboratory, where they will learn about the process of genetic modification . We want to give people a feel of how synthetic biology is performed, from ordering a perceptible characteristic in the form of a BioBrick, to observing this implement feature in bacteria. The visitors participate alone or in a group up to four persons. Each group is accompanied by an iGEM team member as expert, who will inform the participants about the biological processes and how to carry out the different steps.

After getting a lab coat and a pair of gloves, each participant may choose one of the possible BioBricks from the computer screen. When the participant clicks on the desired characteristic, a screen opens with the DNA sequence of this BioBrick. Next, the participant will order the BioBrick and will receive an envelope, containing a flask with fake DNA. Subsequently, the DNA will be mixed with water using a vortex. The DNA will be well mixed and ready for use. Each participant will get his or her own test tube and will pipette some fake bacterial culture in this tube. The DNA will be added to these test tubes as well. The test tubes containing DNA and bacteria will be put in an electroporation-device. The participant may push the ‘flash’-button. The next step will be to plate the bacteria on an agar plate. Therefore the participant will genuinely pour some bacteria from the test tube on the agar plate and smear it on the plate with a spatula. The agar plates are then put into something that looks like an incubator. After removing the plates from the incubator, the results are shown to the participants.

Furthermore, the visitors can share their views on new topics , by answering the question: “What would you like to make using genetically engineered bacteria?” We are looking forward to introduce them to the wonderful world of biology!

For more details, check out the website of the Discovery Festival: www.discoveryfestival.nl.

An overview of the Discovery Festival in 2011.

Teaching at Oud-Beijerland

A photo made during the lesson provided to high school students.

On Friday morning the 21st of September, two members of the team went to Oud-Beijerland (near Rotterdam) to teach 23 high-school students about biology and synthetic biology. After a short recap about DNA and proteins, the students were taught to write a research question and a hypothesis . The assignment was to compare the filthiness of two articles of everyday use, by comparing the amount of bacteria after a week of growth. The students will take pictures of their petri-dishes twice a day to monitor the growth. Next, the principles of synthetic biology are elaborated and some iGEM topics of previous years are discussed. Then, the students got the chance to think about what they would like to adjust in bacteria. They thought about topics from ‘homework-making gen’ to ‘cure-for-cancer gen’. The results of their research question and the creative story about their new bacteria will be presented during a presentation evening in October. The two members of the team will attend as jury members .