Human Practises

Human Practises is a major part of our iGEM project. The reason for this is that eventhough the science and the theory makes sense, we need to establish whether our idea is viable in the outside world. This is in respect to understanding what the public think about our project idea but also the concept behind synthetic biology.

To be able to understand this as a team we decided on producing a short survey which asked questioned what our surveyors understood about synthetic biology and Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we then introduced our idea and asked their opinions on this. We finally asked what the ethical implications of our project would have on the public.

Using the data we obtained from the survey we found that some of our surveyors did not understand the idea behind synthetic biology. From this we questioned what would be the best method to at least increase awareness of the new science and its prospects for the future. Majority of surveyors agreed that education about synthetic biology at schools was the best way in which people could learn about it such that as a team we produced a lesson plan for a Year 9/10 class

Information about this is shown under the Education sub heading

Survey

As part of the Human Practices section we wanted to understand what people from all backgrounds and ages understood about synthetic biology. To be able to do this we used questions which will highlight what people know and what they thought as an outside prospective of our project idea.

To achieve this we have created an online survey which can be found at: Survey

Survey Results

From the responses of the survey we have converted them such that the results can be seen visually through bar graphs and pie charts, this has been shown below.

Q1. How much do you know about synthetic biology?

A. Results from the survey had shown that most of the surveyors had little or some information about synthetic biology with 7 people having never heard of it before or knowing nothing.

Q2. What would help you understand about synthetic biology?

A. From the above graph it can be seen that most surveyors found that teaching at schools would help one understand synthetic biology. To develop from what we understood from this we produced a lesson plan for Year 9/10 students, which can be found in the Education section.

Q3. What do you think are the advantage to synthetic biology?

A. A number of advantages were listed including:

• Synthesis of biological and industrial compounds
• Less damage to environment
• Healthcare and energy production
• Preventing and treating diseases

Q4. What do you think are the disadvantaged to synthetic biology?

A. A number of disadvantages were listed including:

• Lack of control and regulation of what can and cannot be produced from synthetic biology methods
• Create pathogenic or invasive species
• Exploitation by businesses
• Could be dangerous when released in environment

Q5. What are your opinions on the use of synthetic biology (including GMOs (genetically modified organisms))?

A. Majority of surveyors had thought that the idea was a good idea

Q6. What do you think about the use of GMOs to treat human disorders?

A.

Q7. Would you allow yourself to be treated for a disorder using genetically modified bacteria in your gut?

A. From the above bar graph it can be seen that a majority would allow themselves to be treated by GMOs, however it cna also be seen that some however would not give a definite yes answer but will be dependent on the circumstances

Q8. What do you think the ethical issues surrounding this topic are?

A.

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Education

As directed from the Human Practices and Survey wiki page, from what we had found on the survey we thought about going one step forward such that we created a lesson plan that could be used by teacher teaching students in Year 9/ 10. As shown as such: Education

In addition to producing the lesson plan, members from the iGEM team went to their previous schools to talk about our project and the iGEM competition.

Collaboration