<p> A team would be nothing without it's members. As such, we would like to introduce ourselves and our mentors! </p>
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<p> The team wanted to get a preview of how our idea would be perceived by the general public. To this end, we created an online survey, the goal of which was to get a better understanding of what the general public knows about GMOs and probiotics. The survey was structured to gradually give more information about GMOs and probiotics, measure initial comfort levels with these concepts, and measure their williness to support them afterwards. The people who took the survey ranged from 18 to 50+ years old and had an education background ranging from high school to advanced profession degrees. The survey can be found <a href = "https://docs.google.com/a/columbia.edu/forms/d/1LRt45MPoeKxt540zvHK4xbwtq_E3vLZal4C_tVbCPPg/viewform"> here.</a>Please feel free to continue to contribute to it and expand our dataset! In addition, we acknowledge the fact that our sample size may be skewed towards people who are already interested in synthetic biology based on how we advertised it (through the team and personal forms of social media), but the information gleaned from the data we collected is still rather useful. </p>
<p> <img src = "https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/8/83/Columbia_NYC_Jacky.jpg" align = "left" style = "height: 200px;"> Named after Honk Kong pop sensation Jacky Cheung, Jacky is currently a sophomore at Columbia College studying computer science with his mind set on going into medicine. However, Jacky's web design skills are rather lackluster. Nonetheless, he makes a fantastic last-minute logo designer in his humble opinion and did his best to organize and take care of soft-, dry-, and wet- lab responsibilties. Outside of iGEM, Jacky enjoys playing handball, table tennis, and basketball if he's not buried under a pile of work that has to be done or sleeping.
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<p> So, what exactly did we find out from our survey? Well for one, as the graph to the right shows, on a scale from 1-5 with 5 being the most comfortable, 58.3% of people have a comfort level less than or equal to 3. This confirms our suspicion that most people are not all too comfortable with the idea of GMOs. From here, we tell the survey taker that genetically modified bacteria are used to produce insulin and a range of antibiotics to demonstrate a useful function.
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<h3> Samuel (Sam) Magaziner </h3>
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<p> Descended from the noble Magaziner clan of Humenne, Hungary (then the Austro-Hungarian Empire), makers and managers of an exploding powder magazine factory, Sam has turned his interests to more peaceful and less explosive pursuits. A 4th year undergraduate Biochemistry major, Sam enjoys microbiomes, gut peptides, and long walks on the beach. Some say his beard whispers secrets of arcane and scientific portents whilst he transforms cells. Others say it makes him look Amish. Regardless, Sam played a major role in construct and experimental design. </p>
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With this, as the pie chart to the left reveals, 14.5% of people stated that they are more supportive of GMOs, but for the most part (79% of the sample size), <img src = "https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/7/75/Columbia_NYC_OpinionChange.PNG" alt = "Opinion Change" align = "left" style = "width: 300px; margin-right: 20px;"> people's opinion remained the same and 6% of the people were more opposed to it afterwards. This tells us that it is going to take much more than the fact that GMOs already have some useful functions in society to have them support new applications of synthetic biology. Thus, it is important in the future to consider what synthetic biologists should do to garner more support for their cause and to assess what the public fears and support about GMO. </p>
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<h3> Hudson Lee </h3>
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<p> Surprisingly not named after the Hudson River, much to the disbelief of his other New York City natives, Hudson is currently a 2nd year undergraduate Biology major. Outside of the classroom, his interests include gymnastics, Korean Barbecue, breakdancing, and long walks on the beach. Apart from iGEM, he splits his time among Ballroom, Hip-Hop, and Capoeira dance teams. Even with these other commitments, Hudson headed up logo and banner designs as well as wetwork. </p>
<p> Kong hails from Bangkok, Thailand and is a sophomore studying Biology. When not pipetting, he’s usually cooking, learning Spanish from Kenya, who he is in turn teaching Thai, and watching Netflix (mainly Gossip Girl). Though he has never been to the beach, he enjoys long walks on the beach. </p>
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<p> When asked about probiotics, the results show that 27.4% of the population do not know what it is. To help inform our survey takers, we explain that probiotics are live bacteria that are shown to be good for one's digestive health by supporting the beneficial bacteria in the gut and can be found in food such as yogurt, kefir, and miso. Given this information, 85.7% felt as if they have a better understanding of what probiotics are. When asked how comfortable they were with consuming probiotic from a scale from 1-5, 71.4% reported a comfort level greater than or equal to 4 as shown on the right. This seems to signify that people are more inclined towards consuming probiotics because of the benefits it can give and its more natural nature. </p>
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<h3> Kenya Velez </h3>
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<p> Kenya Velez is currently a junior at Pace University majoring in biochemistry. The opportunity to be a part of the SPURS program, a biomedical research internship, has given me the opportunity to do research on the iGEM team. Currently my lab works consist in Columbia’s labs doing synthetic biology research and anti-microbial properties lab work at Pace University. </p>
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<p> In order to get a better understanding of what people were concerned about, we had them choose topics they would want to learn more about (see graph below). It is clear that people are most concerned about the potential impact GMOs have on the environment, how GMOs would affect the bpdy, who is benefitting monetarily from GMO developments, and how they would be regulated. Thus, the survey has allowed us to learn what the public wants to learn about GMOs and probiotics and although we have not been able to follow up on this survey, we have a better understanding about how to approach and educate the public about these issues in the future and this is an extremely important first step. </p> ;
<p> In addition to the online survery, team members also went out to talk with people directly to facilitate conversation about synthetic biology between the general public and those involved in the field of science. One such opportunity for this involved volunteering at the New York Hall of Science "Building with Biology" pilot exhibit. This gave members of our team the chance to talk to children and their parents about synthetic biology. One of our biggest take-aways was that children were much more open to the idea of using engineered bacteria in their day-to-day lives while their parents were much more reluctant to support such developments. This leads us to believe that the next generation will be more inclined to support advancements in the way we think about bacteria. However, in order for this to happen, children need to be more exposed to and educated on the possibilites of synthetic biology. </p>
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<p> Furthermore, interactions with the public have shown that as they learn more about synthetic biology, their interest in the subject increases. This is also due to the trend of apprehension and anxiety regarding synthetic biology stemming from uncertainties. All in all, our team concludes that education is the key to get the public excited and interested enough to support synthetic biology for all that it can be. </p>
Sam explaining our project to the security guard at the building of our lab in the wee hours of the night.
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Revision as of 20:03, 18 September 2015
TEAM MEMBERS
A team would be nothing without it's members. As such, we would like to introduce ourselves and our mentors!
Undergraduate Team Members
Jacky Cheung
Named after Honk Kong pop sensation Jacky Cheung, Jacky is currently a sophomore at Columbia College studying computer science with his mind set on going into medicine. However, Jacky's web design skills are rather lackluster. Nonetheless, he makes a fantastic last-minute logo designer in his humble opinion and did his best to organize and take care of soft-, dry-, and wet- lab responsibilties. Outside of iGEM, Jacky enjoys playing handball, table tennis, and basketball if he's not buried under a pile of work that has to be done or sleeping.
Samuel (Sam) Magaziner
Descended from the noble Magaziner clan of Humenne, Hungary (then the Austro-Hungarian Empire), makers and managers of an exploding powder magazine factory, Sam has turned his interests to more peaceful and less explosive pursuits. A 4th year undergraduate Biochemistry major, Sam enjoys microbiomes, gut peptides, and long walks on the beach. Some say his beard whispers secrets of arcane and scientific portents whilst he transforms cells. Others say it makes him look Amish. Regardless, Sam played a major role in construct and experimental design.
Hudson Lee
Surprisingly not named after the Hudson River, much to the disbelief of his other New York City natives, Hudson is currently a 2nd year undergraduate Biology major. Outside of the classroom, his interests include gymnastics, Korean Barbecue, breakdancing, and long walks on the beach. Apart from iGEM, he splits his time among Ballroom, Hip-Hop, and Capoeira dance teams. Even with these other commitments, Hudson headed up logo and banner designs as well as wetwork.
Suppawat (Kong) Kongthong
Kong hails from Bangkok, Thailand and is a sophomore studying Biology. When not pipetting, he’s usually cooking, learning Spanish from Kenya, who he is in turn teaching Thai, and watching Netflix (mainly Gossip Girl). Though he has never been to the beach, he enjoys long walks on the beach.
Kenya Velez
Kenya Velez is currently a junior at Pace University majoring in biochemistry. The opportunity to be a part of the SPURS program, a biomedical research internship, has given me the opportunity to do research on the iGEM team. Currently my lab works consist in Columbia’s labs doing synthetic biology research and anti-microbial properties lab work at Pace University.
Named after Honk Kong pop sensation Jacky Cheung, Jacky is currently a sophomore at Columbia College studying computer science with his mind set on going into medicine. However, Jacky's web design skills are rather lackluster. Nonetheless, he makes a fantastic last-minute logo designer in his humble opinion and did his best to organize and take care of soft-, dry-, and wet- lab responsibilties. Outside of iGEM, Jacky enjoys playing handball, table tennis, and basketball if he's not buried under a pile of work that has to be done or sleeping.