Biosafety and Biosecurity are essential aspects of research. As a part of biosafety, the dual use dilemma is an increasingly discussed topic. Several recently published studies raised questions of necessity of regulation and oversight. We wrote a report on the definitions, national and international laws and ethical questions. We analyzed the current situation within the iGEM competition and propose the implementation of biosecurity risk assessments including questions of dual use risk for iGEM teams. iGEM can be a role model for international collaboration - aiming for a safe and responsible research community.

How could our easy to handle biosensor with its simple evaluation change the world of tomorrow? To answer this question we worked on future scenarios for the application of our biosensor. These fictitious scenarios in form of newspaper articles are based on actual news and interviews with experts.

Street Science is an event to communicate science to the public. This was where we presented our topic in the public for the first time. We offered several small experiments for children and got into conversation with many people. We informed them about problems with drinking water and what we want to do about them. Moreover, we did a survey to find out which water contaminants are most important to people and which requirements they have regarding a biosensor.

Students academy - At the end of June the Center for Biotechnology in Bielefeld hosted the 4^th students academy. 20 students from all over Ostwestfalen Lippe (OWL) visited us to learn more about biology in general, as well as synthetic biology and this year´s iGEM project.
We all had a lot of fun while doing experiments in the laboratory and afterwards at social events.

Press Review