Human Practices

In addition to our laboratory work exploring the vast usefulness and potential properties of silk, we were strongly inspired to look at the societal and environmental implications of our actions.

Discussing the Potentials of Silk in Industry - Interview with David Breslauer, CSO and Co-Founder of Bolt Threads

First, we were motivated to discuss the societal implications of our research outside of the “iGEM” space. Namely, we wanted to hear from members in industry how work with silks can transform and revolutionize the field of manufacturing high performance fibers. We were fortunate enough to meet with David Breslauer, CSO and Co-Founder of Bolt Threads, a start-up company determined to bring high performance synthetic silks to the market using yeast as a model organism. In our interview and tour of their facility, we learned a great deal about the implications of our silk as a product that could shape an entirely new output of novel materials for defense and biomedical purposes. He expressed that not only could our work we useful for synthetic biology applications, but could also yield a product that is highly useful for social purposes.

Social Implications of Silk Engineering: Exhibit and Workshops at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum and UCLA Art|Sci Center

Second, we wanted to discuss the concept sidel of our research, namely, how producing novel silk materials could affect our perception of nature and the artistic implications behind doing so. To expand upon our collaboration with local silk artist Jason Fahrion and the UCLA Art|Sci Center, we were graciously invited to deliver a lecture and workshop at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, entitled Natural Discourse: Flora and Fauna, where we discuss the connections between art and science within the framework of botanical gardens and natural history collections, like silk. Additionally, we will be delivering this same workshop in conjunction with the Art|Sci Center at UCLA in the upcoming academic quarter. We hope that by discussing the basic science and displaying the simple techniques used to construct these synthetic silks, that we bridge the gap between understanding the intrinsic artistic properties of silk, and the power of the engineering principles that derive them. We invite all LA locals to attend both of our workshops this year!

Public Outreach and Science Communication: Ask Us Anything on Reddit's r/AskScience!

Third, while synthetic biology as an emerging field has revolutionized the biotechnology industry and inspired hundreds of scientists to pursue biological engineering interdisciplinary methods in their investigations, there is a severe lack of public knowledge in the field. With significant miscommunication and issues in public perfection on to use of engineered organisms for manufacturing and production of items, we sought to combat those issues through public engagement and support. Namely, we conducted an online public "interview" through the popular internet forum Reddit, where we conducted an Ask Me Anything, where public commenters and members of the iGEM team could freely disseminate information to the general public. Our AMA was a success, we generated over 1400 up votes and approximately 100 questions reneging from issues stemming from our project, to how iGEM and synthetic biology can positively impact current academic research and frontiers in biotechnology. We were very honored to represent iGEM and the silk engineering field to the wide public through our interview!

Education Outreach and Inspiring Future STEM Careers: Gene Circuit Lesson

Lastly, we wanted to bring this level of education not only to artists, but also to the next generation of scientists. Students attending at-risk and underprivileged high schools are becoming less interested in pursuing STEM-related career fields. To help engage our community, we partnered with a UCLA science outreach group called, CityLab and a nonprofit education summer camp organization called http://starinc.org STAR Education, to develop a module specifically designed to enhance students' interest in synthetic biology. We had students design basic gene circuits, and offered suggestions about where they think the science of silk can take us in the future. We hope that this model of education, where we give students hands-on experiences and the opportunity to collaborate and give ideas to scientists in the field, can inspire and enrich students to pursue a STEM career. The genetic circuit design of several of our BioBricks (namely, ones that require the fine tuned expression of difficult RNA transcripts, inspired us to develop this innovative educational activity to inspire at-risk students to strive toward STEM careers. If you are interested in using our lesson plan for future synthetic biology outreach to abide a variety of secondary level students, linked here is a .pdf to the lesson plan generated by our program. We hope that this product can be of assistance in future human practice based activities for developing iGEM teams.