Team:UFMG Brazil/Public Engagement
Project
Lab Work
Modeling
Practices
Synenergene
Team
Education and Public Engagement
(4) Talking to the society
The distance between the academia and the society, beyond restrict the demands that are addressed by science and make them apart from the societal needs, also interferes in the public acceptance of the projects developed by science. This subject was covered by our team work in the Synenergene project, which is described here.
To evaluate the public reaction about Synthetic Biology and our project, since we have the objective of using attenuated pathogens as a disease treatment, and to also assess the concerns and fears of the population about this approach, the team conducted a survey at different points of Belo Horizonte.
Overview of interviewees
Among a total of 302 people interviewed, 52.8% were female, and 46.9% were male (Figure 1).
Figure 1 The majority of the people interviewed had between 12 and 40 years(Figure 2)
Figure 2 Figure 2: Age of the interviewees.
The majority of the people interviewed has middle school to undergraduate degree (Figure 3).
Figure3 Figure 3: Education level of the interviewees.
Public background and opinion
In the survey questions on people’s opinions about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), most respondents (75%) showed that they were familiar with the concept, but the majority is unsure about the benefits they can provide (25.7% thinks they are bad for society and 34.2% do not know what to respond). In some cases, the phrase "that's playing God" was mentioned (see Figures 4 to 10).
The two main mistrusts reported by the public were the possibility of something going wrong, leading to the creation of a more dangerous pathogen than the pre-existing one; and the lack of faith that the Leishmania strain is indeed apathogenic. Thus, further explanations were given about the specific proposal and about Synthetic Biology.
In some cases, an oppening to the idea was observed and people seemed more sympathetic to the project, leading to a detected 84.5% acceptance to the team’s proposal. The reactions detected in the survey’s results made the team realise that there is a lack of information and discussion about GMOs and Synthetic Biology between society and scientific community (see Figures 4 to 10).
Figure 4 Figure 4: Answer to the question “Have you ever heard about Leishmania?”
Figure 5 Figure 5. Answer to the question “Do you think Leishmania could be beneficial?””
Figure 6 Figure 6. Answer to the question “Have you ever heard about GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)?”
Figure 7 Figure 7. Answer to the question “Do you believe GMOs to be beneficial or harmful for our society?”
Figure 8 Figure 8. Answer to the question “Would you accept using modified Leishmania as treatment for a disease?”
Figure 9 Figure 9. Answer to the question “Do you use probiotics, biological baking powder (yeast) or vaccines?”
 Open Lab</b></br></p>
<p>UFMG-Brazil iGEM team is supporting the creation of a community lab in the UFMG. The project submitted to funding in 2014 has been recently approved and is beginning to be built. One of the main purposes of a community lab is to create a space to attend demands of the society and put them in practice.</br></p>
<p> To do so, it is necessary to understand how the general public feels, what are their thoughts on science and also what their possible contributions could be. Considering this, we promoted additional actions, such as the online platform Embryo.</br></p>
<p><b>(6) Embryo Platform (1k people reached)</b></br></p>
<p>The team is building, through a Facebook page, an Ideator pilot project - Embryo -, a place where we can easily reach more people and share more information about how good Synthetic Biology could be for the society. Check our pilot <a href=)
here.
Also, we have a Facebook page, where we dialogue with the public, we put news on the team, announced the project and events and disclose research questionnaires.
At last, the team wishes, in future, to build the ideator platform at first as a SynBio advertising tool to support the events, courses and lectures. In the future the team hopes the platform will also function as a data bank for innovation in SynBio, ideas and problems that the population is concerned with as well as suggestions. The platform would be open to everyone as a way of communication between the general public and scientists focusing on the general public’s needs.
(7) SynBio Advertising - 73.3 k people reached
We organised some public interventions in Belo Horizonte, which were used to apply surveys and also to help increase SynBio awareness and to do scientific advertising. Ideas, issues and problems that could be solved using SynBio that the general public may offer were collected.
The team used social medias as tool for the advertising not only of the interventions, but also news in the scientific development, scientific events etc.
(7.1) Idea Incubator
The first action taken to disclose SynBio was the creation of a course called “Ideas Incubator”, open to the entire University community. It was realized that, even among college students, Synthetic Biology, its implications and potential use are not familiar topics. In this course, the basis of SynBio, Molecular Biology and general Biochemistry are studied and SynBio application issues are discussed.
The team wishes to offer the course once a year. The purpose of this course is to provide basic training in Synthetic Biology for later students can take advantage of its concepts to propose solutions to problems of today's society in different areas (Health, Environment, Energy, Food, Industry and Innovation).
Lectures on the main issues in each area will be given and, as a group, students will propose solutions using Synthetic Biology systems. In the near time, the most interesting ideas will be chosen by students to be deepened, constituting a concrete project, which can be applied. Also, to stimulate students criativity and interaction, practical exercises such as the Marshmallow challenge and Egg Drop Project were proposed.
