Team:Groningen/Education
Engineering life:
Where do you draw the line?
Genetic engineering techniques have developed at an enormous pace over the last few decades. Recently, the Nobel Prize 2020 in Chemistry was awarded to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for the development of the CRISPR-Cas method for genome editing, demonstrating the importance of this technique! The advancement of genome editing techniques opens up numerous possible opportunities in agriculture and medicine. For instance, one could think of using CRISPR-Cas to treat genetic disorders. But the really important question is: To what extent are we going to use genetic engineering technologies in the future, especially when it comes to editing human DNA? Where should we, as a society, draw a line? Are we going to use genetic engineering to only cure diseases in adult tissues? Or should we also use it to edit embryonic DNA that can be passed onto future generations?
The main part of our outreach program addresses these and other questions in a two-part lesson series called Engineering Life. Our lesson series is part of the DNA-dialoog (DNA-dialogue in English; https://www.dnadialoog.nl), a public discussion on human genome editing, which is hosted by a large cluster of important Dutch institutions. The lesson series is available in both Dutch & English and is published on a free online course platform to make it available for a wide audience. Not convinced yet? Then check out our promotional videos below and sign up for our lesson series !
Lesson Series Design
What is CRISPR-Cas, how does it work and how could it be applied in real life? How far should we go with genetic engineering techniques that aim to modify the human genome and cure diseases? These questions are addressed in our two-part lesson series “Engineering Life”. We use a combination of texts, animations, quizzes, and exercises to discuss these topics and encourage the learners to critically think about how far we could and should go with modifying the DNA of humans. The lesson series is hosted on the free online course platform Thinkific and accessible for everyone who is interested. The lesson series is designed in both Dutch and English language, targeting a wide audience. High school knowledge of biology is sufficient to follow the content of this lesson series. In each lesson, technical terms will be explained.
During the first lesson, the learner is introduced to the basics of cell biology and genetics, learns the basics of CRISPR-Cas, and gets a brief overview of possible applications of CRISPR-Cas in real life. We provide examples of how CRISPR-Cas could, for instance, be used to wipe out malaria or even treat heritable genetic disorders. In this context, we also explain the differences between germline and somatic cell editing. What makes our lesson series unique is the strong emphasis on ethics: Our second lesson deals with the ethical dilemmas that surround human genome editing. Special emphasis lies on the ethics of genetically engineering human embryonic DNA to treat inherited diseases. We include three fictive, future scenarios of the Netherlands in 2039, which all present different governmental policies on human genome editing. In the video accompanying this text, you can find an example of one of the scenarios. To get a feel for how the course platform of our lesson series looks like, click on the image of Figure 1. In addition, the raw content of the English lesson series can be viewed here and the Dutch version can be viewed here. However, we highly recommend to enrol for our online lesson series via the online course platform to get the full experience and be able to watch the videos embedded in the course. The links to the course platform can be found at the top of this page, below our promotional videos.
Using the scenarios, the learners are encouraged to make up their minds about how they think about each situation. Another special feature of the lesson series is its implementation in a national discussion on human genome editing called DNA-dialoog (DNA-dialogue in English). We collaborated with many national institutions to reach a broad audience, ranging from doctors and their patients to primary school students. Learn more about the DNA-dialogue and our partner institutions in the next paragraph!
Produced by NEMO Kennislink (CC-license).
The DNA-dialogue
Our lesson series is embedded in the DNA-dialoog (English: DNA-dialogue). The DNA-dialogue is a large national initiative of eleven independent, influential institutes that encourage a public discussion on human genome editing in the Netherlands. The overarching goal of the DNA-dialogue is to determine how the Dutch society thinks about human genome editing to treat (inheritable) diseases. Some of the most renowned, institutions associated with the DNA-dialogue are the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven (RIVM), the Erfocentrum in Amersfoort, NEMO Kennislink in Amsterdam, the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and the Rathenau Institute in the Hague.
Normally, the DNA-dialogue is held on-site, in physical interaction with the public. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, a physical form of the DNA-dialogue is not possible this year. Our iGEM team designed an online educational platform to ensure the continuation of the DNA-dialogue in times of social distancing. In our online lesson series, we distribute questionnaires from the Erasmus Medical Center, which collects opinions on human genome editing. These questionnaires aim to investigate if and how the opinion of persons on human genome engineering changes if they have knowledge about CRISPR-Cas and genome editing in general. That is why the questionnaire is filled in once before and once after the participants have followed our lesson series. The results of the questionnaire will be used by the Dutch government to create policies on the use of genome editing techniques. We are proud to be part of such a high-profile project and do believe that it is now more important than ever to involve the public in an open, two-way dialogue on the use of scientific discoveries with a high societal impact!
Importance
Scientific discoveries have the potential to change our daily lives drastically. The application of CRISPR-Cas to cure human diseases is certainly no exception. However, it is also important to talk about the implications of these discoveries and their application in society. This is exactly the reason that the DNA-dialogue was developed, and that our team (Figure 3) partnered up with national institutions that promote a public discussion on human genome editing (see also paragraph DNA-dialogue). The unique feature of the DNA-dialogue, in which our course is embedded, is its wide range of interest groups involved. Not only scientists discuss the possible implications of human genome editing, but also patients suffering from genetic diseases, health care personnel, pregnant women, and many more are involved. This makes the DNA-dialogue, and therefore also our lesson series, a highly diverse and important project. Below, you can view the opinions of two of our collaborators, Marcia van Woensel (NEMO Kennislink) and Eef Grob (Erfocentrum), on the importance of the DNA-dialogue.
"We should not leave this discussion to scientist and politics, but need to include the whole society."
"During the DNA-dialogue you also hear points of view outside the scientific bubble, which is really important."
Safety
During the development of our lesson series, we made sure to follow local, institutional, and national rules and regulations about safe data management and the collection of data. We consulted the ethics committee of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) to discuss the safety aspects of our course plans, especially concerning data storage and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The FSE ethics committee evaluated the lesson series and confirmed that it complies with the local, institutional, and national rules and regulations around human subject research and the storage of data. A written statement can be found here. The course-embedded surveys from the Erasmus Medical Center follow the rules of safe human subject research according to national guidelines and include a form of consent that has to be agreed upon before the start.
What else did we do?
Reaching out to the public can be challenging in times of a pandemic. That is why this year our team has put extra effort into sharing our project and our passion for (synthetic) biology with a broad public. We participated in various events, educating and engaging with different societal groups. In addition, RootPatch has been featured in blogs, online newsletters, and interviews. Even during times of social distancing, the team was able to host two in-person workshops for children (ages 6 - 14). In this section, we elaborate on the various elements of our outreach program besides the lesson series.
A unique feature of our team this year is that we have three team members with a background in Arts, instead of Science. Alex, Job, and Arne are Graphical Design students and form our animation team. With this team we aim to bring our science communication to a higher level, raising the quality of our work and making the communication with people lacking a background in science more effective. The goal of team Rootpatch is to bridge science, technology, and society through our visual artworks.
The animation team designed videos and animations for our lesson series, and various iGEM deliverables. We are particularly proud of the 2 minute promotional video, which introduces the viewers into our project. You can find it here.
Outreach
The first in-person activity our team participated in was the Ontdekdagen (Dutch for "Discovery-days") hosted on the 12th and 13th of August. During this mini-festival, children (ages 8 - 12) learned about science in a fun and hands-on way. Various workshops were hosted and children were able to participate in an insect safari and virtual reality nature-workshop. This event aims to spark the curiosity of the kids. Organizer Leen van Wijngaarden explained to us that by sparking curiosity, he hopes the children will get interested in science, and later on choose a science-profile in highschool.
Our team hosted a workshop on the evolution of life on earth (Figure 5). During this workshop, our team members Sietse and Ronja showed the children how it is possible that over the course of evolution some species thrive, while other species struggle to survive or even become extinct. Hosting the workshop was great fun and allowed us to talk, in person, with the children and their parents about biology and our iGEM project. We would like to thank Broedplaats de Campagne for organizing the event.
A video of the event by the local news can be found here (Dutch).
During the design of RootPatch, we realized that our product should not impact other (micro)organisms in the soil, other than the potato cyst nematode. This is because soil biodiversity should not change as it plays a crucial role in decomposing organic matter, liberating nutrients in the soil and increasing the overall quality of the soil. All of this is very important for the (potato) farmers. However, soil erosion, salinization, and the use of harmful chemicals and GM plants in agriculture could disturb the soil communities. To educate other iGEMers about the importance of healthy soil biodiversity, we hosted a webinar during the Global Meetup (Figure 6). In collaboration with team NOVA Lisbon, we discussed what the agricultural industry and we, as humans, could do to preserve soil biodiversity. Ilya and Tiago had a lot of fun presenting the webinar, and were very grateful and happy about this opportunity.
You can find a recording of the webinar here.
The iGEM Groningen team was invited to host an in-person event at De Jonge Onderzoekers (EN: the Young Researchers; Figure 7). This afterschool program provides workshops to children, from 6 to 14 years, on various topics like technology, physics, biology, and chemistry. The aim of De Jonge Onderzoekers is to educate young people who would like to learn more about technology and science. By doing so they try to trigger curiosity and stimulate creative thinking.
On the 23th of October, we planned (explanation of pdf file: afgelast = Dutch for canceled) to host a workshop about “Genetic engineering: cutting and pasting DNA” for a group of 10 to 15 children. Unfortunately, on the 13th of October, the Dutch government announced a three-week partial lockdown to prevent further spread of COVID-19. As a result of the stricter measures, our event at De Jonge Onderzoekers needed to be rescheduled and will take place after the Wiki-freeze.
During the first hour of the workshop, we will explain what DNA is and how new technologies such as CRISPR-Cas enable us to “cut and paste with DNA”. Also, we will discuss various applications of genetic engineering techniques as well as our own project. After the presentation, the students will isolate their own DNA using household kitchen items such as dish soap and brandspiritus (methylated alcohol). In the second hour of the workshop, the students will have the ability to make their own artwork using fluorescent GM-bacteria (mKate2 and sfGFP). With this experiment, we hope to spark the students' (visual) interest. We are looking forward to hosting this workshop and introducing the children to the wonderful (and visually beautiful) world of synthetic biology.
In the Media
We were invited by NEMO Kennislink, the biggest science museum in the Netherlands, to be featured on their biotechnologie.nl website (Figure 8). We wrote four blogs, describing our iGEM experience, aiming to educate the public about synthetic biology. During the writing process, we learned a lot about how to explain difficult scientific topics in an accessible and understandable way to a wider audience. We would like to thank Nicole van 't Wout-Hofland for the extensive feedback and the fruitful collaboration.
Biotechnologie.nl is a website that posts about the latest developments in biotechnology. Their goal is to make people aware of the potential of new technologies and think about their own role and position in the public debate about biotechnology.
Click here to read our blogs.
In the early phase of RootPatch, we collaborated with EUSynBioS, resulting in our project being featured in a blog on their platform (Figure 9). In this blog, we discuss RootPatch and the future outlook of our project. Besides, we discuss the importance of healthy soil microbiome and the safety hazards of releasing genetically modified bacteria in the soil ecosystem.
The European Synthetic Biology Society (EUSynBioS) aims to provide an online platform for synthetic biologists working in European academia and industry. With this platform, they try to connect students and postdocs, creating a strong EU synthetic biology community. Our team was grateful for the opportunity to educate the readers about our project, and we would like to thank Içvara for the collaboration.
You can read our blog here.
Josemary Medrano from Molecular Cloud invited us to participate in an online interview about our project (Figure 10). During this interview, we explained how RootPatch works, discussed its specificity towards potato cyst nematodes, and talked about designing an iGEM project in times of a pandemic. It was a lot of fun for our team members Ilya and Sucharita to reflect on our iGEM experience so far. Afterwards, recordings of the interview were posted on various social media platforms by Molecular Cloud. We would like to thank Josemary for the opportunity to share our project with the big audience of Molecular Cloud.
Molecular cloud facilitates the innovation of biology by hosting an online platform for researchers to share their knowledge, ask questions, and spark collaborations. This platform is open-access, making the shared knowledge available for everyone interested. Besides, Molecular Cloud is a platform where knowledge about biology is centralized, making it easy to find answers to research-related questions. From our own experience, we know that a platform like Molecular Cloud can be of great value when designing experiments.
You can find the recording of our interview here.
To foster awareness of our project within the scientific community of our university, we organized an interviewed with the UKrant. The UKrant is our university's digital newspaper and is distributed among more than 40,000 students, RuG staff, and alumni every week. UKrant gets approximately 200,000 page views a month, which offered a big stage to promote the RootPatch project. Following the article in the University's newsletter, our project was picked up by several websites that are related to the Dutch potato industry (Figure 11). RootPatch was mentioned in various digital newsletters of big Dutch potato companies such as the Nederlandse Aardappel Organisatie (Dutch Potato Organization). We were thankful for the support and would like to thank Marjanne van der Bijl for this opportunity.
You can find the UKrant article here.
Last but definitely not least, we used various social media platforms with the aim of reaching out to a wider audience (Figure 12). RootPatch has been active on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Our Twitter post on “Reasons to participate in iGEM” was viewed more than 5600 times. This active media strategy resulted in contact with various interested news platforms, companies and institutions. To engage with our followers, we hosted a Q&A session on Instagram and were really happy to receive many questions from an involved public.
