Education

Science Communication

We firmly believe engagement with society is a fundamental pillar for iGEM competition, a way to build bridges to link science to society. We have put a lot of effort to include all parts of our community to make an impact that will last. With our society’s education actions, we wanted to spread the word of iGEM as an excellent opportunity for young researchers to develop and perform their own projects in synthetic biology. We also wanted to inspire younger students and reach people that are not involved in the synthetic biology field. As fellow researchers, we felt it was our responsibility to engage with society and show first-hand, by introducing synthetic biology or our project, the reason we are doing this.

Public Engagement Actions

In order to educate about synthetic biology and how it can be applied to real-life we got in touch with the Experimental High School of the University of Patras. Teaching students about synthetic biology, its applications, and Pharmacogenomics was an unprecedented experience. We seized the opportunity to share our project, proving that there is no need to be a researcher in professional labs to apply synthetic biology and genomic analysis in real life. Thus, we encouraged students to brainstorm on their own and think of problems they would like to solve using synthetic biology. Performing a PCR and an Electrophoresis using BentoLab, in an attempt to become more interactive and understandable, was really exciting for them. But we did not stop there! We even uploaded the photo from the electrophoresis results to our Web-Based Application so that kids can take a glimpse of how Artificial Intelligence works. Lastly, a quiz we created, referring to Pharmacogenomics, Genomic Analysis, and synthetic biology, made all the school’s students learn essential information about the above science fields in an interactive way.

After the end of our workshop, the High School principal revealed his opinion on what he thinks students gained by this activity. “Today, you showed them that Biology is something more than just studying and taking exams. It can be fun. It can be useful. And it has no limits.” He quoted. “I also think that you helped some kids decide the road they want to follow after finishing High School,” he added. We believe that synthetic biology should be a high school course as it can develop students’ critical thinking and awareness of the world’s problems.

Presenting “Project Hippocrates,” our proposed way to implement synthetic biology into clinical practice in front of real experts in the field of personalized medicine, was a great challenge for us. During the 2020 Golden Helix Summer School, six members of our team had the opportunity to discuss what we might be missing in our project with the other participants. Finally, a quiz we created, referring to Pharmacogenomics, Genomic Analysis, and other synthetic biology fields, made all the student delegates learn essential information about the above science fields in an interactive way.

* The Golden Helix Summer School is an event organized by Golden helix Foundation, a foundation based in London established in 2003 as an international non-profit scientific research organization with interdisciplinary research and educational activities in the field of genome medicine. This summer school that consists of educational activities organized on a biennial basis constitutes a unique opportunity for researchers worldwide to expand their knowledge in the rapidly evolving field of Genomic Medicine and exchange innovative ideas in the Greek islands’ conductive environment. Each Summer School aims to provide a unique academic program intertwined with an attractive social program for invited speakers and participants while indulging in the Greek summertime.

One of our goals is to make Project Hippocrates known at the University of Patras. Searching for an efficient way to achieve it, we found out about the Campus Party of Patras IQ; an event organized annually to promote and enhance young people’s entrepreneurship. It was a first-class opportunity to present our innovative idea and test its after-iGEM potential in the Greek market. A system that combines Pharmacogenomics with Artificial Intelligence surprised most participants who concluded that such a diagnostic tool would significantly impact our society.

Communicating our project to the public wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Because of the pandemic, we had to postpone or even cancel all our physical events. While examining our alternatives, we considered it efficient to publish articles about our innovative idea in media outlets. Thus, we wrote several articles about our team, our project, our wet lab, and dry lab experiments introducing the world of Synthetic Biology. Explaining complicated scientific terms such as Pharmacogenomics or Artificial Intelligence (AI) using simple words was a great challenge, but we are so glad that we made it.

The local media, print newspapers and websites helped us spread synthetic biology around the city of Patras. Then, to reach more scientists in our country that might be interested in what we are creating, we reached OMIC Engine, the National Research Infrastructure in Synthetic Biology that accepted to publish an article about us. Sharing our team’s contact info with its readers was a crucial move as it helped anyone interested in our scientific field find us.

Undoubtedly, our greatest moment was on October’s 4th, when “ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ,” one of the biggest newspapers in Greece, wrote an article about us. In its insert “ΒΗΜΑ science” there are two pages full of information about the Laboratory of Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Medicine and especially about the different ways with which synthetic biology can be used to achieve personalized medicine.

Even at this point, something was missing. Education, like science, shouldn’t be confined only to our country. According to our feedback, presenting our project through Medium, a global community of writers, editors, and readers, was an excellent move towards this direction. What’s actually amazing is that today, every scientist around the globe interested in synthetic biology can directly contact us through this platform.

Giving an interview on a radio station was an unprecedented experience for us. UP FM, the University of Patras’ official radio station, gave us the opportunity to talk about the applications of Synthetic Biology in everyday life. A radio producer, Christos Christopoulos, hosted us on his radio show and urged us to present our project and explain what iGEM Competition is. The interview’s highlight was when listeners called the radio station and asked their questions while being on-air.

What’s iGEM Competition? How can someone join a team? What are the steps that need to be followed until the Giant Jamboree? These are only a few of the questions we tried to answer during our “Cafe Scientifique.” Through this event, our wet-lab team had the opportunity to raise our guest’s awareness about synthetic biology by dispelling myths and misconceptions about it. After sharing our iGEM experiences, we noticed an increased interest in joining our next year’s team. That was when we realized that our goal to inspire and motivate was accomplished.

*This event has been organized respecting all the greek COVID-19 guidelines

Presenting “Project Hippocrates” through an online event organized by OMIC Engine, the National Research Infrastructure in Synthetic Biology was the best way to demonstrate our work to the Greek scientific community. We are thankful that we were invited to participate in such an event through which we managed to build trustful relationships with researchers all around Greece. The feedback we received was actually tremendous, as they got so excited that they proposed to help us transform “project Hippocrates” into a sustainable business by all means.

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