Team:Thessaly/Inclusion
Inclusivity
In the year 2020, someone might think that all diversities have been set aside, as humanity moves forward. Instead of realizing that as our reality, we come face to face with the unpleasant truth; we have a million obstacles like diseases, epidemics, things we can’t control, and yet we remain our number one enemy.
Adversity in malnutrition and IBDs
According to a World Health Organization(WHO) report (WHO, 2016), today, nearly one in
three people globally suffer from at least one form of malnutrition: wasting, stunting,
vitamin and mineral deficiency, overweight or obesity, and diet-related non-communicable
diseases. This public health epidemic targets everyone, but the most vulnerable groups are
poverty-stricken people, young children, adolescents, older people, those who are with
illness and have a compromised immune system, as well as lactating and pregnant women.
(Dukhi, 2020)
IBDs occur across the world, but with considerable variations in both incidence and
prevalence, both within and between geographic regions. The highest incidence rates of
both CD and UC are found in Northern Europe and North America, with IBDs more common
in industrialized than in non-industrialized countries. The incidence of IBDs continues to
increase worldwide, especially in what were once low-incidence regions, such as Asia and
Eastern Europe, suggesting that the occurrence of IBDs may be influenced by environmental
risk factors (Burisch et al., 2015).
Although the most common age in which someone is diagnosed with IBDs is 15-30 years old,
the diagnosis can happen at any given moment in someone’s life with no limits to their age,
with some people being diagnosed even at the age of 60. Sex-stratified global and national
incidence rates of IBD, reported either by GBD or by other studies, are similar, suggesting
that the disease is not sex-specific (GBD 2017 Inflammatory Bowel Disease Collaborators,
2020).
Malnutrition and IBDs are global health problems that humanity faces, along with a million
other diseases. As we can see, diseases make no exceptions, when it comes to who they are
going to affect, so why should we make exceptions in who we admire, work with, or give
opportunities to?
Inclusion
With that question in mind, our team tried to give a voice to the people who through their
work stood out and contributed exceedingly to their respective scientific fields.
Since we live in the age of social media, we decided to show the world the work of these
amazing scientists on our media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Tweeter, Our website), to
inspire more people to pursue the of science no matter who they are and to show the world
that great minds can be found in anyone.
Women in Science
Our first initiative was a week-long tribute to the women in science that have attributed
throughout the years to its evolution, called “Women in Science”.
“To rise to the challenges of the 21st century, we need to harness our full potential. That
requires dismantling gender stereotypes. Let’s pledge to end the gender imbalance in
science. UN Secretary-General António Guterres” At the present moment, less than 30% of
researchers worldwide are women. According to UNESCO data (2014 - 2016), only around
30% of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female
students’ enrolment is particularly low in ICT (3%), in natural science, mathematics, and
statistics (5%), and in engineering, manufacturing, and construction (8%). Some women
despite this fact stood out and contributed exceedingly to their respective fields.
LGBTQI+ in Science
Our second initiative was, as with “Women in Science”, another week-long tribute to the
people of science who also belong in the LGBTQI+ community, that have attributed
throughout the years to science’s evolution. We promoted the “LGBTQI+ in Science” on
social media, organized by our team in collaboration with Colour Youth, Athens LGBTQI+
Youth Community(image 1). These people were distinguished in many scientific fields such
as Biology, Neurobiology, Neurology, Genetics, Electrical, and Computer Engineering.
In a 2012 report on undergraduate STEM education, the President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology said that “Women and minorities, today constitute about 70
percent of college students but earn only 45 percent of STEM degrees”. Some people
despite this fact stood out and contributed exceedingly to their respective fields.
Karen Warkentin is a CAS professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, she said
“Feminist biologists and queer—or queer-informed—biologists are likely to notice different
things and ask different questions, compared to people without those perspectives”,
“People bring different ideas from their life experience that can be really helpful in solving
problems. And we have better science that way.”
image 1. LGBTQI+ in science
People in Science
There are a lot of other minority groups that have contributed to science and as a team, we
wish that their voices could be heard by everyone. The iGEM competition gives us a chance
to promote their work and include people with diverse identities in scientific research. We
plan on supporting and admiring their work in future projects as well.
We should all recognize the importance of building a diverse community that allows
everyone to thrive, without any restrictions. Equality should be the foundation of our
scientific community giving everyone the opportunity to engage with scientific knowledge
and technological development, regardless of elements of their identity, such as race,
gender, sexuality, and disability. We should remove the barriers and inspire people to be
themselves in a way that can contribute to the research, fighting for the greater good.
Synthetic Biology, as a new and innovative scientific field, promotes new ideas that include
not only ideas on a scientific level, but on an ethical and humanitarian level as well.
A different perspective can be a defining asset in every research, so, different mindsets can
only help, but improve the way science works today. At the end of the day, we are all
scientists who happen to belong in a societal group, but science is our CHOICE. No one
should feel like they don’t have that choice because of society’s opinion. Science sees no
colour, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disabilities, economical or societal status. Science only
sees scientists; and so, should we.
References
Burisch, J., & Munkholm, P. (2015). The epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease.
Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology, 50(8), 942–951.
https://doi.org/10.3109/00365521.2015.1014407
GBD 2017 Inflammatory Bowel Disease Collaborators (2020). The global, regional, and
national burden of inflammatory bowel disease in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017:
a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. The lancet.
Gastroenterology & hepatology, 5(1), 17–30.
Dukhi Natisha (April 5th, 2020). Global Prevalence of Malnutrition: Evidence from Literature
[Online First], IntechOpen, https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92006.
World Health Organization. (2016). The double burden of malnutrition: policy brief. World
Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/255413.
License: CC BY-NC-SA
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