These questions are probably asked by many, especially younger people. But even older age groups might find themselves in unprecedented circumstances when they are presented with terms such as enzyme, gene or plasmid. Keeping this in mind, we have made it our task to evoke some long overdue change in this respect. For this, we developed several projects that all contribute to a better understanding of synthetic biology (SynBio). Admittedly, science communication is not only a topic in SynBio, but of all other sciences as well, but we decided to lay our focus on what we know best.

We tried to reach the widest possible audience with our projects. In order to achieve this, first of all we had to gain an overview of the already existing knowledge in the minds of the broad masses which we managed to accomplish by an online survey with 292 participants. (click here) We have also taken up this issue in a livestream on social media which we carried out together with the iGEM Team Kaiserslautern, in order to publicly provide further information about topics of synthetic biology for those interested. (click here)

We also created a podcast called "Genomenal" which is aimed at people of all ages who would like to learn more about biotechnology and iGEM. “Genomenal” can be found on Spotify, our university website and on our wiki (click here). We have also thought of something for the younger part of society. Together with Aleksa Zecevic (click here), we have developed a mini-game called “The Genomenal Adventures of Dr. W”, which introduces biological practices in a playful and amusing way. (click here)

Last but not least, we also wanted to explicitly address students in the upper grades who might be thinking about a future career pathway in biology. For this, we have worked together with the Kurt-Schumacher-Schule in Karben. For this school, we hosted a zoom call in which we introduced the topic of iGEM to an advanced course for biology. We reported about our experiences and gave tips regarding our studies of biology and chemistry with the hope to enthuse them for scientifical studies. (click here)

Everyone loves video games. This also applies to us, so we were pretty excited when we found someone who could program us a little game. Our goal was to explain and illustrate methods used in a biology laboratory within this minigame, so everyone can learn something new, while playing our game.

Due to the limited time and capacity of our team we had to keep the game simple. We decided on doing a side-scroller known from games like “Super Mario”. Our main character should of course be a motivated biotechnologist, who needs to complete several tasks in different levels. After many hours of designing levels and pictograms "The Genomenal Adventures of Dr. W” was born.

„The Genomal Adventures of Dr. W” tells the tale of the scientist Dr. W. He walks through various levels trying to solve a mission. Each level represents a biological lab procedure, such as gel electrophoresis, Gibson Assembly and – last but not least – one level representing our project idea.

The game starts with a basic level in which the player needs to collect his equipment, pipettes and tubes, among a few other things. The more levels you play through, the more things you have to gather and the more dangers you encounter. Danger itself is presented in many ways - as fire, a pit in the ground, a poisonous cloud or a puddle which the player needs to overcome. This way, we convey all the difficulties one might face in the lab. Your work does not always pan out as planned. One does not always know which path to choose and this is what this game stands for. Not only does it represent the steps our iGEM team has taken whilst the development of our project idea but should also enthuse others for the field of science in a fun and amusing way.

If you are interested in giving it a try, click here to download the game.