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)

What comes to your mind when you hear “Synthetic Biology” or “GMO”? You probably think of all the promising iGEM projects you know or all the great possibilities this field offers for the future. But this is not the fact for everyone yet. Many people are not feeling comfortable when they hear these terms. When you go to a grocery store in Germany, there is a sign which says “without genetic engineering” on a lot of products. We wanted to find out the reasons for these reservations, because we think that many of these concerns are based on lacking knowledge. Therefore, we created a survey and reached almost 300 people. What does the public know about synthetic biology? Do they have a clue what is behind this term? What advantages and, more importantly, what risks do they think of when they hear this term?

Besides that, we were curious how the public estimates the problem of micropollutants in our waters and what they think of our solution. By doing this survey we also tried to reach awareness for these topics into people’s daily lives.

While about 80 percent can imagine what a genetically modified organism is, only 53 percent have an idea what synthetic biology could be. When asked if they have ever been in contact with a GMO before, almost one quarter answered that they don’t know. We specified the question by asking if they had ever consumed something that was produced by using GMOs. The number of participants who were not sure about that was not much lower. As these numbers are quite high and regarding that the 292 people we reached are no perfectly representative sample, there is a task we can get from our survey. One part of our project involved doing science communication. We aimed to reach more people not related to our university or scientific work. Since the COVID-19 pandemic made it really difficult to address people on the street, for example, we decided to focus on other projects like our podcast "Genomenal" and a minigame.

At least 90 percent of all participants told us that they definitely see a threat in the wastewater pollution by pharmaceutical residues. By asking if they think it’s alright to bring a GMO into a wastewater treatment plant, we found that about 70 percent have concerns regarding this idea or at least would not agree completely. Following this question, we asked these participants the same question but under the condition that our GMO will leave the waste water treatment plant under no circumstances. By this addition we were able to lower the disagreement. Only 45 percent of the interviewees still had concerns.

In the end of our survey we asked them about advantages they see in synthetic biology. About 80 percent of the participants told us that they see future applications especially in environmental protection and medicine. Since there was also the option ‘in none of these areas’ this result leaves us in a positive mood!