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Introduction Podcast Minigame Survey Livestream School Visits

Biotechnology - What is it and what does it mean?

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. 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.

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. 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.

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)

Our Survey – the basis for our Science Communication

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.

Results:

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!

Our Podcast Genomenal

Episode 1: Introducing our podcast

The first episode of our podcast “Genomenal” set the base for our science series on biotechnology. We created this podcast in terms of science communication with the goal to help anyone outside the biotechnology community understand all the perks and versatilities of this field. The first episode serves as an introduction to the origin of this project and its background. Our first two speakers offer a first glimpse of the topic of biotechnology – trying to explain basic terms such as “genes”, “genome” and “enzyme” understandably. Following topics like the colors of biotechnology or an eventual episode on iGEM are mentioned to encourage the audience to keep listening to the series. In hopes of achieving that goal, the first episode leaves an open end, with topics left for further discussion.

Episode 2: Genetic engineering and genetically engineered organisms - What is the law saying?

Episode 3: Enzymes in laundry powder and genetically modified potatoes - What are white and green biotechnology?

In the third episode of our podcast we are talking about white and green biotechnology. After a general explanation about the various notations with colors for the different areas of biotechnology, we are addressing white biotechnology in detail. This field deals with the industrial production of chemicals and components with optimized enzymes, cells and microorganisms ^[1]. The aim of white biotechnology is to generate new and sustainable production processes ^[2]. As an example, we explain how enzymes for washing agents are being produced using microorganisms by supplying them with genetic information via plasmid transfer ^[3]. Afterwards, we move on to green biotechnology which is roughly about plants and how to optimize them ^[4]. Already in the 20th century people started to breed plants with the favored characteristics, like big size or sweet fruits. Nowadays there are way more possibilities to optimize plants and modify their genomes^[5]. As an example, we introduce the amflora potato in which the production of amylose is genetically knocked out and only amylopectin starch is produced ^[6]. This engineered potato species was developed by BASF and grown in Germany between 2010 and 2012 ^[6]. Furthermore, we are talking about the MON810-corn produced by Monsanto 1998^[7]. The genome of this corn is modified so that the plant is producing a Bt-toxin which is toxic to certain insects^[7]. In the end, we are answering some more questions about green biotechnology, for example, if genetically modified plants could interbreed with other plants or if they could have an impact on bees.

References

1. https://www.ime.fraunhofer.de/de/Forschungsbereiche/MB/industrielle_biotechnologie.html (Retrieved October 4, 2020)

2. https://biotechnologie.de/knowledge_base_articles/1-was-ist-biotechnologie (Retrieved October 4, 2020) 3. https://extremophile.oncampus.de/loop/Wie_produzieren_wir_Enzyme_f%C3%BCr_industrielle_Anwendungen%3F (Retrieved October 4, 2020) 4. https://www.bmel.de/DE/themen/landwirtschaft/gruene-gentechnik/gruene-gentechnik_node.html (Retrieved October 4, 2020) 5. Grüne Biotechnologie, Chancen für Menschen und Umwelt, IG BCE, Hannover, September 2005 (Retrieved October 4, 2020) 6. https://www.transgen.de/forschung/724.industriestaerke-kartoffel-amflora.html (Retrieved October 4, 2020) 7. https://www.transgen.de/anbau/483.mon810-mais-zulassung-eu.html (Retrieved October 4, 2020)

Episode 4: Artificial hearts and less animal experiments - what does red biotechnology mean for the future?

Artificial hearts and less animal experiments - what does red biotechnology mean for the future? This is the title of the fourth episode of our podcast “Genomenal”. This episode is a continuation of the third episode, which was about green and white biotechnology.

Red biotechnology deals with medical issues and specifically focusses on the detection and treatment of abounding diseases. We aimed to give the audience a better understanding of this topic by mentioning diabetes as an exemplary disease. To demonstrate the benefits of red biotechnology, we talk about how insulin can be produced by microorganisms rather than using a porcine or bovine pancreas. This way, we want to convey the perks biotechnology brings not o nly to humans but also to animals. Following this topic, we talk about how it has already been achieved to engineer a beating rat heart and that this field is called tissue engineering. Thereby, we can show how much potential lies in this area and that it would eventually spare the need of organ transplants.

We also talk about Dolly, the first successfully cloned animal, to mention that progress has already been made in this field. In this regard, we also try to acknowledge the ethical dilemma that inevitably accompanies this topic – using it to promote our upcoming episode on ethics. Once more, we leave the end rather open for discussion to encourage our audience to keep listening to our podcast.

Minigame

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.

Story of the minigame

„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.

Livestream with Kaiserslautern

During our efforts in Human Practices and especially science communication, we have networked with other iGEM teams. When we found out that the Kaiserslautern iGEM team also tries to filter pollutants from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) by using laccases, we saw a direct opportunity for cooperation. Having two projects dealing with the same problem, exchanging scientific knowledge with each other was a great opportunity for both teams. Our goal in this year's HP also includes something else that is very important: Communicating the world of synthetic biology as well as our projects to the public. An important question arose: How can this be done in times of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Kaiserslautern found a perfect alternative: If we can't present our project on site, then we'll just do it online! At this point, the iGEM Team Kaiserslautern had already made several live streams on the video streaming platform Twitch. We were very enthusiastic when Emily and Linda from the TU Kaiserslautern made us the wonderful offer that we should make a joint stream. On the 31th of July we went live on Twitch with Kaiserslautern and drew some attention to the promising world of synthetic biology.

We presented our project ideas and explained our different approaches, as well as our motivation. In the video which you can find below this text, we educated about general safety concepts and introduced our kill switch. These concepts are crucial to make sure our genetically modified organism (GMO) will not leave the WWTP.

We did also talk about our survey (click here) and interacted with the viewers. Especially in the end, when we played a little game about the different dialects of our home federal states, they actively participated. As it turned out, our dialects are not too different, but Kaiserslautern clearly won our little competition. We reached over 20 active viewers and were able to make synthetic biology a little bit more tangible. Most of the viewers were generally interested in synthetic biology, but did not have deeper knowledge. One told us, that he “thought, wastewater treatment plants filter out everything”. It was completely new to him, that micropollutants usually do not get reduced at all and need to be treated differently.

In conclusion, the livestream was a lot of fun and really helped raise awareness for the field of synthetic biology and of the dangers micropollutants pose. In addition, it was a good opportunity to share our project idea with interested people from various backgrounds.