Team:UCL/HP/Silver/Public Engagement

<!DOCTYPE html>

UCL iGEM 2016 | BioSynthAge

Synthetic Biology survey + General public

Introduction

Synthetic biology and the human body are two aspects that are hugely controversial when put in the same sentence. So, we wanted to start our project off by finding out what the general public think about synthetic biology to find out how they would feel about using synthetic biology to tackle healthy ageing in humans by releasing a short survey. The survey also gathered information on the gender, age, and their level of knowledge in Synthetic biology. We felt that it was important to gather data that accurately represented the variety of knowledge in the general community and to see if these factors affect the outcome of the survey. Not only were we able to get data from the UK, but we also got response from the general public in Spain, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Ireland, USA, Sweden, Mexico and Portugal, an international opinion on the issues raised in the survey.

We also wanted to find out what the Chinese community thought about our project and synthetic biology, in order to maximise our impact on the general public and perceptions of synthetic biology and genetically modified organisms. Therefore, Yuqiao was able to translate the same survey into Mandarin and distributed the survey through our Wechat account. We were able to get 120 responses from this survey, which adds up to 286 participants from our survey, 94.17% are in China (including Hong Kong, Taiwan Macao, South China Sea Islands and the Fishing Island) and 5.83% are in elsewhere. The participants were answering the survey in Chinese which is then translated to English by our team member Yuqiao.

Results

    1. Public perception of bacteria

    One of the first questions that was in the survey asked the general public to choose what image they associate with bacteria. One image showed an image of bacteria to be green and sick looking (associate with bad bacteria) (option 2) and the other image was of an electron microscope image of a bacteria (option 1). Due to copyright issues, we can’t post the images onto our wiki. 89.8% of the population associate that image with bacteria. However, 7.2% chose option 2 to be the image that they associate with bacteria. Which still indicates that the general public still think that bacteria is bad, which in reality is not the case, as bacteria can be good and bad for you. Most people who chose option 2 were from the UK.

    The Wechat survey showed that 74.17% of people think option 1 describes bacteria better, 20% of people think option 2 is better. The Wechat survey showed a higher percentage of people still associate bacteria to be bad.

    2. Knowledge of Synthetic Biology

    In response to a question asking the public how much do they know about synthetic biology. 19.9% said they know nothing and 57.2% said they know a little. We also asked what the general public think synthetic biology is defined as, some of the responses can be seen below, where most of the respondents have a general, accurate idea of synthetic biology whilst others either skipped the question or answered “I don’t know”. The Wechat survey showed that 59.17% know nothing about synthetic biology at all.

    Popular answers:

    • “Creating things” – Creativity and design seemed to be a key word in most responses
    • “Genetic engineering”
    • “Man made”
    • “Genetically modified organisms used to create products we use/need everyday”
    • “The ‘direction’ of biology be external forces, such as humans”
    • “The study of how to engineer life to obtain organisms with new features of benefit to humankind”
    • “interesting”

      • 3. Genetically modified organisms

      Even though 80.7% of the survey responders are accepting of synthetic biology, 8.4% of the population either said that they don’t agree with genetically modifying organisms or that synthetic biologists are playing with god. We also asked if they thought that the benefits of genetically modifying organisms outweigh the risks. 81.3% said yes whilst 13.9% said no. 66.3% of the respondents think that genetically modified organisms are safe. The Wechat survey showed that 30.83% are accepting of synthetic biology whilst a shocking 30.83% do not agree and 15% think you are playing with god.

      4. Genetically modified organisms and human ageing

      When asked if the respondents wanted to live longer, fewer people answered yes then compared to when they were asked if they want to live healthier longer. This can be seen on the pie charts below, where more people would rather live healthier for longer than just live longer. This shows that our project is relevant to the needs of the general public. 67.5% of the respondents would be more accepting of synthetic biology if it made them live longer. The Wechat survey showed that 84.17% of the Chinese population are want to live a longer lifespan but a larger population (95.83%) want to live a longer healthier life. Also, 70% of people are more acceptable of synthetic biology if it made them live longer.

      5. Synthetic biology and education

      75.3% of the general public think that they have not been educated about synthetic biology whilst 81.67% of the Chinese population on Wechat also agree. And a large proportion of the population would like children to learn synthetic biology as a part of their curriculum. 83.1% of respondents also agreed that primary or secondary school should be educated about synthetic biology as a part of the curriculum.

      Based on the results, it is apparent that respondents felt like there hasn’t been sufficient education related to Synthetic Biology. Considering a vast majority of respondents consider GM organisms safe (81%) and beneficial (81%), we have decided to take on outreach program's for school-age children to expand their knowledge and consciousness of Synthetic Biology. The results of the survey has inspired us to think about what we can do for each age group of children/students (from primary, secondary and sixth form students) to get synthetic biology widely known.

A project that is shaped by the general public

We initially wanted to find out if the general public would actually want a solution to the ageing issue of the population. So to do this we conducted an international survey (above) to reach out to many people as we could in order to get a good snapshot/ representation of the world populations needs. An image summarising the findings can be seen below

General public opinion

  1. What are the views of the younger generation?
  2. What are the views of the middle aged population?
  3. What are the views of the elderly population
How do these views differ from each other? Who is our target audience? Whats our motivation?

Elderly opinion

Tea with the elderly on Saturday 16th July. Chichi was able to attend the tea session where she was able to ask some of the elderly what they thought about our idea and synthetic biology.

Synthetic biology showcase: Friday 16th July

Amandeep, Michelle and Abbie presented at the Annual Synthetic Biology Showcase at UCL. This was a unique opportunity to share our project with leading synthetic biology researchers, shape our newer ideas as well as to discuss the ethics of our project.

We introduced iGEM, our motivation for choosing ageing as a topic area and the different approaches we were tackling, the feedback was positive and we were asked some interesting questions such as:

1. Professor John Ward: With regards to the anti-plaque bacteriocin device, how will you avoid targeting 'good' gram positive bacteria?

(The bacteriocin we are using targets S. mutans specifically which ensures the oral microbiome is not altered dramatically).

2. Professor Steve Miller: Why should we be focusing on ageing and the elderly population - does anyone care?

(The fact that we have an ageing population makes our project considerably relevant. We wish to promote healthy ageing in individuals and whilst this is something that will have dramatic impact on lives it will also reduce the burden this demographic has upon the NHS.)

After presenting alongside academics we took the floor to present our poster but also had the chance to talk to Professor Steve Miller of the RRI who focus on building the bridge between science and public policy who thought our project "sounds interesting" even though we still "have a lot to do". He also suggested that we get in contact with Age UK, to organise some focus groups and find out what people who are affected think!

Our iGEM blog

We also wanted the general public to know about our project and iGEM so we decided to make a blog highlighting our general experiences as we go along this iGEM journey! We are also working on posting some tips for future GEM teams, based on what we are learning as we go through the process.

The Blog link: http://ucligem2016.wix.com/ucligem2016