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.

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

What are the views of the younger generation?
What are the views of the middle aged population?
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.

Talk to Dementia patients- Weinberg-Rauhes Haus

Since the age of 14 I have been regularly exposed to the beautiful and perilous aspects of growing old and taking care of the elderly. I started out by occasionally helping out in a dementia home in Hamburg with a family friend who works with therapy dogs for the elderly. Then right after graduating high school I worked in Alzheimer’s research at Roche for 9 months and through that I got to meet a lot of people very passionate about this, whilst also getting a good insight into the pharma side of things.

It has been two years since my work at Roche and I’ve spent my other summers either working in an office or now on iGEM. Although our project is about ageing, I haven’t been thrown into the deep end of dementia research and care for a while. Precisely until I was back at the dementia home in Hamburg this past week, this time with the purpose of getting the opinions of the elderly about our project and their life in general. I got to speak to a few people individually and then also two groups of people, everyone with varying forms of dementia: from very light Alzheimer’s, which you wouldn't be able to tell, to the late stages, which are almost incomprehensible. Overall these experiences were enlightening, inspiring and motivating to do more research and help but simultaneously the potential realities of the future are distressing.

Over the next few weeks we will be publishing the stories of the people I got to speak to and the impressions and experiences I gained from the group sessions.

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.

Team:UCL/amandeep/Human Practices/Public Engagement