Through presenting to two Biology classes at Pierrefonds Comprehensive High school, we were able to reach out to a young group of individuals about our project. We had the chance to motivate them about pursuing a career in a scientific field, teach them a bit about synthetic biology, and educate them about the core elements of our project. Using their feedback, we were also able to incorporate their ideas into our experimental process.

During part of each presentation, our team presenters asked the students about their knowledge on nanoparticles and their diverse uses. Mainly though, the high school students were encouraged to imagine our ‘cell battle’ and describe what our ‘microgladiators’ could have as ‘nano-weapons’. We found that most of the answers to the last question about nanoparticle design revolved around ‘pointy nano-weapons,’ which led our synthesis team to search for a protocol which could generate the corresponding shaped nanoparticles. Finally, we synthesized gold nanotriangles through the use of the aloe vera plant extract, in addition to the spherical nanoparticles we had also synthesized. This was one of the ways in which we integrated the public’s suggestions into our project.

In order to gain a broader collection of perspectives on our project, we wanted to complement the high school student feedback we gathered with that of university-level students with a scientific background. To do this we conducted interviews with Concordia University students at the Loyola campus. Through this, the Concordia University community had the opportunity to hear about our Combat Cells.

Many of the interviewed science students showed interest toward our project and we received much feedback from the community. They were mainly intrigued by the ‘cell battle’ idea and how we were going to achieve this. Since we received this feedback while we were still in the process of brainstorming ways to execute our project idea, we chose to design the scientific foundation of our work directly with consideration for the public’s perspectives.

In order to integrate the public’s suggestions, we interviewed several students on our campus. We started off by providing students with a description of the iGEM competition for those who hadn’t heard about it, followed by an overview of our project. Our interview questions included:
- Do you know what nanoparticles are?
- Can you guess what products have nanoparticles in them?
- Have you ever seen a nanoparticle warning label?
- What initiatives would you take if you were working with Nanoparticles?
- If you were to design the cell battle, what kind of nanoparticles would you use (shape/element)?

As anticipated, their responses were similar to those we had obtained from the Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School Student interviews, with respect to generating ‘pointy nano-weapons.’ This further inspired us to generate gold nanotriangles with the use of aloe vera plant extract, as a way of integrating the public’s ideas into our work. Other responses to this question of nanoparticle shape were more imaginative, which demonstrated the interviewees enthusiasm toward this area of our project.

Provided below is Episode 2 of our webseries, which contains the student interviews.

Episode 2: Student Interviews

During our student interviews and presentations, we received concerned comments about the safety of scientists working with nanoparticles in laboratories, especially due to the current limited research done on their detrimental effects. To respond to this, we have taken the initiative to conduct further research on the matter by thoroughly reading about studies on the environmental effects of nanoparticles as well as on human health. We summarized all of the collected information into a detailed educational ‘Nanoparticle essay’ and shared it with the public by posting the link to the essay on our iGEM wiki. (The essay can be found here.)

Additionally, our team members needed a reference for the proper handling and disposal of nanoparticles, the detailed synthesis and attachment of nanoparticles protocols, as well as basic procedures to minimize exposure and harm to nanoparticles, which could be used when conducting our own experimentation. This led to the devotion of our team to creating a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which would implement each of these elements of safety into our experimental process.

While designing our SOP, we received input from one of the Chemical Safety Officers of our University’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Department, Daniel Pagé. Mr. Pagé reviewed our SOP and provided us with comments which we examined to improve our safety protocols. Our team also submitted our SOP to McGill University’s EHS Department who also approved of it. The final SOP was made public on our iGEM website so that anyone working with nanoparticles could access and refer to it, enabling them to practice safer handling and disposal of nanoparticles.This SOP not only provided our team with a safer laboratory practice, but we were also able to share that with other researchers, who could use this tool to improve upon their own experimental process. In addition to this, copies of our SOP were printed out and always available at our lab bench. Our team referred to this document throughout our work in the lab. This ensured that every member of the team was educated on the proper handling and disposal of nanoparticles. (Click here for our full SOP.)

Finally, we created a nanoparticle safety video that compliments our SOP and essay. This video includes lab safety information such as the importance of personal protective equipment. It also informs the audience about how nanoparticles can effect human health. The video is not only available on our webseries page but also on YouTube, where we hope it will reach a larger audience and educate the public on nanoparticles. The video can be watched below:

Episode 3: Nanoparticle Safety