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<li><span style="margin:10px 0 30px 2px;padding:0;"><u>Special pages</u></span></li>

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<a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Exeter/Integrated_Practices/lab" class="banner_link col-xs-6"><span class="oneline">Integrated: Kill Switch</span></a>

<a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Exeter/Integrated_Practices/ED" class="banner_link col-xs-6"><span class="oneline">Integrated: Equality and Diversity</span></a>

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Lab intergration

<h6>Lab Integration:</h6>

                 <p id="pp">Due to time restraints with our project we decided to focus on providing significant analysis on the kill switches individually, however advice from Markus Geshater of Synthase Limited indicating that multiple kill switches in one system would be unfeasible and the different systems would need to be truly orthogonal to be effective. He explained that if in an industrial setting your synthetic system is producing a protein, then having one or multiple kill switches that are reliant on protein production would reduce the efficiency of production of your desired protein. Furthermore these kill switches could potentially be circumvented by the overexpression of a useful enzyme that is being commercially produced. Consequently, we felt assured in dropping the idea for a multiple kill switch system because our kill switches relied heavily on protein production and thus would reduce the efficiency of the product in an industrial setting. Instead of looking at multiple kill switches in the same system we looked to design three distinct kill switches to test and compare the efficiency of enzymatic, metabolic and DNA degrading mechanisms</p>

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Student opinions

 

 

<h5>Background</h5>

The fundamental reason we have for targeting equality and diversity within science, is that synthetic biology has the chance to be hierarchically and systematically equal from the beginning. If those working in the field can encourage the importance of diversity to younger generations, then when synthetic biology becomes better recognised publicly as a field of science, it has the possibility of being known for its progressive nature towards gender, racial and socio-economical equality.  

We started our work on Equality and Diversity after we spoke to Dr Robert Smith of Kings College London, at the UK iGEM meetup in Westminster. He spoke to us about our progress with Human Practices and some of the successes we had already had. He emphasised that our idea for a study into diversity and equality in science had not really been performed, to his knowledge, at iGEM before, much like our work on the importance of understanding what a kill switch is. We therefore thought that we have the possibility of making a significant impact in this field by highlighting and addressing some of the issues surrounding a lack of gender equality and diversity in science overall.  

The original plan was to create a short video highlighting the some of the issues surrounding a lack of gender equality in science and demonstrating what could be done in synthetic biology to address these issues. Dr Smith encouraged us to look more broadly at diversity in science as well, emphasising that the problem doesn’t just stem from gender inequality, but also from a lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion, disability and background.  

Using the University of Exeter as a case study for universities in the UK, we want to highlight if there is a problem with diversity and inequality by exposing the issue to a wider audience.  

 

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On 24/08/16 we met with Dr Andrew Griffiths to talk about his role as the current Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity lead for Biosciences at the University and what he thinks could be done to improve these areas within the department. By talking to the point of contact to staff about these issues, we can understand what sort of recurring issues are brought up, and what the university is doing to address these issues.  

<q style="margin:auto;display:block;"><i>Perhaps we should try to promote paternity leave allowing flexibility for men to look after the children so the burden doesn’t fall on women all the time.</i></q>

                <p id="pp"><a href="#Academiclist" >Back to list</a></p>

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We were again led to question whether shared parental leave would relieve some of this pressure put on women? In fact, the ‘Swedish model’ of parental leave and balancing career with family commitments shows some very desirable qualities that employers would look for: ability to multitask (especially under pressure), commitment to career, etc. However, Dr Santos warned us about attributing the fact that fewer women are taking up jobs in higher up roles within Bioscience to maternity leave - <q style="padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;">Maternity is an easy excuse</q>.

The need for supervisors to act as role models to young, aspiring post-docs is very apparent, especially as role models are so important for undergraduates and postgraduates, so why should this stop at levels beyond this?

To conclude this meeting, we asked Dr Santos what she thinks needs to be done to improve gender equality in science and her response was as follows:

                 <p id="pp"><a href="#Academiclist" >Back to list</a></p>

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<q style="margin:auto;display:block;"><i>She would never make it in science unless she learns to give a talk without sounding like a silly little schoolgirl</i></q>

                 <p id="pp">It is shocking to think that a female role model would feel this is an appropriate comment for a nervous, but aspiring, young scientist. Dr Lewis argued that you could <q style="padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;">never imagine a man being told he gave a bad talk because of a mannerism</q> and this kind of advice and influence has the potential to destroy all confidence in an individual.</p>

                 <p id="pp">Considering the problems that we have heard from different academics at the university about establishing yourself in science as a woman, it is understandable why this in-built confidence in your own ability is very hard to attain. Interestingly Dr Lewis highlighted that there is a <q style="padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;">ingrained difference</q> and that many academic situations are <q style="padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;">built around the male world</q>. For example, presentations. She had observed many male tutees stand up and be naturally confident in their ability to talk in front of a crowd, however, she noted that it is more intimidating for the female tutees. Consequently, we have to consider if universities are doing enough to promote confidence in all students.</p>

 

                 <p id="pp"><a href="#Academiclist" >Back to list</a></p>

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                 <p id="pp">This confirms some of our fears about the fight to change equality and diversity in science. When we began working on equality and diversity, we had the view to look at diversity in science as a whole, however, the more people we spoke to the more we looked into gender inequality and the more we saw how much of a problem it was. Therefore we can understand why the university would be focusing so much on improving gender equality, however if gender has become the only issue then we cannot condone that. Dr Dixon went on to talk about the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity group was set up to combat other issues like disability, sexuality and ethnicity.</p>

                 <p id="pp">Dr Dixon echoed many of the views raised by Dr Lewis, of the importance of role models and mentors to the development of both students and academic staff. Dr Dixon did stress however that mentors and role models do not need to be gender specific, and this may be a way of changing the more unconscious biases in gender. If we encourage people that a mentor can be someone who has experience of certain areas that you require help with, no matter the gender, then you might be able to reduce the pressure on certain individuals. </p>

                 <p id="pp">From the initial interview with Dr Griffiths, to the interview with Dr Lewis, all academics have spoken about giving women more confidence in putting themselves up for promotion, however Dr Dixon had a different perspective. She recognised that more needs to be done to give support to women and give them confidence to apply for more senior roles, however, she indicated that university culture was actually affecting the health of men, due to the pressure of promotion:</p>

                 <p id="pp"><a href="#Academiclist" >Back to list</a></p>

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                 <p id="pp"><a href="#Academiclist" >Back to list</a></p>

 

 

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Panel discussion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<q style="margin:auto;display:block;"><i>Getting representation from people of all different backgrounds, whether that be racially, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic background. It is just representing people who are different</i></q>

 

 

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Future

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