Human practices

International Conference the Coins

The COINS is an international conference of life sciences, which is organised annually by the Vilnius University Student Union. This year, it was held from 29th of February till 2nd of March. The conference is attended by scientists from different countries all around the world, who work in life sciences field and have a will to discuss, learn and share their scientific experiences. Moreover, it provides an opportunity for young scientists and students to practise their public speaking skills and present their scientific posters. At The COINS, there is also a possibility to meet experts of any fields, discuss on their ideas and discover their area of expertise. Also, a special event – A Company Fair – provides an opportunity for both experienced companies and entrepreneurs to find new partners and mutual interests.

Our team had a chance to represent themselves at this conference and share the ideas with the scientific community. Together with a member of Vilnius-Lithuania 2015 team, our team had an opportunity to introduce the iGEM competition and present the project of a previous team – ColiClock. The talk also included the insights on this year's project ideas, a probiotic therapy for phenylketonuria patients. The presentation was followed by the vast interest of the public, which motivated the team to pursue their ideas. What is more, the feedback on the project helped us to plan the project more thoroughly, taking into account all possible issues.

Our team has also participated in an above mentioned Company Fair, where we had an opportunity to get acquainted with the representatives of a variety of biotechnology companies and seek for their support. We were pleased to get a lot interest from both local and international companies, who were eager to collaborate and establish close ties with Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team.

Collaboration with artists and participation in European Researchers’ Night

We were proud to discover that the news about our team had spread out and reached many people from different fields. Such fields as art or philosophy were of particular interest to us. We were contacted by Kristupas Sabolius, Lithuanian writer and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vilnius University, who expressed interest in project and scientific research. Throughout this year we have conducted several meetings with Kristupas and his colleagues and discussed different questions regarding the ethics of genetic engineering, the importance of visualization, imagination and fortuities in science.

Together with Kristupas and two fellow artists Mindaugas Gapševičius (an artist, facilitator, and curator, based in Berlin, Weimar and Vilnius, Lithuania, initiator of several major international cultural/educational projects, including o-o Institutio Media and Migrating Art Academies) and Lina Rukevičiūtė (a video artist, a Saint Martin's School of Art (London) graduate, currently living and working in Vilnius, Lithuania) we decided to organize a discussion on the possible connection between art and science. It was the forth discussion in our 'Café Scientifique' discussion cycle. Read more here.

Later, we decided to bring our collaboration with Kristupas and “Institutio media” organization (which was represented by Lina and Mindaugas) even further and organized a workshop for artists and other enthusiasts. The workshop included bacteria staining and was a part of the exchange laboratory project, developed by 'Institutio media'. The workshop was organized during The European Researchers’ Night, which is a Europe-wide public event, dedicated to popular science and informal learning. This is an annual event, which takes place on the last Friday of September. More than 30 countries and over 300 cities are involved in this event. The aim of the event is to show the common public what impact science has on society and how it is engaging and interacting with the common public.

Our workshop was called “Adjusting Bacteria”. This workshop started with the discussions on adaptability of the bacteria to varying environmental conditions and the positive and negative influence of this phenomenon towards adaptability and survival of humans. We briefly introduced participants to the history of scientific practice of working with bacteria, why it such practice is important. We also got the audience acquainted with the bacteria and its structure, the mechanisms of adaptation of bacteria and how to use the microscope. To our surprise, a brief 40 minutes of introduction turned into an intensive two-hour discussion. We were thrilled about all the questions and the interest we received. We were happy to answer all the questions and broaden participants’ knowledge in many fields concerning life sciences.

Later we moved on to the practical part of the workshop – bacteria staining. We stained Gram+ and Gram- cells and live yeast and observed them through the microscope. The majority of the equipment used during the workshop can be found at home - we made microbiology loops out of clips, cropped coffee filters instead of filter paper and so on in order to show that science can be accessible by the common public in a symbolic way.

Lastly, we launched a protein exhibition. We exhibited 8 proteins that are more or less important for bacterial survival. This exhibition was intended for showing that certain parts, unobservable by human eye, have a huge impact on bacteria and our lives as well. The proteins, such as CRISPR-Cas9, Rho transcription termination factor, Phycobiliprotein, Chaperone ClpB, Aquaporin Z, RepE, which have different functions were chosen. We also included PAL – phenylalanine ammonia lyase, an enzyme we are working with in terms of our project. We displayed 3D protein structures in an unconventional way – on the paper cubes, with a different view of the same protein of each face. To make the exhibits more dynamic we decided to hang them on the ceiling and let them float at the eye height.

This event made us feel assured of our actions in spreading the knowledge about life sciences as we have met a lot of people from different fields that were keen on expressing interest in the related topics.

Donating blood

Our team are really thankful and happy when someone support our project. That is why our team decided to support other project. We did not have money to donate but we all have one thing, which we can donate, and it is our blood. Eight bravest Vilnius iGEM team members participated in the unpaid blood donation campaign in late spring. Even if it was unpaid blood donation each donated team member got chocolate bar and water bottle to revive the body. You can see only happy team member faces in the picture below.

School visits

To ensure that the younger generation is fairly informed about synthetic biology and iGEM competition in general, our team spent several months on communication with the schools of Lithuania while paying visits and giving talks. This also provided us with a chance to raise awareness about phenylketonuria and other genetically inherited diseases among students. We were very happy to observe students’ the interest in presented topics.

The aim of the school visits was to spread the knowledge of synthetic biology to both students with scientific and non-scientific profile. We organized the talks and discussions in 11 schools in 6 different cities of Lithuania. By the end of our presentations, we were asking students to fill in a short questionnaire. The results showed us that the effort we put into this particular outreach activity was significant. The question “Have you ever heard about synthetic biology before our presentation?” held 65.42 % of negative responses and 34.58 % of positive responses.

As it was already mentioned, school visits provided a great opportunity to inform students about iGEM competition in hopes that some of them will get inspired and determined to take part in this competition in the future. A lot of them started following us on social media at once.

During these talks we were recalling the achievements of last year‘s team and introducing our ideas of this year‘s project. We explained students what phenylketonuria is, what underlies this disease and what is the current treatment. Majority of students have never heard of this disease before. What caught their attention the most was the fact that there is no cure to this condition except for a low-protein diet which they have to follow throughout whole life. Children were inspired by our idea of creating an easier way to fight this disease. According to the questionnaire, some of the students even believed that it is possible to find a cure from cancer with the help of synthetic biology.

We have given talks to approximately 530 students of different age. Besides visiting 11 schools, iGEM team members were invited to organize and run a workshop during an annual event “Vaikų universitetas” (“Children’s University”). The topic of the workshop was “Create your own bacteria” and was suited for children of 11 to 15 years old. There were roughly 50 children who attended the workshop, during which they were lectured about microorganisms, laboratory work and the ways scientists exploit their imagination to come up with the ideas of modified bacteria performing novel functions. After that, children were asked to create their own synthetic bacteria out of different art materials – colored paper, pencils, etc. Students admired the workshop and were very excited to learn new things. They also expressed curiosity in what being a scientist is like and were eager to answer their questions. We were also pleased that last year’s Vilnius-Lithuania team members occasionally joined the visits and workshops.

What is more, we have paid a visit to The Centre for Child Development twice. The aim of this centre is to organize and provide specialized and qualified secondary and tertiary health care for children with developmental, mental and behavioral disorders or children who have experienced abuse and violence. Our team gave these children the opportunity to feel like real scientists – we equipped them with automatic pipettes, dressed them in lab coats, gloves and lab safety glasses and taught them to pipette. We have also proposed them to draw a custom modified bacteria and the results were astounding. There were approximately 50 children who attended these workshops, all aged between 10 and 16 years old. We have to admit that we were amazed by the creativity of these children.

To summarize, our team visited 11 schools in 6 cities, met 530 pupils aged from 7 to 18 years old; majority of students (about 60%) were 16 - 18 years old. We have also got 214 filled questionnaires from high school students. Adding to that, we had a chance to run workshops in The Centre for Child Development and during an annual event “Vaikų universitetas”. In general, our team felt glad to be able to communicate with children and observe their interest. We have got the influx of motivation from knowing that these children believed in our idea.

Participation in National Science festival “Spaceship Earth”

National Science festival “Spaceship Earth”– annual event, which started in 2004 in two biggest cities of Lithuania – Vilnius and Kaunas. Since then, Science festival became most important and biggest cluster of popular science events and spread into more than ten cities. During series of diverse hands-on activities (lectures, demonstrations, excursions, exhibitions, which now annually exceed 300) each September more than 30 000 participants visit all main universities, laboratories of the biggest technological companies, such as TEVA/”Sicor Biotech”, “Thermofisher Scientific Baltics”, “Ekspla”, other innovative companies, museums. Children of all ages, schoolchildren and families are taking part at the concomitant open air events (science fairs) in Vilnius and Kaunas.

Science festival took place on September 8th-19th. At the grand opening, which took place at the cinema centre “Forum Cinemas Vingis”, our members Kotryna and Emilija were interviewed and gave an introduction speech about iGEM, synthetic biology, personal qualities needed in science and life sciences perspectives in Lithuania.

During the festival, we hosted two events. Firstly, our members Kotryna and Diana conducted a lecture for high school students about the modern biotechnology, genetic engineering, iGEM competition and synthetic biology. We were very happy to have had around 50 interested participants from many schools and even some from universities.

Another project we had was a BioBreakroom – an escape room, based on life sciences knowledge. An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players are locked in a room and have to use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles and escape within a set time limit. Escape rooms are very popular in Lithuania nowadays. Our BioBreakroom was life sciences themed: it had a microscope, petri dishes with fake medium and fake bacteria and some other basic lab equipment such as lab coats, gloves, falcons and so on. Participants had to use their biological knowledge, such as using periodic table of elements, recognizing and using Sanger sequencing gel picture, translating DNA into amino acids using codon table and other, in order to complete the quest of saving the future from a heavily pathogenic bacteria, synthetically created by a mad scientist. All puzzles were created to introduce school students to basic lab equipment and enthuse them about scientific work. We also exposed the problem of lab safety while working with microorganisms: participants had to pick the fake medium to take out a note. For this, players should have used gloves and a pair of tweezers that were provided. The note inside warned about unsafe behaviour with unknown, potentially harmful microorganisms, which were obviously let into the environment and most likely infected people in the area during the picking process.

We held eight sessions of 45 minutes. All the times were booked in a day weeks before event, we were greatly satisfied with such interest. 8 teams, each consisting of 5 people of school and university students or scientists participated in our BioBreakroom. Some puzzles may had been too difficult for younger participants but university students and scientists proved their intelligence and successfully “saved the world from dangerous bacteria”. We received very positive feedback from all the teams.

European Biotechnology Week

The European Biotech Week is a series of events, dedicated to celebrating biotechnology, an innovative and vibrant sector, the beginning of which was set by the discovery of the DNA molecule back in 1953. It was held from 26th of September to 2nd of October.

We organized a quiz-type game, dedicated to life sciences and all the people who love it, including students, lecturers, professors and scientists. What does the abbreviation RING stand for? Where did the HeLa cells come from? These and more science related questions were asked game participants. More than 50 people and 10 teams gathered to compete and show their comprehension not only of life sciences and biotechnology, but also of critical thinking and excellence in thought. Mindfight was designed by dedicated science students, representing international synthetic biology competition team - Vilnius iGEM 2016.

Life Sciences Baltics

Life Sciences Baltics 2016 is the only international forum in the Baltic states for world-class biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices experts from all around the world. It provides a unique opportunity to explore the new horizons of partnerships, exchange ideas and seek progress through networking. It allows to discover enormous potential and passion in the field of life sciences in Lithuania and the Baltics – the gateway to emerging markets.

Our team made collaboration with main organizer of this event “Enterprise Lithuania” and was invited to participate. During the conference we presented our project to many people from life-sciences industry, attended meetings with representatives of various companies, made a few collaborations and also raised our knowledge about life sciences industry in Baltic states.

Human practices collaboration with Aachen iGEM team

We have organised a Human Practices collaboration with iGEM Aachen. We tried to find out the opinion and to define the current knowledge of the common public about genetic engineering in Lithuania. Our team managed to question 57 people of different educational background. Results revealed that the majority of people in Vilnius were poorly informed about genetic manipulations.