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As members of the iGEM Concordia 2016 team, we made it our priority to spread the word about the iGEM Foundation and final competition, in hopes to inspire more students to participate in the future. A great way in which we were able to reach out to the public was through The Link, -a Concordia University-based student-run newspaper. Our team was fortunate enough to be featured in an article in the newspaper’s first issue of the year. Four members of our team: Julia Phillipp, Alaa Selim, Farhat Zafar and Nathalie Jreidini sat down with interviewer Kelsey Litwin from The Link to discuss iGEM and our project. | As members of the iGEM Concordia 2016 team, we made it our priority to spread the word about the iGEM Foundation and final competition, in hopes to inspire more students to participate in the future. A great way in which we were able to reach out to the public was through The Link, -a Concordia University-based student-run newspaper. Our team was fortunate enough to be featured in an article in the newspaper’s first issue of the year. Four members of our team: Julia Phillipp, Alaa Selim, Farhat Zafar and Nathalie Jreidini sat down with interviewer Kelsey Litwin from The Link to discuss iGEM and our project. | ||
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− | Among the things discussed during the interview, emphasis was placed on our work done for the human practices aspect of our project. We used this interview as an opportunity to discuss a bit about the possible dangers associated with working with nanoparticles in a laboratory setting and how our team | + | Among the things discussed during the interview, emphasis was placed on our work done for the human practices aspect of our project. We used this interview as an opportunity to discuss a bit about the possible dangers associated with working with nanoparticles in a laboratory setting and how our team is addressing these issues. This allowed us to introduce the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) we created which answered the need for better nanoparticle safety in laboratory practice. This SOP encompasses all of the information needed for the safe handling and disposal of materials in our experimental process that involve nanoparticle synthesis and attachment to cells. In addition to discussing the competition and our project, we brought up the importance of encouraging women to pursue careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Inasmuch, it is worth noting that our team has more female members than male, which could be considered somewhat surprising for what is often observed in terms of participant gender distribution for a scientific genetic engineering competition. |
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Overall, the success of this interview in reaching out to the community became evident when several Concordia students mentioned having read about us and learning about our iGEM project after viewing The Link newspaper or seeing our article with The Link online. We hope that this article and our public exposure has enticed people to join next year’s iGEM competition. | Overall, the success of this interview in reaching out to the community became evident when several Concordia students mentioned having read about us and learning about our iGEM project after viewing The Link newspaper or seeing our article with The Link online. We hope that this article and our public exposure has enticed people to join next year’s iGEM competition. |
Revision as of 17:57, 17 October 2016