Difference between revisions of "Team:UNSW Australia/Human Practices"

Line 296: Line 296:
  
 
</section>
 
</section>
 +
<script>
 +
$(document).ready(function(){
 +
    $('body').scrollspy({target: ".navbar", offset: 70});
 +
});
 +
 +
$('#scrollbox3').enscroll({
 +
    showOnHover: false,
 +
    verticalTrackClass: 'track3',
 +
    verticalHandleClass: 'handle3'
 +
});
 +
</script>
  
 
</html>
 
</html>

Revision as of 05:31, 19 October 2016

Our Story




Bleb envisioned the creation of a foundational technology, a multi-functional, platform tool upon which future researchers may build to create context specific technologies addressing world problems.

The UNSW iGEM team undertook the challenge of creating an ideal strain of E. coli for producing functional OMVs with a number of potential applications in mind. An essential element of our human practices was therefore to pre-emptively explore these applications, in order to produce a directive guide for future research into these areas, and determine what avenues may be best suited to the technology.

After exploring and analysing the potential applications of our project, we wanted to evaluate what factors, beyond laboratory research, may constrain future implementation of the Bleb technology. We decided to investigate two key areas we felt would have a large impact upon not only our project, but the emerging field of Synthetic Biology: Sociology and Biolegalities.

In addition to these investigations, the UNSW iGEM team had a strong focus in enhancing the scientific understanding of synthetic biology in the community. To achieve this, team members presented at a number of educational events for high school students. As a culmination of our human practices endeavours, we aimed to present our discussions and findings to the wider community, in a public Synthetic Biology Symposium with panel speakers and open debate.

Applications

As a foundational technology, our project was centred around the creation of an ideal strain of E.coli to produce OMVs. The purpose of creating this foundational platform was to enable the customisation and functionalization of the strain, allowing the OMV technology to be adapted for a multitude of uses. As OMVs are non-replicative, they have a reduced biosafety risk, and so we envisioned a number of potential uses for them.

As part of our human practices, we wanted to assess the possible suitability of OMVs for application in environmental bioremediation and medical biotechnology. By talking to researchers in these fields, we assessed the important factors to consider in these applications, and gauged the suitability of OMVs for these uses. Our conversations enabled us to highlight some essential points of product design which need to be considered, should research into OMV application in these fields be pursued in the future.

Environmental Bioremediation

As a non-replicative, stable transport mechanism able to be decorated with functional proteins and molecules, the potential for OMVs to aid in bioremediation without posing a biosafety risk was evident. To investigate this application, we met with Mike Manefield, a researcher and founder of Environmental Biotechnology company Micronovo, which specialises in bioaugmentation of polluted environments.

Picture of the team with Mike or something relating to environmental bioremediation?

A key question which our team had for Mike was how to successfully implement environmental biotechnologies into Australian Industries, and what barriers exist to this implementation.

  • Scientific communication
  • Environmental protection agencies
  • Discrepancy between states
  • Dispelling preconceived notions biasing against progression of these technologies
  • Emergent technologies accidentally captured in legislation not specific to the technologies

Considerations:

  • What gap in the market is it filling: this must be established to be successful
  • Learn from the commercialisation effort of putting enzyme straight into the environment (Dupont Orica)
  • Replication: consider that although it may be a positive, or may also be a hurdle? Numbers to degrade the pollutant need to be made in the lab
  • Potential by-products
  • Longevity and shelf-life

Importance of interdisciplinary integration

Medical Biotechnology

The production of OMVs by bacterium has been theorised as a means of passing information between pathogenic organisms. Extending upon this potential for OMVs to transport biologically significant molecules, our foundational technology could be customised for medicinal use, as a drug delivery system, or biosensor.

To discuss the potential of this application, we met with Lawrence Lee, an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellow at the University of New South Wales, who specializes in the artificial synthesis of complex nanoscale biological machines and other bio-inspired technologies. As supervisor of the Biomod Australia team, Lee has a keen interest in synthetic biology, and the potential it holds for the future of medicine.

Picture of the team with Lawrence or something relating to medical biotechnology?

Potential Synbio and our project:

  • Utilising nature as a blueprint, capitalising on an existent biological process
  • Targeted drug delivery
  • Point to care diagnostics

Considerations:

  • Immune Response, LPS
  • Loading with drugs- periplasm: concentration of your target, entropic cost of holding something in a confined space
  • Biophysics considerations
  • Scheme as proof of concept
  • Contact with clinicians

Future of synthetic biology, and the importance of programs such as iGEM.

Sociology

The success of any emergent technology, particularly within a relatively new field of research, depends not only upon sound scientific practice, but consideration of social factors influencing its direction. We therefore decided it was essential at this early stage of our research to investigate the sociology factors effecting synthetic biology, and determine how to best approach our project to ensure its future success.

Our investigation into the sociological factors influencing the progression of synthetic biology began in discussion with leading academics in the field of environmental humanities. Matthew Kearnes is an ARC Future Fellow at UNSW in the School of Humanities and Languages, focusing upon the intersection between science and social theory, including research into the social dimensions of bionanotechnologies. Eben Kirksey is a Senior Lecturer and DECRA Fellow at UNSW, researching the boundaries of nature and culture, and the political influences on the imaginative processes.

The subtle connections between science and society are often overlooked, with researchers assuming that the main issue with public acceptance of new technologies, especially in biology, is a lack of scientific communication and understanding. However, as our team discovered in conversation with Matthew Kearnes, this was an over-simplification of a multi-faceted problem. Although a clear presentation of the research is important for establishing the trust of the wider community, and this contingent upon effective scientific communication, it was noted ‘framing the issue entirely in risk…

Exploring further the connections between society and scientific research, the external factors influencing the directions of research were discussed.

The potential of synthetic biology to have an impact upon societal structures were also investigated.

Biolegalities

To edit, rearrange, and disrupt the basic structures of life implicates a fundamental change to the structure upon which our moral, ethical, and therefore legal systems are built. As projects, such as our own, have the potential to revise legal concepts, and are equally limited by legal limitations, we thought it essential to investigate the way in which synthetic biology research and the law interact for our human practices.

In order to closely examine the complexity of Biolegalities, we began discussions with academics in the fields of law and philosophy. Marc de Leeuw is a senior lecturer in the UNSW Law Faculty, specialising in the field of legal, moral, and political philosophy. He established the UNSW Initiative for Bio-Legalities, aiming to further explore the complexity of emerging relations between Law and Biology. Lyria Bennett Moses is an associate professor in Law at UNSW, whose research explores the relationship between technology and law, and the issues which arise as technologies evolve and change within Australian jurisdictions. In conversations with these distinguished academics, we were able to examine both the structural and theoretical aspects of the concurrent evolution of law and synthetic biology, and the impacts they may have on one another.

To fully conceptualise how the law regulates emergent technologies such a synthetic biology, we felt it was important to understand the way in which the law allows for integration new technologies.

Outreach

Synthetic Biology Symposium: Perspectives and Progress

The UNSW iGEM team held a Synthetic Biology Symposium at the conclusion of our Human Practices, in a rare opportunity to bring together professionals in scientific research, biolegalities, and social theory. The symposium was in the form of a panel discussion, open to the public, in order to allow for open discussion and engaging debate.

UNSW IGEM @ B.Inspiring



As a part of our outreach efforts we were able to secure a one-hour workshop opportunity with the organization B. Inspiring Inc. to present and educate their audience about this growing field of science, synthetic biology. B. Inspiring runs an annual three-day conference addressing high school students between years 10 to 12 who aspire to work in the field of STEM (science technology engineering and mathematics). Throughout the three days, students are required to develop a pitch solution to one of the UN sustainable goals. They are also given workshops and presentations by guest speakers from leading companies in STEM, which help them develop their pitch and also inspires them with the merits of a career in STEM.

As representatives of the iGEM competition as well as the synthetic biology community, the goals of our presentation were to interest high school students and allow them to appreciate the world of synthetic biology.

Due to the audience’s diverse backgrounds in STEM, we started by explaining the basic and most fundamental concept of biology: the central dogma. From this we introduced the analogy that synthetic biology is very similar to computing, where the ‘coding language’ of ATGC, and Bio Bricks made out of DNA represent the instructions. With these fundamentals laid down, we explained the different types of Bio Bricks focusing on promoters and open reading frames.

We then provided them with an activity (built upon that of last year’s team), which was to construct a bio-synthetic organism by using bio bricks. We applied this towards the conference’s theme, UN sustainable goals, and told them to create an organism which would help achieve their designated UN goal.

After this activity session, we then discussed the ethical issues that must be addressed in any synthetic biology project. This ranged from concerns in biosafety (which included factors such as environmental damage), sociology (which dealt with cultural and social attitudes) and finally economic factors (such as the matter of patenting). With this in mind we allowed the students to look back on their newly created organism and consider the possible ethical impacts their project may need to take into account.

The audience of high school students at first approached this activity with a lot of questions, as the concept of a genetic circuit was very new and bizarre to them. However, with the one to one guidance from our presenters, their creativity proved to be limitless as they designed some very novel organisms. With the use of a feedback form, from this presentation we were able to gather the general perception of synthetic biology from the students. It had seemed that they were very intrigued by the ability to manipulate life however due to the sophisticated nature of biology, it was hard for them to grasp the whole picture through our ‘basics of synthetic biology’ presentation.

UNSW IGEM @ Aspire



At the end of June we took part in Aspire’s conference for high school children from rural and disadvantaged areas. This conference brings year 10 students from these areas together at UNSW to introduce them to university life in a welcoming and friendly environment in an effort to make university less daunting. Through this the students would hopefully become aware of the range of options available to them after they leave school, and what pathways there are into university. Students prior to the conference chose a stream that they thought most interested them (Law, Business, Medicine, etc.); we were privileged to be included, along with this year’s BioMod team, in the Medicine stream.

We gave a short presentation giving an overview of our project, simple introduction to Synthetic Biology, and then a basic explanation of how promoters and genes worked together to produce different proteins. We then gave the students some cut-outs and balloons to ‘manufacture’ their own proteins which they packaged into the balloon, a substitute for an outer membrane vesicle (OMV). Students then presented their creations to the class; there were some very creative ideas, including OMVs which created glow in the dark zombies or broke down methane.

We left the conference with a sense of achievement, having felt we connected well with the students and engaged them in the idea of Synthetic biology. The feedback we recently received happily reflected this, and we hope the students enjoyed the other days of the conference as much as they appeared to enjoy ours.

iGEM teams are leading in the area of Human Practices because they conduct their projects within a social/environmental context, to better understand issues that might influence the design and use of their technologies.

Teams work with students and advisors from the humanities and social sciences to explore topics concerning ethical, legal, social, economic, safety or security issues related to their work. Consideration of these Human Practices is crucial for building safe and sustainable projects that serve the public interest.

For more information, please see the Human Practices Hub.

Note

You must fill out this page in order to be considered for all awards for Human Practices:

  • Human Practices silver medal criterion
  • Human Practices gold medal criterion
  • Best Integrated Human Practices award
  • Best Education and Public Engagement award
Some Human Practices topic areas
  • Philosophy
  • Public Engagement / Dialogue
  • Education
  • Product Design
  • Scale-Up and Deployment Issues
  • Environmental Impact
  • Ethics
  • Safety
  • Security
  • Public Policy
  • Law and Regulation
  • Risk Assessment
What should we write about on this page?

On this page, you should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, and document any special activities you did (such as visiting experts, talking to lawmakers, or doing public engagement).

Inspiration

Read what other teams have done: