SIM device
Early on in our project, after talking within the team, friends and family, we recognised that there was a potential problem with the acceptance of using synthetic bacteria in our yogurt. We understood that the ingestion of our yogurt with genetically engineered bacteria would cause many fears and concerns with the public, so we decided to ask for the advice of experts in social science and food.
Consulting with experts - Dr John Walls
Dr. John Walls is a researcher in social science, specialising in the public perception of synthetic biology and genetically modified organisms at the University of Glasgow [1]. While discussing our project with him, he shared his concerns about what the public would think about the ability of synthetic bacteria to grow in their gut. As our product would contain modified versions of the common yogurt bacteria, found in both home culture and commercial yogurts, they would be highly likely to grow in the gut [2]. After brainstorming, we collaboratively came up with ‘The SIM device’, a self-inactivating mechanism that would inactivate our synthetic bacteria upon departure from the yogurt.
Our SIM device is based on a ‘toxin-antitoxin’ system, a natural mechanism in bacteria which we could exploit. This system would also allow us to avoid using antibiotics for selection. We felt that this device would alleviate the fears and concerns the public may have, and increase their confidence in our project. To investigate this more, we made this a central piece of our public engagement activities.
The Glasgow Science Centre
Our team attended a “Meet the Experts” event at the Glasgow Science Centre on the 8th and 9th of October 2016. We wanted to present our project in a fun and engaging way so it was at an appropriate level for everyone to understand, as most of the visitors at this event were families with young children. We designed an animated movie, a game for the kids (and adults) and easy to read posters, with an overall goal of making our project more accessible.
We wanted to use our game to introduce the importance of vitamin A to eyesight and the concept of bacterial engineering and yogurt making. We used Beta, our yogurt pot mascot, as a target for people to throw orange ping pong balls into. These represented the β-carotene producing bacteria. The first stage was throwing the ping pong balls with eyes open, and the next stage with eyes closed. When the scores were compared, it was obvious that having close eyes hindered the people’s performance. We told them that the more bacteria they managed to throw into the port, the more nutritious it would be.
Following the game, we explained that with our project, we aimed to prevent vitamin A deficiency in low-resource settings by providing enriched yogurt. We described how we had engineered yogurt bacteria to produce β-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. We then asked the public what they thought about GMOs in general and in project.
At first we were slightly worried about what the public opinion was on GMOs. We thought there would be many misconceptions and hesitations about GMOs and synthetic biology, especially because recently, the Scottish Government passed a law that growing GM crops would be illegal for the foreseeable future. Instead, we got lots of positive feedback and interest in our project, which impressed us all. The most common issue that people had with our project was the potential orange colour of the yogurt due to the production of β-carotene. This issue could be unique to the UK as many other countries have artificially coloured fruit yogurt. Some of the more controversial issues such as synthetic bacteria growing in the gut did not seem to cause much hesitation, which could be thanks to our work in counteracting misconceptions and work on the SIM device.
We understand that the visitors of the Glasgow Science Centre would be potentially more open minded about GMOs and maybe have a greater understanding of synthetic biology prior to their visit. This could have led to an inaccurate representation of public opinion in this area. In the future, we would like to spend more time speaking to a larger representation of the public to broaden our understanding of public perception.
