Team:Bordeaux/Engagement

Sleep with EpiC elegans

The meeting between People, Science and Food !

"Apéro Science" which means Science Aperitif in French is a serie of events organized by our team in collaboration with M. Marc CHEVALIER, assignment manager for Talence innovation Sud Développement. The first was on May, 26th at the Forum des Arts et de la Culture in Talence and the second was on September, 29th at the same place. For an hour, professionnals presented a slide about the chosen topic in order to explain it to a large public of 50 or 60 persons. After their presentation, the audience could have a discussion with them in order to answer at their questions. Following the debate, everyone was invited to an aperitif prepared by the team !

These events promote the scientific popularization to a large public. Indeed, we worked hard in order to invite students and people from non-scientific fields and professional of the concerning fields. It was interested for us to talk with all these people to share with them our knowledge in order to make open their mind and also yours !

This year, we focused on two insteresting topics which are :

Change your mind on GMOs!

Most of the time, when we talk about GMO, people only think about the modifications on plants in food industry. Associated to theses ideas, many people think that GMOs are a great danger for the society. However, GMOs may also save life when we use it to find new therapies for diseases.
Our first Apéro Science wants to explain to our audience what are GMOs and what are the existing GMOs used in the different fields. Our objective doesn't goal to make people being for or against GMOs. We only try to make them know better about this topic to better consider this complex question.

The Science seen by the Media

In the industry and research fields, researchers have to be conscious of the lastest scientific innovations and discoveries. Thanks to the scientific media, they may know about the advances of their colleagues in the whole world. But outside these areas, information are often not told and sometimes distorted or false. How do the general media see and explain the Science?
For our second Apéro Science, we organized round tables with different professionnals (journalists, researchers, scientific mediators, and others ...) in order to answer to our question.

Click on the pictures to discover the summary of our two "Apéro Science" !

two teacher-researchers spoke:<\/p>";

"; $\"Denis$ ";

M Denis DUPUY<\/b>, our iGEM team advisor, researcher
at the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology<\/i> (EICB)<\/i><\/p>"; <\/div>";

"; $\"José$ ";
M José-Eduardo GOMES<\/b>, researcher
at the Biochemistry and Cellular Genetics Institute (BCGI).<\/i><\/p>"; <\/div>";
After a short video introducing the general opinion about GMOs<\/b>, M DUPUY inaugurated the meeting by establishing some basic notions<\/b>: genetic, genome and genes, evolution, genetic engineering, natural selection and human selection<\/i>. Indeed, experts are at ease with all these notions and their subtleties, but common people must pay attention and not amalgate them in order to fully understand scientific advances in this field.
"; Thereafter, M GOMES took part in the debate giving several applications of GMOs<\/b> such as the use of Green Fluorescent Proteins (GFP)<\/i>, the production of recombinant insulin<\/i> in type II diabetes treatments, gene therapy tests<\/i> or even “golden rice”<\/i> production.<\/p>";
"; $\"Questions$ ";
Following these presentations,
the audience had the opportunity to ask questions.<\/i><\/p>"; <\/div>";
"; $\"Clémence$ ";
Then, two members of the iGEM Bordeaux team went on stage to present
our “Sleep with EpiC elegans”<\/b> project and the iGEM competition.<\/i><\/p>"; <\/div>";

Finally, our listeners were invited to the “apéro” food stand<\/b> with delicious treats prepared by the iGEM team. This friendly gather-up gave the participants an opportunity to further debate on the delicate issues about GMOs<\/b> or address more questions to the attending GMO specialists<\/b>. Furthermore, they could answer our survey about
\"Sleep and synthetic biology\".<\/p>";
"; $\"Aperitif$ "; <\/div>";
"; $\"Some$ "; <\/div>"; html += "

";
";
Event Assessment<\/h3>";
By means of this intervention, we noticed the existence of real fear in our society about GMOs in food<\/b>. Indeed, this subject led to important debates in France. Economic and political issues are involved, making GMO issues hard to solve. However, the audience seemed to accept the use of GMOs<\/b> as long as it occurs in a context of fundamental research<\/b> or for therapeutic applications<\/b>.<\/p>";
People against the use of GMOs often claim their opposition to a particular kind of GMOs but not to all of GMOs in general.<\/h4>";
Therefore, our role is to help people understanding better the principles and the uses of GMOs<\/b> through the scientific popularization<\/b>. Afterwards, the GMO subject would be more easily accepted.
"; It was also interesting to observe that the audience was waiting for further research on the potential consequences of the use of GMOs<\/b>. These studies are uncommon and we hope for a better communication between scientific communities and us, common people, or at least a simplified access to information.<\/p>"; <\/div>";
In conclusion<\/h3>";
This first Science Apero was very successful. More than sixty people<\/b> were present at to our conference and stayed to discuss GMO issues. We mainly welcomed students studying biology<\/b>, of course, but also students studying computer sciences<\/b>, economy and management<\/b>, as well as middle aged people<\/b> willing to learn more about the topic of the day.<\/p>";
We trust this event either refreshed our audience's memory or helped spread factual knowledge on GMOs.<\/h4>"; $\"Our$ ";
Some returns of the event : <\/h3>";
";
";
“I really liked the conference. I had a mixed opinion about GMOs, but I've learnt that not all of them are harmful. I think this initiative from iGEM Bordeaux is a good way to make us more receptive to this subject.”

"; Liliane BLONDEL<\/b>
2nd year student in Economy and Management at the University of Bordeaux<\/i><\/p>"; <\/div>"; <\/div>";
";
";
“I think that this Apéro was constructive and necessary. It is obvious scientific communities lack openness towards the general public. This leads to unexpected and especially inappropriate reactions from in people lacking knowledge on the GMO subject. Science popularization seems essential. So, in my opinion, Science Apéro is a good way to tackle this problem.
"; Regarding the contents, I found both talks very interesting, (…) the simplification process of the subject was nicely done, and I consider that even people without GMO knowledge were able to understand it. The subject was broached according to different points of view going beyond the agri-food field\/subject. This was beneficial for people with political opinion on GMOs, but who lack the necessary biological knowledge in order to understand all aspects of this subject. \"Don’t confuse biology with politics or even economy\" was the message clearly depicted throughout this event.”

"; Sapho AUPETIT<\/b>
4th year student in Bioinformatics at the University of Bordeaux<\/i><\/p>"; <\/div>"; element.innerHTML = html; var element = document.getElementById("AP"); var html = "
Coucou!
"; element.innerHTML = html;

How to find us ?

Feel free to email us to provide some feedback on our project, have some information on the team and our work, or to just say hello !

Facebook Twitter Wordpress

Mail: igembdx@gmail.com

Copyright © iGEM Bordeaux 2016