Team:Freiburg/Integrated Practices
Integrated Human Practice
“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.”
- Indira Gandhi
- Indira Gandhi
Thankfully all our questions have been answered by the public and some experts. We were able to assemble informations, which wanted to be shared. Now it was our time to reach out and answer the concerns and questions of others regarding our project and the synthetic biology itself.
According to our survey most participants are still skeptical when it comes to synthetic biology. This can be explained by its novelty in today’s field of science. There is still a way to go to spread it in the public awareness. Genetic engineering, GMOs and the production of medication, bacteria good or bad? Getting confused is easy, but staying confused is a choice. Consequently, we want to enlighten the public about synthetic biology and our project.
We’ve based the structure of our wiki and the way we present our project in general on the information we’ve received from these surveys. Therefore, we knew on which basis we could build onto and how we could focus on the unclear parts in a more detailed way to reach a better understanding in the public’s view. We hope we were able to give something back, so everybody benefits equally.
According to our survey most participants are still skeptical when it comes to synthetic biology. This can be explained by its novelty in today’s field of science. There is still a way to go to spread it in the public awareness. Genetic engineering, GMOs and the production of medication, bacteria good or bad? Getting confused is easy, but staying confused is a choice. Consequently, we want to enlighten the public about synthetic biology and our project.
We’ve based the structure of our wiki and the way we present our project in general on the information we’ve received from these surveys. Therefore, we knew on which basis we could build onto and how we could focus on the unclear parts in a more detailed way to reach a better understanding in the public’s view. We hope we were able to give something back, so everybody benefits equally.
In the beginning of our project, at the point when we already decided on using the spores of Bacillus subtilis for targeted drug delivery, we thought about ways to applicate medication in a more comforting and easy way. As B. subtilis is actually a probiotic, we came up with the idea to use probiotic yogurt to administer our spores to the human body. It could even become just another tasty item on one’s breakfast.
This seemed like a great idea at the time. But after evaluating our survey about synthetic biology, it revealed that the majority of participants is against genetic modifications during food production while 86% approved the use of genetic modifications in the development of new drugs or therapies.
After we held an interview with pharmacists, it revealed that the idea of using yogurt actually isn’t that applicable. As it is important for our spores to get to the colon intact, where their actual target is, they need to be protected from stomach acids. The best way to achieve this is to encapsulate the spores in stomach acid resistant capsules. Based on the information we received from our surveys and the opinions of the experts we discarded the idea of using yogurt and decided instead to use capsules.
Additionally, we wanted to address people affected by ulcerative colitis in our survey.The survey did not only answer many questions about how patients feel and what influence their illness has on their life, but also strengthened our motivation to come up with a new delivery system.
The overall message we got from the survey formed a clear image. The public and experts appreciated the idea of a new system of targeted drug delivery, but were rather unsure about using B.subtilis and especially its endospores.To ease their uncertainty, we decided to dedicate our time to shoot an informative short-film. Here we show the steps of production and entrust the public to the production of our Nanocillus.
To tell people, who don’t have anything to do with our work, we presented our project in the audience hall of our university. In doing so, we were able to reach out to a lot of students, teachers and people without a scientific background. We’ve explained our project, it’s application, the lab work behind it and raised awareness for ulcerative colitis in general. Giving them the opportunity to ask us anything, we were able to raise confidence and trust in synthetic biology and our project. Getting a lot of positive feedback regarding our project and it’s application, we felt that we carried out important communication work convincing people to reject their preconceptions against B.subtilis.
In summary, we can say that we've learned a lot about the public's perception of synthetic biology and their preoccupations concerning our project. We tried to integrate all the concerns we received and truly believe that this improved our application to make it accessible for everyone.
