Team:USNA-Annapolis/Human Practices
The team was extremely fortunate to meet at the Pentagon with representatives of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), as well as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in Washington, D.C. There they gave a short presentation about the danger of conotoxin, as well as our efforts to combat the danger. Additionally, we conducted our work at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with funding from DTRA. These organizations ensured we kept our focus on the anti-biological warfare nature of our project. In coming years we hope to test the effectiveness of the sense and respond mechanism in E. coli in the lab with actual conotoxin. The extreme toxicity of conotoxin makes testing hazardous, however our unique relationship with NRL allows us access to resources which reduce the danger sufficiently in order to conduct future lab testing. As we integrate our sense and respond mechanism into a simulated human microbiome, we hope to predict the effectiveness of the sense and respond mechanism in the human environment.
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).
