Team:Toronto/PolicyAndPractices

Policy and Practices

This year, the PnP team played an integral role in applying a problem-solving-based approach to give you our bioremediation platform today. By persistently interviewing local companies, government regulators, municipal services, and academics, we sculpted the mechanisms of our platform to fit the need of our community. In conjunction, we employed public awareness campaigns, to wear away any anti-GMO stigma that may hinder both our project and the synthetic biology community as a whole. Through workshops, panel discussions, literature reviews, and the creation of a unique, synthetic-biology-focused podcast, Syntalks, we have integrated our team’s fundamental science and prepared it for a tangible impact.

  1. JANUARY: Biozone Interviews

    Conducted insightful interviews which helped address the pertinency of bioremediation. Our team interviewed a total of 26 graduate students from Biozone, a center within our host Chemical Engineering Department, which finds new innovative ways to apply biotechnology to address urgent societal needs in environment, energy and health. Most projects revolved around the cleaning or bioremediation of water in some specific respect. Our interviewees were working on various projects from using proteins for enhancing bio-sludge dewaterability to applying biofilms in the recovery of rare earth metals. After conducting these interviews, we were able to establish the relevance of our project.
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  2. MARCH - MAY: Integration

    Through these meetings we were able to establish our project’s applicability within the industrial field and the potential it had to eliminate energy inefficiencies, harsh chemical uses, expensive processes, and pollutant removal.

    KINROSS GOLD CORPORATION
    Michal K. Manager, Business Optimization

    After attending a tour hosted by the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant in Toronto our project evolved in conjunction with the insightful interviews conducted with the Biozone students. Ultimately we would determine to tackle the issue of bioremediation this year. The WWTP not only conveyed their concern for filtering microplastics and pharmaceuticals from their treated water, but also showed us that wastewater treatment was quite a mechanical and chemical heavy process that had not involved much advancement.

    TORONTO WASTEWATER OPERATIONS
    Susan Atlin, P.Eng Manager Operations Coordinator
    Emily Zegers Senior Engineer, Process Innovation & Energy
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  3. JUNE: Syntalks

    An Original 5 Series Podcast: Agriculture, Environment, Medicine, Public, & Policy. An important aspect of iGEM and synthetic biology is addressing the public’s fear of GMOs and eliminating lack of knowledge on the subject, which incentivized us to make a podcast series, SynTalks. SynTalks intents to educate the general public on the prolifera of work done with the help of synthetic biology in the fields of medicine, agricultural, environment and energy. We wanted to emphasize that synthetic biology is not just restricted to “Frankenstein” GMO foods in your grocery stores. The first 3 episodes on synthetic biology in the world of medicine was released in mid-July. We interviewed Dr. Kathleen Hefferon and Dr. Jennifer Mitchel, who are professors at the University of Toronto, as well as Noeline Subramaniam, who is a Ph.D. Student. We then released episode 4 and 5 which focused on the role of synthetic biology on the environment and agricultural field. We interviewed Dr. Stockkad a professor at U of T, and Patrick, who is a Masters student. Episode 6 interviewed Jim Louter who is the Manager of the Biotechnology Section and Emerging Priorities Division in the Science and Technology Branch at Environment and Climate Change Canada and Valar Anoop Ph.D. who is a Senior Biologist in Biotechnology at Health Canada. This episode focused on the ethics and policy surrounding synthetic biology.
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  4. JULY: Survey

    We analyzed perspectives of people from different demographics: University students, general public, audience before and after Q & A Panel. The survey encompassed two specific goals; analyze public understanding of synthetic biology and attain public opinion regarding the filtration of water through the use of GMOs.
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  5. AUGUST: Literature Review

    This literature review aims to analyze inefficient and rudimentary industrial methods used to aggregate pollutants or high-value materials from aqueous substances or effluent and demonstrate how iGEM Toronto’s application of gas vesicles eliminates such inconsistencies.

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  6. SEPTEMBER: Q&A Panel

    This outreach program focused on engaging the minds of the public on the topic of synthetic biology and its environmental, legal, social and ethical implications. The audience will discover that synthetic biology is very complex and can be beneficial if practiced in a responsible way. Furthermore, it was done to showcase iGEM Toronto's present work, achievements, and consideration for the environment and society to the student body and public.
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