UNL 2018 Improving Early Detection of The Emerald Ash Borer

Silver Human Practices

Integrated Human Practices

Our team worked very hard to meet and work with Nebraskan arborists and entomologists to improve our project and learn how it would be most effectively used and implemented in the future. Please check out our Integrated Human Practices page to learn more about our meetings and interviews with The Arbor Day Foundation, Dr. North, the Nebraska Forest Service, and the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

Education and Public Engagement

Since the Emerald Ash Borer has not been in Nebraska very long, many Nebraskans are not aware of the damage it will cause or preventative measures they can take to protect their trees. That is why our team took advantage of the many opportunities we had to engage with the public and spread awareness of the Emerald Ash Borer problem as well as discuss our project and the principles of synthetic biology. Please check out our Education and Public Engagement page to learn more about our outreach events.

Project Design and Feedback

In deciding to do our iGEM project about the Emerald Ash Borer, we wanted to make sure that experts dealing first hand with the EAB problem and the public would be receptive to using synthetic biology as a potential solution. When we decided to make an improved bait for EAB traps, we had several different ideas of how we could introduce this new bait to the trap system. One idea was that we could have put the E. coli in a containment vessel on the trap itself. That way it could have grown and produced the new bait on site. This would be theoretically simple to execute in terms of delivering the bait to the trap, but we found that it raised safety concerns. The more conventional alternative would be to grow the E. coli and purify the product in the lab. Since the E. coli would be contained in the lab, this raised fewer safety concerns. In talking with the public and with experts, they supported the latter option.

We had the opportunity to discuss our project with a representative from the Arbor Day Foundation, arborist Pete Smith. In our interview, we asked him what he is thought the public and professional opinion of a GMO being used to help the EAB problem. He responded that containing the E. coli in the lab was important to him and the public. Since the EAB is already an invasive species, he does not support introducing new species into the environment. He also stressed that when explaining our project to others, distinctive language matters and can help others better understand synthetic biology safety. Pete suggested describing our project as “a lab contained GMO process that yields a product that mimics a natural chemical” when talking to nonscientists. Overall, he thought it was great that we were taking a different approach to the EAB problem than the traditional pesticides and girdled trees as scientists, engineers, non-arborists, and non-entomologists. We were encouraged to hear this and know that arborists are supportive of our project and our safety efforts.

We also had the opportunity to present our project idea to the Nebraska Forest Service and receive their feedback. As Pete Smith had suggested they might be, they were wary of the idea of using E. coli until we had stressed that it would be contained in the lab and only the product 7-epi-sesquithujene would be used in the traps. They were very supportive of our project and appreciated the new approach to making more effective EAB traps. They stressed that Nebraska’s ash trees need all the help they can get and appreciated any project dedicated to helping them.

Museum visits

Throughout the summer we were able to have an exhibit at Morrill Hall, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln State Museum. This gave us the opportunity to gather public opinion on our project. As people approached our exhibit, we engaged with them about the Emerald Ash Borer problem and how we were using synthetic biology to help solve it. Many people had never heard of the Emerald Ash Borer since it was relatively new to Nebraska, which caused a range of opinions about whether genetically engineered E. coli should be used to produce compounds meant to be released into the environment. While some were fascinated by our project because of our approach of dealing with an invasive species, others were skeptical. Those who did not support our project had concerns about the dangers of E. coli, so we were able to explain that we are using a nonharmful strain. We were also able to explain that only the product would be released to the environment, not the E. coli, since we planned to purify the product. We appreciated all of the responses of those who visited our exhibit since the community’s views and opinions are very important to us and the development of our project.

Night at the Museum

Research Presentations

We were able to present our research results at the time at both the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chemistry Department’s summer poster session and the UCARE Summer Research Symposium on August 7, 2018. Our poster explained some background on the Emerald Ash Borer and detection traps, our project design, and current results, as well as information about iGEM. We received good feedback and encouragement from the chemistry department faculty and the community at these events. Several members of the chemistry department have had first hand experience dealing with the EAB in their ash trees, and they appreciated that we were trying to tackle the problem. We enjoyed being able to share about synthetic biology and iGEM and how it gave us the opportunity to focus on a problem that was affecting them.

Women’s IT Conference

Two members of our team, Shreeya Vaitla and Rachel Van Cott, also had the opportunity to present our project at the Women Advance IT leadership conference on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Innovation Campus on October 2, 2018. We were the first and only undergraduate researchers to present at the conference. We presented on the iGEM program and the research opportunities it has provided us with along with our project design and results. The presentation was very well-received, and the conference attendees expressed their support for our project and the novelty of applying synthetic biology to an invasive species problem. We held a lengthy Q&A after our presentation in which we were able to inform them about our plans for future research as well as the leadership opportunities we have had since starting our iGEM project.

Conclusion

We appreciated each opportunity we were given to present our project since it gave us the chance to share about iGEM and synthetic biology and learn how people respond to the application of synthetic biology as demonstrated in our project. We learned that safety and being informed of safety precautions are very important to the community, and also that professionals appreciate new scientific approaches to problems within their field. We appreciate all of the feedback and support they gave us in our project.

Team:UNebraska-Lincoln/HP/Silver