Overview
When we started to conceive our project, we decided that it was equally important to make synthetic biology more accessible inside and outside of the university. We decided to have both the general public and experts be a fundamental part of our project, and therefore our Human Practices approach has three pillars:
Expert advice
Early on we realized that our project was of special relevance to those who work directly and indirectly with quorum sensing, so we asked for their input in how we planned our experiments and our HP concept. This allowed us to have a better and more reliable approach. On top of this, we discussed our HP plans with the founders of two of the biggest biology-related outreach activity projects. See more: Integrated Human Practices.
All-female group of students from Brazils Technical School
During the year we had the opportunity to work with a group of high school seniors from Brazil’s technical school. This allowed us not only to teach them about basic molecular biology and synthetic biology (both lacking in our regular school curriculum), but also created the opportunity for them to work on our project and help develop some of our parts! See more on our: Integrated Human Practices page, which contains the more details about which parts they helped develop and more of our work together.
Biology thematic week
This year we were asked to speak at “Semana temática da Biologia” (Biology thematic week) held at Biosciences Institute. This provided us with a platform to speak about synthetic biology to a diversified audience, both academic and non academic. See more: Public Engagement page.