Outreach Activities

Synthetic biology is converting into reality the most abstract concept and ideas in the human mind with each passing day. However, the mindset of general public is still skeptical towards this particular field and its exemplary achievements. We, through our outreach program aimed to remove this fear and doubts from the mind of the students and tried to invoke in them the enthralling world of synthetic biology and the perks of it. Our promotion therefore involved several public lectures at various schools aimed at introducing prospective scientists to this exciting field in general and our topic in particular.

School Lectures

To bring our project and the idea of synthetic biology closer to the coming generations of young scientists, we conducted several lectures across various parts of Maharashtra, a state in India. Gist of the lectures is mentioned below:

Dnyanaprakash Vidyalaya

First outreach activity of the team started with addressing 9th standard students of Dyanaprakash Vidyalaya. The children had basic knowledge about cell and its structure with minute insights into genetics and DNA. However, they were largely unaware about the upcoming field of synthetic biology and genetic engineering. Hence, the talks were focused on introducing them to the field of genetic engineering and synthetic biology through our project and generating interest in those young minds. As an exercise, team asked students what applications of Genetic Engineering could they think of? Out of the many answers, we got applications that are indeed being researched upon currently like - “Modifying bacteria to consume the pollutants present in Air”, “Modifying bacteria so as to be able to control it and make it do whatever you want - essentially having a bacteria Robot”. Thus, the school talk was a success in creating awareness amongst the children and generating interest about the field.

Kids’ Paradise School and Abhinav Balak Mandir

The second and third outreach activity was carried out in rural region of Sangli, Maharashtra, India, in classes from 5th to 10th standard with an aim of creating interest amongst the rural children about this enthralling world of synthetic biology through our project. Mrs. Nikita Bhate (Head of Kids’ Paradise School) and Mr Mahadev Kumbhar (Head of Abhinav Balak Mandir) appreciated the efforts of the team saying that, “the attempt was a very successful one for the development of the students. It has helped students to get acquainted with this exciting field in which they would like to work in future. Thus, the school talks were a success in creating awareness amongst the children and generating interest about the field”.

Human Practices: iGEM WashU

Team WashU is working towards engineering yeast to produce a wheat rust resistance protein. As a collaboration activity, they expected to collect responses from variety of wheat farmers across the world. We helped them with relevant data from India. During one of our IHP visits, our team interacted with wheat farmers and collected responses to the specific questions sent by the WashU team. Team also provided the contacts of some farmers in India as part of the collaboration activity, thus helping them to improve their network of farmers and gain information about specifics of damage caused by wheat rust and their preventive measures.