Events

During our project we participated in different events that had for goal to popularize synthetic biology and present our project to the public. In this section we are explaining the different events and how we got involved for them.

Presentation in labs: A feedback from the Scientific community

The CBS of Montpellier ( Center of structural biochemistry ) hosted 2 presentations of our project. Indeed, we presented our project and its ideas to the members of the CBS in order to get their feedback. Two and a half months after that, we did another 2 presentations in the CBSand also in the DGIMI lab (Diversity Genomes & Insect Microorganisms Interactions, INRA) to conclude about our summer of lab work in the CBS. Those 3 presentations were a good way to improve our scientific speech skills and prepared us for the Giant Jamboree as well as presenting our project to biologists and physicists to have feedback about it.

Fête de la science

October 5th to 6th, we participated in the “Fête de la science” at the Faculty of Education, Montpellier. It’s the major event for scholar and large public about science in France that occur every year. There, we explained the major concepts about DNA, bacteria and GMO to student from 10 to 15 years old and their parents. fig1) Explaining Synthetic Biology to children and public Construction of an helical double stranded DNA, cardboard constructions allowed us to show them what DNA is and how the cell can use it to encode every protein it needs. Moreover, we realised several posters that explain synthetic biology. The Cardboard game We constructed a game made out of cardboard pieces to explain to kids (from 10 to 16) how to make a genetic design They first learned a simple map constituted of Promoter - RBS - Gene - Terminator Then once they could remember the “phrase” they had to find out how the expression will work with or without some part fig2) Plate with bacteriART , E coli producing RFG and GFP Because kids usually prefer to see actual things rather than being explain concepts we brought plate with transformed bacteria that produce RFP or GFP. In large plate without antibiotic we put our hand, our mouth to show differents kind of bacteria from differents parts of the body. fig3) Our stand at the ‘’Fête de la Science” in the Montpellier Science Village , Education Faculty The most important thing is they had a lot of question and curiosity about synthetic biology ! While talking to children, we also met adults with whom we discussed about the project Vagineering !

Practical work in a high school

We also organized and participated to two lectures for a high school class. We believe our role as students is also to present what we are doing to motivate high school students. As we mentioned earlier French people still have a bad vision of GMOs even though this vision is less importantly shared by younger people. However we still find that it is important to explain to the youth how things such as genetic engineering works for their scientific culture. This is why we decided to work with the iGEM Sorbonne University Team to do classes to highschool students. In the first class we presented gave a basic overview biology lecture about DNA and mutations with a hands-on practical lab component (pictures 1 and 2). This lecture had the main goal of giving them the main ideas of the living and how mutations can appear by diverse ways. The experiments conducted were the exposition of yeasts to UV rays during different amount of time. The second class was a week after the first one. This allowed us to analyze the grown yeasts and explain the students how to analyze results objectively. We then explained what synthetic biology was and exposed our projects.

Synthetic Biology Workshop, A feedback from students

October the 10th, we presented the mechanisms of synthetic biology, and an example of application with our project Vagineering, to 2 classes of Master degree in Health Biology/Bioproduction, and in Host Microorganism interactions. For 1 hour and a half, we had the time to introduce them to synthetic biology mechanisms, and the methods we used (wet lab and dry lab). But also about our project and all its aspects. iGEM competition what is synthetic biology ? A possible application : Vagineering At the end of the presentation, we discussed about the viability of our project, and the popularization of our project. This experience was very rewarding for our team, and having the point of view of students, that directly are the potential future users of Vagineering.

The press

Smile, you're on camera! The promotion of our iGEM project is important, both for allowing many people to know about our project and for helping us for the sponsoring. For the first iGEM Montpellier Team edition, we were lucky to be interviewed by several media. June 6, 2018 : EUSynbioBeta IGEM MONTPELLIER 2018 : A NEW NON-HORMONAL CONTRACEPTION June 29, 2018 : MadmoiZelle Vagineering, pour qu’une bactérie devienne un moyen de contraception July 28, 2018 : Inspira Biotech IGEM Montpelier presents Vagineering, the proposal of a probiotic contraceptive August 3, 2018 : ChEEk MAGAZINE Vagineering: Ils veulent faire d’une bactérie un moyen de contraception non hormonal September 10, 2018 : Midi Libre Contraception : l’idée géniale des étudiants montpelliérains September 12, 2018 : France 3 Montpellier : 9 étudiants travaillent sur une bactérie révolutionnaire pour la contraception féminine October 14, 2018 : Blasting Pop France : Une piste de contraception non-hormonale explorée par 9 étudiants montpelliérains