Outreach

Symposium event with Stockholm and Uppsala

We had the great pleasure of collaborating with the Uppsala and Stockholm iGEM teams of 2018 in the intersection of our human practices efforts. Their topic of choice aligned itself perfectly with ours in terms of both objective and essence. The opportunity to join forces arose organically following a series of fruitful video conferences outlining the aim and plan of action of each team. All agreed to host a symposium regarding psychological stress and the exciting topic of biohacking and its ethical implications.

After nearly 3 months of logistics planning and contacting potential speakers, we made the travel up to University of Uppsala to organize event. Prior to the event Uppsala had finished their handbook on stress management, outlining stress management strategies on an individual level. We had the privilege of contributing to the final product with a small essay on the importance of an authentic work environment. Authenticity is a concept of convergence between action and personal values or beliefs and lack there of has been directly linked to higher levels of occupational stress. The essay will be made available as part of our work on management for human practices or as an edited version in Uppsala’s handbook. Our team and Uppsala chose to inquire into prevalence and nature of occupational psychological distress in academia and, in particular, as related to iGEM. In addition, different approaches to stress management were investigated in hopes of developing a set of tools for stress alleviation. While team Lund decided to focus on proactive strategies implemented at the organizational level, Uppsala emphasized interventions on an individual level.

The symposium consisted of several lectures on different topics related to occupational stress as well as a moderated panel discussion on bioethics. In addition, Uppsala hosted a mindfulness session consisting of breathing exercises designed to alleviate stress and arousal. The entire event, titled Limits of Life, was open to the public and oriented in a popular scientific manner.

After a short introduction by the teams, Will Wright of the iGEM Foundation took the stage to briefly outline the iGEM competition and discuss his experience with iGEM teams, their organization and common issues experienced by participants related to their project. The presentation was then followed by a lecture on the science behind stress and burn-out by the distinguished psychiatrist and professor Marie Åsberg. Prof. Åsberg discussed her research on occupational well-being and the emergence of fatigue syndrome as a clinical diagnosis. Before a short intermission consisting of lunch and talk by Naturvetarna on their work as a federation of the Swedish trade union representing workers in the natural sciences, team Uppsala’s own Jonas Nielsen guided the audience through a breathing exercise.

The second part of the symposium touched on the ethics of human genetic engineering that materialized following developments in genetic engineering such as CRISPR and high-throughput DNA synthesis. The topic was discussed by Dr. Jens Sundström and Assoc. Prof. Per Sandin, two researchers in bioethics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and Hannes Sjöblad, a figure within the Swedish biohacking society and avid proponent of human augmentation and transhumanism. The three reflected on future scenarios, ranging from the realistic to the absurd, in an effort to elucidate some of the complex philosophical issues human augmentation gives rise to.

The event gathered a substantial audience and all teams did a very good job mediating the event. We hope that all participants got to learn about the importance of personal stress management and biohacking. Hosting this event allowed an open and honest discourse in discussing the most important questions regarding the rapid development of biology and medicine. The discussion by the end of the symposium got really heated due to the opposing viewpoints of the participating debaters. The significance of good moderation was made apparent in this context.

We hope our collaboration with team Uppsala and Stockholm will serve as an example for future Nordic teams to reach out and work together.

Biotech4Change conference at the European Parliament

With the wiki-freeze being 18 days away and having tons of work left to do, we still managed to send some members of our team to attend the Biotech4Change conference at the European parliament. Despite the workload, we did not want to miss out on a big opportunity to make change on a political level. We got the chance to present our project and participate in a round-table discussion with various entrepreneurs, researchers, politicians and students. The topic was about the strict regulations set by the parliament regarding GMO and technologies like CRISPR. The current regulations and long court trials hinder many scientists and biotech companies in pursuing their research and launch of products that potentially could save the lives of millions.

We hope that our participation in this discussion and the presentation of our project will invoke new insights of the vital role biotechnology will have in the future. Big thanks to the UCLouvain iGEM team for organizing this important event.

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Biohackathon in Vilnius, Lithuania

In early August, we participated in the Biohackathon hosted by the Vilnius iGEM team. We developed a search engine that efficiently extracts and displays information from iGEM wikis and the iGEM distribution kit.

Students participating in iGEM for the first time usually have a hard time finding the desired content. Instinctively, the students turn to the gigantic wiki-library that has accumulated since the inception of iGEM as a means to gain a better understanding of the competition and synthetic biology. From personal experience, we also faced issues in finding the right biobricks in the iGEM distribution kit sent out by the iGEM foundation. Discussing this with iGEM teams that we met at conferences and iGEM events we realized that this was a common issue among other teams.

To highlight the importance of this gathering, the event was kicked-off by an inspirational speech from Virginijus Sinkevičius, Minister of Economy. He talked about the importance of why initiatives like iGEM and Biohackathons strengthen the bonds between IT and Life Sciences.

The charismatic researcher Urtė Neniškytė got our brains ready for the 48 hours ahead by holding a lecture about current research in brain performance and what we can do to improve it.

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During the 48-hour timeframe of the competition, we created a dedicated search engine tailored specifically for iGEM teams and researchers in synthetic biology to search iGEM-wikis and the distribution kit in a more comprehensive manner. This allows the user to more easily access information about previous iGEM team projects and gain knowledge about, for example, what current research already exists and what projects one can build upon.

A big thank you to the Vilnius team for putting heart and soul in making this event into a truly memorable one.