Team:Leiden/Engagement
Events
Synthetic biology brings great opportunities for innovative applications, tackling major societal problems. However, as with all applications, they are made to be used by people. Therefore, it is vital to keep these people in mind during the design process and to have them on board with our plans.To that end, we are engaging with all people and organizations associated to our project by visiting a variety of events. Scroll down to see what activities we have participated in and make sure to come back here often to stay up-to-date to our activities and get a sneak preview of future events.
08/07/2018
Werfpop
On the 8th of July we organised a “Drawing with bacteria” workshop at Werfpop, a free music and art festival in Leiden. We were invited by Science meets Business to organise a workshop involving some crazy science. We decided to do bacterial painting
with coloured bacteria. Nothing was visible while painting, but after three days the bacteria grew and the drawings magically appeared. We were really impressed by all the amazing works of art people made! The workshop was a great success with
both young and old participating. Besides the drawing we also explained our project to anyone who was interested.
Lastly, we asked participants to vote in favor or against genetic modification to see what the general public thought. Votes were cast by adding coloured liquid to large eppendorfs. The final tally showed 110 votes in favor and 45 votes against. The voting allowed us to have many great discussion with the Werfpop visitors on our project and genetic engineering as a whole.
Lastly, we asked participants to vote in favor or against genetic modification to see what the general public thought. Votes were cast by adding coloured liquid to large eppendorfs. The final tally showed 110 votes in favor and 45 votes against. The voting allowed us to have many great discussion with the Werfpop visitors on our project and genetic engineering as a whole.
02/06/2018
Museum Night
The Leiden Museum Night is an annual event which promotes the visiting of museums. During the night, the museums of Leiden open their doors and offer special workshops and lectures. This year, we stood in the Botanical garden where we gave a workshop
in agar art. Our goal was to make people more familiar with bacteria and take away some of the stigma surrounding them. The workshop was appropriate for all ages and we got very positive feedback from both children and elders. Besides this we
had a stand with our poster and flyers where we explained our project and the issue of antibiotics resistance to the visitors. We had great conversations and got to understand the fears people have when it comes to GMO's and bacteria. We were
very glad to see that many people were interested in our project and supported our work. The night was a great success and the many pictures of brightly colored bacteria drawings warmed our heart.
22/05/2018
Netherlands Biotechnology Conference
At the Netherlands Biotechnology Conference promising developments in biotechnology were discussed. During the day we attended pitches and lectures given by researchers and students from universities, companies - such as DSM - and the Rathenau Institute.
We also presented our project via a posterpitch and held interesting discussions with the many participants at the conference. Particularly the critical questions on our project helped us challenge our plans and decisions. For example, making
us think of why we choose to use plasmids over incorporating our system directly into the bacterial genome. Furthermore, the conference was another opportunity to make contact with Dutch iGEM teams, including members of the winning Delft iGEM
team of 2017. This allowed us to gather many tips and tricks. Finally, we made contact with several speakers who offered us support and guidance during our project to combat antibiotic resistance. Altogether, the Netherlands Biotechnology Conference
provided us with inspiring day where we made many new contacts and promoted our iGEM project!
17/05/2018
Science meets Business Café
The Science Meets Business Café is a monthly meeting of scientists and bioscience company representatives, with the goal of stimulating cooperation between them. During the final Café event before the summer break, we presented our project and opened
the discussion with scientists and businesspeople alike. It was motivating to receive many positive reactions to our project and the subsequent drinks allowed us to delve into further details with interested individuals. The afternoon provided
us valuable new contacts and allowed us to further spread our ideas and the added value of synthetic biology.
17/05/2018
Industry Day
The city of Leiden has a rich history of scientists and artists engaging their work to find solutions to problems and explore the scientific and ethical boundaries of curiosity. At Industry day, we kept that tradition alive by bringing scientists
and artist into one room and displaying our work. iGEM Leiden team member, Germaine Aalderink, had prepared two large pieces of agar art for the occasion, using colored bacteria as ‘paint’. Sadly, bacterial infections took hold on the large homemade
agar containers leading to the art being overgrown. Fortunately we were able to use this loss to further emphasize the need for antibiotics and to raise awareness for the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
We also had the opportunity to have discussions with fascinating artists. A favorite was Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a biologist and artist who uses his art as a medium to raise awareness for an endangered squid species. Hiemstra made us realize that - although
graphs are a scientific method to show a negative trend - art is a way to emotionally involve the viewer an make them truly realise the problem and the need to solve it.
Picture by Gabi van Ingen.
Picture by Gabi van Ingen.
14/04/2018
RIVM: Safe by Design
To kickstart our brainstorming on the Human Practices behind our project, we met with the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and with the Rathenau Institute, tasked with supporting the public and political discussion
of science. During the day we pitched our idea to the RIVM and other Dutch iGEM teams. Afterwards, 7 experts from the fields of policy & law, societal impact, safety & security, business and ethics enriched us with their knowledge and thoughts
on our project. This provided us with many valuable insights and helped us to firmly include Human Practices into all the steps of our project. Additionally, the day provided a nice opportunity to meet up with the other Dutch iGEM teams, allowing
us to exchange ideas and get to know each other better.
23/04/2018
Science Day - Hannover Messe Challenge
Five members of our team attended the science day at Twente University, to enthuse high school students for a study in beta or life sciences. During the event we gave a workshop on synthetic biology, explaining the basics of synthetic biology to
25 motivated higher secondary education students.
The workshop started with a presentation on the usefulness of bacteria and the advantages that synthetic biology offer us. Thereafter, the students received a taste of biological research by performing three small experiments, including DNA visualization, ‘agar art’ with colored bacteria and a test to discover where the most bacteria live; e.g. on your phone, the toilet or your hands, and before or after washing? During the experiments, the students were stimulated to think about the biology behind the experiments. For instance, discussing the source of the bacteria’s pink color. It was gratifying to see the students enthusiastically discuss and perform the experiments, being eager to learn about synthetic biology.
We want to give a big shout out to Twente University for inviting us to this great educational event.
The workshop started with a presentation on the usefulness of bacteria and the advantages that synthetic biology offer us. Thereafter, the students received a taste of biological research by performing three small experiments, including DNA visualization, ‘agar art’ with colored bacteria and a test to discover where the most bacteria live; e.g. on your phone, the toilet or your hands, and before or after washing? During the experiments, the students were stimulated to think about the biology behind the experiments. For instance, discussing the source of the bacteria’s pink color. It was gratifying to see the students enthusiastically discuss and perform the experiments, being eager to learn about synthetic biology.
We want to give a big shout out to Twente University for inviting us to this great educational event.
