Human Practices
Science and technology have always been prompted by a desire of solving social issues. Thus, science would be nothing if it doesn’t exist a relationship with people.
How your project affects the world and how the world affects it?
Integrated Human: the key
When creating a new scientific device, the existence of political, economic and social frameworks leads into the necessity of an in-depth analysis of how your creation would affect the world and how the world affects it.We analyzed the real-life problems that would be solved with Printeria, so finally the key applications fields are divided into:
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Research groups. Printeria automatizes time-consuming protocols, which are also not free of the human error. Thus, it enhances the intellectual task and increases the experiments standardization and reproducibility.
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Education. With a friendly-user software, Printeria is designed to be an educational tool, as a fully equipped device is introduced inside classrooms without the necessity of high-cost technologies.
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Bio Art. Printeria offers a compact and friendly toolkit to have a complete palette of pigmented bacteria for the bioartist disposal.
During the design phase our product, we were mainly concerned about how to fulfill the stakeholders demands and so create a useful product in line with our objectives. In order to get first-hand feedback, our human practices team conducted several interviews with each target group, so we could realize which where the real user necessities in relation to topics such as software functionalities, external design, DNA parts toolkit and biosafety measurements. In these interviews, we talked with the Spanish microbiologist PhD. Francis Mojica and with several artists, such as the bioartist María Peñil. We also received feedback from an open-talk with high schools last year students. Moreover, our microfluidic system design was thoughtfully implemented with the advice of electronic engineering professionals from the microfluidic market niche.
To know how the feedback receiving was focused and how it was gradually integrated to finally create Printeria as nowadays is, you can further read the Integrated Human page by clicking here.
Is our work good enough for the world?
Public Engagement: communicating is essential
Printeria was born with the aim of knocking down the barriers that prevent people from coming into Synthetic Biology. However, these barriers are not only related with the high-cost technology, but also with the society lack of awareness. The lay-public do not usually know what SynBio and, when having heard about it, several misconceptions are commonly extended.
Thus, we realized it was necessary to encourage a critical thinking atmosphere before integrating Printeria. In this context, our main concern was to introduce an attractive and non-usual approach to become SynBio a closer and familiar concept. Then, we set the goal of promoting the BioArt branch, not only by easing the bioartist production with Printeria, but also and most important by introducing it to the non-scientific world. Using the advices we were given by experts of this field, we carried out a Microbial Art workshop. We also collaborated with the famous valencian artist José María Yturralde, introducing him to the BioArt world by creating one of his most important masterpieces with a 3D mould and bacteria. On the other, several talks were given to different target groups to divulge SynBio and so fight against misinformation.
See the full activities carried out in our a Education and Public Engagement page.
Collaborations
Synthetic biology builds are the result of collaborations across many fields, including institutional, industrial, scientific, and technical developments (1). In the same way, sharing and collaborating are some of the core values of the iGEM community. We were delighted to part of this collaborative approach, so you can all read the collaborations we carried out with other iGEM teams by going to our Collaborations page.
Biosafety
Biosafety measurements are completely necessary during any lab research, like the one carried out by our team. Moreover, safety considerations in relation to Printeria sterilization and biocontention measurements is essential if we want to introduce a bio-engineering device as Printeria is in non-scientific places. You can read our safety practices and the safety considerations we have established in regard to our device by going to the Safety page.