Team:Toronto/PolicyAndPractices/Outreach

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Outreach

Intoduction

To enhance publicity and understanding of our project, we produced outreach elements which aim to stimulate curiosity and conversation about our project, the iGEM organization and synthetic biology. Our approach was two-fold. We conducted a podcast, called SynTalks [LINK TO SOUNDCLOUD HERE], and a literature review. SynTalks was constructed for the purpose of outreach toward individuals within society who were interested in synthetic biology and our project. The literature review was constructed for individuals who were interested in receiving a more detailed analysis of the advancements of our project and current cellular separation and filtration methods. Ultimately the production of these outreach programs focused on providing information about our project, while our education and public engagement activities worked toward the unification of public and professional opinion into our project.

PODCAST

Considering our project revolved around the use of employing genetically engineered bacteria to clean water and we felt the need to educate the public on the positive outcomes of using genetically modified organisms. The misguided reputation of GMOs and the complicated nature of synthetic biology, has resulted in the distortion of scientific findings and is not being transmitted in a clear or coherent way to the general public. To help communicate and eliminate such misrepresentation, we produced a podcast series, SynTalks [LINK TO SOUNDCLOUD HERE]. Our podcast series consisted of interviews of professors and graduate students in the fields of medicine, environment and chemical engineering. We also interviewed a few notable public policymakers who are integral in regulating products of synthetic biology and their use in Canada.

The first 3 episode on synthetic biology in the world of medicine was released in mid-July. We interviewed Dr. Kathleen Hefferon and Dr. Jennifer Mitchel, who are professors at the University of Toronto, as well as Noeline Subramaniam, a Ph.D. Student. We then released episode 4 and 5 which focused on the role of synthetic biology within the environment and agricultural field. We interviewed Dr. Stockkad a professor at U of T, and Patrick, a BioZone Graduate student. Episode 6 interviewed Jim Louter, the Manager of the Biotechnology Section and Emerging Priorities Division in the Science and Technology Branch at Environment and Climate Change Canada and Valar Anoop (Ph.D.) who is a Senior Biologist in Biotechnology at Health Canada. This episode focused on the ethics and policy surrounding synthetic biology.

“People are easy to sway through mass media, the internet or fake news outlets so people become unsure and uncertain about what the truth really is.”

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