Team:Montpellier/Public Engagement
Events
During our project we participated in different events with the goal of popularizing synthetic biology and presenting our project to the public. In this section, we elaborate on the different events and how we used them to promote learning and engagement in the community.
Presentation to our scientific peers: Feedback from the community
Before and after the bulk of our wet lab research during the summer, we presented our project to our colleagues at our host institution, the Centre de Biochimie Structurale (Center for Structural Biology) in Montpellier, for feedback. Additionally, we presented at the end of the summer to the DGIMI lab (Diversity Genomes & Insect Microorganisms Interactions, INRA) to further refine our scientific presentation skills and to obtain additional feedback from scientists in a broad range of sub-disciplines.
Fête de la Science
On October 5th and 6th, we participated in the ‘Fête de la science’ at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montpellier, a large, annual nationwide event to promote interaction between the public and the scientific community. There, we taught 10-15 year old students and their parents about DNA, bacteria, and genetically modified organisms.
We brought several teaching aids with us, including a model of a DNA double helix, posters explaining synthetic biology (Figure 1), and a small game where the children would need to arrange promoters, ribosome binding sites, genes, and terminators to construct a complete ‘sentence’.
Additionally, to spark visual interest and foster interaction, we brought several Petri dishes with bacteria. Some were without antibiotics and contained swabs from different parts of the body to visually illustrate the microbiome; others contained works of bacteriART (Figure 2), drawings using E. coli expressing either mKate2 or super-folder GFP to draw in passersby with their bright colors. While we enjoyed explaining our project and synthetic biology to the community, we were incredibly impressed the number of thoughtful questions we received and the depth of curiosity people showed about synthetic biology. Even the parents were interested in learning more about our Vagineering project!
Organizing High School-Level Lecture and Lab Practical
In collaboration with the iGEM team from the Sorbonne University, we also organized and participated in two lectures for a high school class, with a corresponding lab practical. In the first class, we presented an overview lecture about DNA and mutations with a hands-on practical lab component (Figure 4). During the lecture, we explained how DNA is copied and transferred between generations and how subsequent interference can lead to mutations. This was coupled with experiments where yeast were exposed to UV rays for different durations. This showed them the changing of color of some colonies (we used Ade2 mutant that were originally red and got back to a white color) and the difference of number of colonies During the second class the following week, we analyzed the results of the experiment with the students, followed by an introductory lecture on synthetic biology and our iGEM project. We hope to have kindled some interest in their young minds to join the next generation of iGEMers.
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 (Figure 4).
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 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
Arts
To share and popularize the scientific knowledge has become an important part of the scientist work. As our project concerns the whole population, and as many women are unaware of the different contraceptive methods. We found that using art as a bridge/link to share our project. Indeed, arts in education will promote creativity, thinking and learning! The dialogue between Arts and Science is here represented by the work of different artists.
The artists that worked with us are not related to a scientific education. They created a piece of art starting from what we taught them about. The aim of this work is to sensibilise internet users to the existence of the vaginal microbiota/flora and the vulva through the vision of non scientific artists.
Social media
Artists from different backgrounds made artworks about they’re vision of the vulva, the vagina and its microbiota. We decided to create a series of artworks made by artists, in order to answer to the public questionments.
To the question: What is your vision of a vulva?
Barzoii “artistic” answer : It’s a forest inside a vulva.
The Public will be entertain, and enjoy looking at an art piece, and then we are giving the “scientific” answer to the question.
Vaginal flora or vaginal microbiota are the microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi etc.) that colonize the vagina...
Knowledge: Vulva Anatomy
What is your vision of a vulva?
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Knowledge: The Vaginal Microbiota
What is a vaginal “flora”?
Knowledge: Bacteria, Microbiota
What is living inside of the vagina?
“Spotlight”: A local popularization event
In the continuation to the Art in Education series, we decided to have an organized event with a local art association called “Weven”.
The event will invite 8 different artists - from photo taking, to drawing and painting - to have the same reflexion than for “Art in Education”, but this time, they will be exposed for the night in a café, and people will be able to discuss with them, and with us.
The aim of this event is to popularize synthetic biology and our project through the vision of non scientific artist.
This event will take place in November 2018. We will document the wiki in this page about the event.
Artists will have to create a piece of art from a simple information we give to them. They will pick one or more subject and answer to the questions in an artistic way.
About Synthetic Biology
Gene
In your point of view, what is a Gene?
What Is a Biobrick?
How does gene synthesis look like?
Parts
We asked the artist to make an artistic version of the Synthetic Biology parts and give their idea of what it is.
Genetically Engineered Machines
What is a Genetically Engineered Machine?
How will be our future by using the G.E.M?
About our subject
Vulva Anatomy
What is your vision of a vulva?
Vaginal Microbiota/Flora
What is a vaginal “flora”?
What is a bacterium?
Balance
How sensitive is a vagina?
How sensitive is a vulva?
How does a genital disease look like?
Contraception
What is your point of view?
Whats is a spermicidal molecule?
Taking the birth control pill, how does it feels?
Menstruations
What do people think about menstruations?
How do you feel when you have your periods?
What do you think one can feel when they have their periods?
Comic Book: Synthetic biology & Vaginal Microbiota
With the help of the artist @Minskiga, we created a popularization comic book. There are two main objectives to this comic book:
- The first one is to answer to the community questions about contraceptives and synthetic biology applied to it.
- The second one is to create a path between scientific knowledge and non educated people through a storyline.
Minskiga is an artist student who hasn’t any biology education and therefore will have her own perception of scientific words. And this is exactly what we want. Indeed, she uses her art skill to describe something that some non educated person will not obviously understand through scientific words.
We worked with Minskiga to give a definition of synthetic biology.
This page is the result of discussion with the artist. The aim of this art is to entertain the public and learn them the fundamentals of Synthetic biology.
Through social networks and the survey, people asked us a lot of questions about our project. We used those questions to build a storyline and answer to most of them.
This comic book is the result of more than 3 months of work, and still needs to be improve. You can find out a lot more about the comic book in our Integrated Human Practices page!