Education and
Public Engagement

Throughout this year we managed to raise awareness on Synthetic Biology and explain about iGEM and our project through the different actions we have engaged in. Below is the list of activities we did.

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iGEM at Sorbonne University

"iGEM at Sorbonne University" is the name we gave to the presentation we made during the first meeting of the department of Molecular and Cellular Biology Masters with the new students. In fact, after discussing with the directors of the masters, we were able give a presentation about Synthetic biology and the iGEM competition and briefly presented SugaRevolution. . We also explained the principles and purposes of the competition and explained the skills that they need and will acquire during this adventure. To finish, we showed that our team offers a big autonomy because our project has been fully developed by us from scratch, but we are having a great support from our supervisors. this intervention gained the interest of many students who quickly contacted us to know more about our project and to ask us how they could join the team to participate next year in the competition.

Selling Crêpes

We promoted synthetic biology and our project at Sorbonne University by preparing and selling our succulent and delicious «crêpes». This first contact with the people on campus allowed us to make our project known by the students, the professors and the employees at the university. Through theses sales of "crêpes" we were able to discuss with professors who were interested in our project and in the iGEM competition and were very encouraging. And Claude the Chlamydomonas got so much attention from the people on campus especially during the football World Cup!

LUPA festival

LUPA (Les Universitaires Planteurs d'Alternatives)- The Academic Planters of Alternatives is an association created in 2016 to act for sustainable development within the Faculty of Science of Sorbonne University (previously Pierre and Marie Curie University ). They act on three main points: make the university campus sustainable and environment-friendly (sorting and waste recycling for example), inform and raise awareness through conferences, debates, documentary projections and promote a more sustainable lifestyle (biological and local sale of baskets, but also by organizing responsible cultural events). The 6th of April, LUPA invited us to an event aiming to inform and raise awareness concerning synthetic biology as an ecological solution. This conference was the opportunity to present iGEM and all the solutions that synthetic biology brought to sustainable development. Then we took this opportunity to present our project which has a strong environmental impact. This, in turn, opened the students’ eyes to new possibilities to improve our society

Conference: “ What will Synthetic Biology Bring to the Future?”

We organized a scientific conference to promote and offer a better understanding of synthetic biology. During the Parisian meet-up, we have discussed with the Saclay Team and the Bordeaux team. We got along very quickly and the 3 teams wanted to do a collaboration since the 3 projects are focused on the environment. So our team proposed to work together on the set up of the conference which will be about “What is the impact of synthetic biology on sustainable development?”. After several discussions, we chose to talk less about the impact of synthetic biology in sustainable development but more about the role of this science in our future. The new subject was then “What will synthetic biology bring to the future”. Our 3 teams were looking for speakers specialized in synthetic biology, in bioethics and in Law to talk about all the sides of the subject.

- Alexei Grinbaum: Researcher in philosophy laboratories of sciences (LARSIM) in CEA-Saclay. Specialist in quantic information, he teaches ethics of sciences at ENTA, at Evry University and at Pasteur Institute. He is also a member in the commission of reflexions in ethics of research in sciences and technologies of High-tech (Cerna). He was invited by the iGEM Bordeaux team.
- Aliaa El Dairouty : PhD student in Public International Law at Paris Saclay University within the framework of the doctoral school “Sciences of the Human and Society”, in partnership with the Executive management of the Armament. She was invited by our team to participate in the conference. Her thesis subject concerns the apprehension of the notion of scientific uncertainty by the French and European law.
- Pierre Crozet : Professor at Sorbonne University and one of the supervisors of our team, he is specialized on Plant biology, more particularly he works on understanding the molecular mechanisms allowing plants to adapt themselves in stress conditions. Since 2016, he is using synthetic biology tools to improve the fixation of the carbon in Chlamydomonas which will permit to improve the use of these micro-algae in studying the cycle of Calvin-Benson.

The conference took place at Sorbonne University, Wednesday the 26th of September and around sixty professors and students were attending it. During the first part of the conference, speakers shared perspectives about synthetic biology and its impact in our future. Unfortunately, Bordeaux team could not be present in conference. Therefore, the event was broadcasted on our Facebook page and both Bordeaux and Saclay teams shared the link. This has allowed the diffusion of the conference in Bordeaux, Strasbourg and in others French cities. More than 1,700 people viewed the broadcast throughout France. At the end of the conference, we gave the opportunity for the audience to ask questions about the intervention.

Afterwards, the audience and the speakers continued their discussions around a buffet that we organized with the help of iGEM Saclay and Bordeaux teams. It was a wonderful experience that pleased the professors as well as the students. We have been asked whether another conference will soon take place. Thus, we think of proposing the future teams of Sorbonne U Paris, Bordeaux and Saclay to organize a conference on another subject related to synthetic biology.