Team:UAlberta/IntegratedHP

Integrated Human Practices

UAlberta 2018 wanted to create a project centered on our community. We did this by choosing to address an issue which was brought to our attention by an individual in our community, and by keeping stakeholders and their input involved in all aspects of our project. This was primarily done through interviews, where we asked not only for their expertise on the issue of Nosema and the practice of beekeeping but also questions about how we could improve our project, to best suit them. These interviews and what we learned from them are collated in our documentary.

"By interviewing dozens of beekeepers, we were able to come to understand the full scope of their community . We designed a project that took into account what would work best for their lifestyles.".

For example, beekeepers expressed to us that they wanted a product that could be applied similarly to Fumagilin - a previous treatment for Nosema. As a result we developed our project in a way that would potentially allow us to feed our construct to bees, mimicking the application method for fumagillin.

Ultimately, Team UAlberta has created a project with a “community first” approach. This has lead to all aspects of our project being shaped by the connections we have built with members of the Alberta beekeeping community.

Initially, we aimed to address the effects of neonicotinoids on honeybees, but after multi-level consultation with beekeepers, we refocussed to combating the honeybee parasite Nosema ceranae instead. Beekeepers alerted us that Nosema was the larger threat to honeybees in Alberta as the only approved treatment against Nosema, called fumagillin, was discontinued. Therefore, we aimed to produce porphyrins for bee therapeutics to address the need for a fumagillin alternative that beekeepers themselves expressed. We also consulted the past producer of fumagillin, government researchers, the Calgary Beekeeping Association, and the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. These organizations expressed excitement that we are addressing a major issue of theirs. Subsequent interviews also influenced our design considerations. To deliver a solution compatible with beekeeper’s established processes, we designed for two routes of implementation: an inducible honeybee porphyrin-producing probiotic, or large scale porphyrin production for conventional application methods.

We also decided to make our project community-centred because we understand that while scientific advancements are important, no science should be done within a vacuum. It was important to us to take into consideration the community we were going to affect. For us, our community is Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and by extension the world.We particularly chose to focus on Alberta because of the prevalence of beekeeping in Alberta. eam UAlberta maintains that we also understand that our community is the iGEM community.

We showed our commitment and our desire to better both of these communities through our two main Human Practices projects. Our first project was the production of our documentary and our second project was a survey which examines iGEMs age, gender, race, and sexual orientation, and the suggestions for ways that iGEM teams can improve their inclusivity.