Human Practices

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

iGEM Resources

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Duquesne Ethics Forum

Ethical considerations are a significant portion of any new, developing field, especially synthetic biology. The Pitt iGEM Team believes our best recommendations for the future can be found amongst ethical case studies of the past. To this effect, the Pitt iGEM Team participated in the 2014 Duquesne Ethics Forum, where we presented a case study of the Holmesburg Prison Experiments, unethically conducted by Dr. Albert Kligman from 1951 to 1974.

Our case shows that despite numerous guidance documents, such as the Helsinki and Nuremburg codes, Dr. Kligman was still able to operate without much oversight. In Dr. Kligman’s words, “Informed consent was unheard of. No one asked me what I was doing. It was a wonderful time.” Even when the public discovered how prisoners at Holmesburg were routinely infected with warts, herpes, and staphylococcus, or how the prisoners’ backs were “patched” with dozens of unknown chemicals, Dr. Kligman (along with sponsoring government agencies) faced few repercussions for their complete disregard for medical ethics. Dr. Kligman avoided any implications of medical misconduct by blatantly deleting his results.

Thankfully, the creation of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), has provided the necessary oversight to enforce ethical guidelines, such as the NIH Code of Federal Regulations for Human Trials. However, the Pitt iGEM Team believes there is more to the story. Prior to the Holmesburg experiments, medical ethics were not taught in medical school, which made it easier for Dr. Kligman’s associates to turn a blind eye. In that light, our recommendation to the scientific community is to promote and encourage the study of ethics in university curricula, as it pertains to synthetic biology.

Science Palooza

To reach a younger audience, we developed a community outreach module, dubbed “Dermalicious,” to teach middle-school children about the structure and proper care of the skin. After an interactive worksheet, the exercise culminates in a candy model, where layers of the skin are represented by marshmallows, fruit sheets, and licorice.

On July 31st, 2014, the Pitt iGEM Team presented their Dermalicious module to a gathering of underprivileged middle-school children at Pitt’s annual Science Palooza event, sponsored by the Clinical & Translational Science Institute. In this day-long event, about 500 middle-school children rotate through 30-minute stations, where they learn about all different areas of science – the Pitt iGEM Team was excited to add “Skin Health” to this list of subjects!

Collaboration with Carnegie Mellon

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.

Stuff.