Team:Oxford/MedalFulfilment

See our Parts page and Lab book .pdf!

See our parts here!

See our parts here!

The primary question researched by our team was very broad; How can an iGEM project change the real world? This allowed us to explore a huge range of different areas, from safety to intellectual property right to public opinion, all of which contribute to the success of a synthetic biology project outside of the lab. Our team considered these by consulting with parties affected by these issues, including the Environment Agency, iGEM start-up companies, and members of the public (including full attributions to all experts and stake-holders who assisted us) to gain an insight into the problems which might hold back syn bio solutions from implementation in society. We used this information together with our own experiences to think about how these potential road blocks can be successfully navigated, by the syn bio community and by society as a whole.

We have collaborated with several iGEM teams, most notably Melbourne iGEM team. We worked with them extensively to consider an alternative approach to our bioremediation system using their star peptide instead of the micro-compartments that we'd previously considered.

Our engineers extensively modelled their system using stochastic simlation with the intention of investigating how reaction rates are improved using the star peptide. More information is available here:

Collaboration with the Melbourne iGEM team.

Our team researched how factors beyond the bench can impact the potential of an iGEM project and more broadly synthetic biology to make a positive real world impact. After realising that bioremediation of chlorinated solvents had potential not just as an iGEM project but as a solution to the pollution faced by the Environment Agency, we decided to investigate: How can an iGEM Project change the real world? Our broad approach allowed us to explore many areas as facets of this question, including intellectual property, practicality (including safety), and public participation. The result was a far-reaching Policy and Practices project which impacted on almost all aspects of the scientific project and addressed a question of interest central interest to our scientists and hopefully to other iGEM teams! Our research into Intellectual Property policy strongly influenced our decision to encourage other iGEM teams to use our novel ‘BioBead’ containment system; our research into safety drove the design of the DCMation prototype; our research into the environmental problems posed by chlorinated solvents has constantly guided all aspects of the scientific project. We hope our approach will encourage others to consider the non-scientific factors which impact the success of their project, to take these seriously, and to realise just how much good an iGEM project really can do!
See our Policy and Practices page for details on our approach, evaluation and its influence on our project.