Team:Oxford/policy and practices

From 2014.igem.org

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Revision as of 10:46, 12 October 2014

Policy & Practices

In the emerging field of synthetic biology, iGEM is growing as a source of ambitious and imaginative ideas which have the potential to offer great benefits to human society and our environment. The number of successful iGEM start-ups clearly demonstrates that the competition gives teams the opportunity to get involved in much more than just a summer project; students have the chance to come up with a solution which has a positive impact in the real world.
In fact, many projects are conceived in the hope of doing just this, often with a specific unresolved social problem in mind. iGEM draws inspiration from the world and the challenges it faces, and contributes back potential solutions.

"Quote from EA about usefulness of our project/bioremediation/synthetic biology generally, the fact that it could actually help the problem etc…” (British Environment Agency)

Our work with the Environment Agency, which inspired us to explore bioremediation as an option for dealing with the pressing environmental concern cause by chlorinated solvent pollution, brought home just how great an impact our own project might have on this issue. Chlorinated solvents are indispensable to many manufacturing, professional, and even everyday household activities, yet no environmentally acceptable method of disposal currently exists. Our research has led us to believe that bioremediation is a genuinely viable option for addressing this challenge, a position which the Environment Agency has supported. We realized that what began as an iGEM project may well be worth developing further than the months we had available to complete the competition.

With this in mind, for the policy and practices element of our project we decided to ask…

HOW CAN AN IGEM PROJECT CHANGE THE REAL WORLD?

For the policy and practices element of the competition, our team has researched how iGEM projects grow from ideas into real world solutions. What are the challenges facing teams who want to develop their projects beyond the jamboree? What can be done to help them realise the potential benefits of their ideas for society? And what should we be aiming to achieve by all this?

Our team identified what we believe are the key considerations for teams to take into account.

Problem Solving….
Many teams are inspired by their search for a synbio solution to a problem or challenge faced by the world. For our team, the need for a way of address the environmental problems caused by chlorinated solvents was clear. Find out more here...

Practicality….
How can the idea be implemented and delivered in the real world? Our engineers used design software and 3D printing to think about how we might realise DCMation and the environments in which the biosensor and bioremediation technique might be used.

Intellectual Property….
Determining the ownership of the intellectual property of a project is crucial for any team hoping to develop their ideas beyond the Jamboree. Our report looks at how the iGEM community can navigate this controversial and difficult issue, and the implications of intellectual property policy for product development, and for shaping the future of the iGEM competition and by extension the field of synthetic biology as a whole...

Communication….
As we quickly discovered working in such an interdisciplinary team, effective communication between disciplines is is essential to the development of any synthetic biology project. We have explored how the communication methods we found useful within our interdisciplinary team could be useful to share ideas with those outside the field of synbio...

Public Participation….
It's not possible to overestimate the importance of community participation in making synthetic biology a socially-accepted environmental solution. Using a novel approach to attempt understand which public concerns arise from so-called 'knowledge deficit' and which are legitimate and informed, we discussed synbio issues with two public focus groups, one of which had the benefit of a briefing on synthetic biology and our project (prepared by our biochemists), and compared attitudes in each group. We have been involved in a vast range of presentation and outreach events in an effort to excite the general public about the possibilities of synbio and to demonstrate our willingness to work together to address any legitimate concerns...

The iGEM Competition….
Of course, none of this would be possible without the iGEM competition itself, which has been steadily expanding since its beginnings in 2004 and has grown from 5 to over 200 teams in the last 10 years. As the first ever Oxford team, we are more than a little late to the party! Our team has researched the growing contribution made by the rest of Europe to the competition, of which we hope to become a part from 2014 onwards...

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+<h2orange>As we quickly discovered working in such an interdisciplinary team, effective communication between disciplines is is essential to the development of any synthetic biology project. We have explored how the communication methods we found useful within our interdisciplinary team could be useful to share ideas with those outside the field of synbio... </h2orange>
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-Determining the ownership of the intellectual property of a project is crucial for any team hoping to develop their ideas beyond the Jamboree. Our report looks at how the iGEM community can navigate this controversial and difficult issue, and the implications of intellectual property policy for product development, and for shaping the future of the iGEM competition and by extension the field of synthetic biology as a whole...
+It's not possible to overestimate the importance of community participation in making synthetic biology a socially-accepted environmental solution. Using a novel approach to attempt understand which public concerns arise from so-called 'knowledge deficit' and which are legitimate and informed, we discussed synbio issues with two public focus groups, one of which had the benefit of a briefing on synthetic biology and our project (prepared by our biochemists), and compared attitudes in each group. We have been involved in a vast range of presentation and outreach events in an effort to excite the general public about the possibilities of synbio and to demonstrate our willingness to work together to address any legitimate concerns...</h2blue3><br><br>
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