Know your enemy; improving public awareness of biosciences

• Summary
• Advantages and Limitations

Executive Summary

During the past years, biotechnology in Latin America has been growing quickly. Different technologies have been developed or introduced. However, it currently faces constraints that limit its social acceptance, mainly due to a lack or distortion of available information to decision makers and general public. Usually, people that do not study the subject know about technologies and advances of biosciences from what they see in the media, and this information is not always from reliable sources. Also, the establishment of laws and regulations has been delaying the development of biotechnology in Latin America

Education plays an important role in the development of awareness about science development. What people learn in education centres, such as school and universities, influence a lot in their perception about biotechnology development; especially when they believe that it is or not correct. Biotechnology in Latin America has been carried out through the development of genetic modified organisms (GMO’s). Honduras is one of the few countries that allow GMOs to be commercial released for production and consumption, thanks to the appropriate laws and regulations in the country. However, population is not well informed about biotechnology and its applications. Our team was interested in evaluating and determining the perception that undergraduate students have about biotechnology and GMO’s and the Honduran regulatory process for approving products derived from genetic engineering through a survey.

We were interesting in the public perception of students about biotechnology. We focused the investigation into determining the different public perceptions between students from our university, which has an agricultural background and that in its activities use GMO´s, and students from other universities in Honduras. We determined a relationship between education and perception, and the acceptance that people have about biotechnology and synthetic biology. In order to apply this concept to the Honduran context, we coordinated and conducted education and information activities with children and youth through basic biotechnology practices.

Through the main philosophy of our University, learning by doing, we developed theoretical-practical sessions for each group of students. Children have interacted with DNA extraction experiments, learned more about the applications and implications of biotechnology, future prospects of the science and introduced some synthetic biology concepts. Advanced practices were conducted with elementary students, where they had the opportunity to practice with real synthetic biology applications.

In order to complement the education development in the Honduran context, we developed an educational model to improve awareness and criteria in Latin America about Synthetic Biology and modified living organisms. The academic program of Zamorano gives us the opportunity to pass through different modules, where each student puts in practice what they learn theoretically, solving problems and suggesting alternatives to stated problems. We designed a specific module focused in Synthetic Biology. More than 1000 students from all over Latin America will have the opportunity to learn and access technologies that will develop in them synthetic biology skills. The main objective of our model is to give the students new perspectives about biotechnology and synthetic biology, showing them the importance and the impact that acceptance from population will have in the development and growth of this technologies. This will be the first educational model of Synthetic Biology in Honduras, and we aim to promote and spread it in the Mesoamerican region.

The enactment of laws and regulations, and the establishment of committees, is an important component in the development of biotechnology and synthetic biology. The fact that the project involves working with living organisms makes it necessary to conduct biosafety practices, through the conduction of risk assessment before introducing a new organism or technology in the country. In order to demonstrate that Synthetic Biology can be safely practiced, we conducted a risk assessment of the Escherichia zamofordi, a synthetic bacterium created in Zamorano in collaboration with Stanford University, to detect copper residues in water sources. The risk assessment was conducted using the Latin American guide for Environmental Risk Assessment of genetically modified organisms (ERA).

There are many approaches to conduct an ERA. One is the "Guidance of Environmental Risk Assessment", developed by the Secretariat of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, as part of the Convention of Biological Diversity. The other approach is an ERA guide developed by a group of 14 Latin American regulators and biotechnologists. Our team has adopted the approach presented in the Latin American ERA guide, as the Honduran legislation regarding GMOs has been developed along the lines of other countries in Latin America such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia; which already have experience in the deployment of GMOs.

With this science-based approach, we proved that our project, "Know your enemy", complies with established biosafety norms if handled according the relevant regulations. As an alternate product, we propose this tool as a simpler alternative to elaborate consistent risk assessments for Synthetic Biology practices, complying with national and international biosafety regulations in Latin America.

Setting forth a synthetic biology project has been challenging. However, the learned experiences has helped us a lot in understand synthetic biology and its applications. In addition, obtained results will be useful tools to establish the basements of synthetic biology establishment in Honduras. We hope to generate a positive impact in Honduran students and to spread and generate alliances with other universities in the region.