Policy & Practices

During the past summer, we not only refined the technical and biological sides of Cellock Holmes but also considered other aspects of our iGEM project such as social acceptance, biosafety and economical relevance. Will society accept the technology we develop? How can we convince skeptics that synthetic biology is safe? Does our product have economical relevance and how can we best market what we built? What is the target group that might benefit from our devices, and can we make our developments available to not only the privileged population but to everybody in the world?

These are only a few of the questions we discussed within our team. To read more about the different aspects of our Policy & Practices work, please click on a panel below:

Spreading the Idea of Synthetic Biology

How can we convince people that the technology we develop is safe to use and that the problems we tackle with our project concern everybody? Unfortunately, a lot people around the world are scared of genetically modified organisms and any application related to them. Though we believe that natural skepticism towards new and unproved technologies is not just good but especially desirable, the current fear some people encounter gene technology with is a bit disproportionate and might be counterproductive to technological and scientific advance in related fields.

However, as reported, for example, in an [http://www.rundschau-online.de/magazin/gentechnik--risiko-oder-chance-,15184902,15929266.html article] published in a major local newspaper's magazine, Kölner Stadtanzeiger, the social acceptance of biotechnological products could be higher if people felt informed better and understood the underlying science. Following up on this, we thought about how we can inform people factually but in a comprehensible way about gene technology and synthetic biology. Before we talk about fancy devices in synthetic biology, how can we get down to the underlying issue of social rejection of gene technology in general?

At the same time, young students interested in science and engineering are the most valuable future source of innovation. One day, they might be the researchers who develop the solutions to the most pressing issues of our world. For that reason, informing this group of people is of utmost importance and was therefore prioritized in our Policy & Practices work.

Combining these two thoughts, we visited two schools, the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium in Aachen and the NEAnderLab in Hilden, where we talked to students about synthetic biology and the iGEM competition, but also explained the scientific background and social aspects of our project. A delegation of our team also visited the MakerFaire in Hannover, a family-friendly exhibition for tinkerers of all kinds, to spread the idea of synthetic biology and to discuss our project with the public. When we organized the Aachen iGEM Meetup 2014, we also made sure to include a public part where all teams who participated in our meetup had the opportunity to present their project to a general audience.

To read more about our different public projects, please click on the respective logo below.

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  Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium
  
  Teaching Module "Synthetic Biology" for High Schools
  
  
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  NEAnderLab
  
  In Cooperation with the Gymnasium an Neandertal
  
  
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  MakerFaire
  
  Visit of a DIY Exhibition
  
  
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  Aachen iGEM Meetup 2014
  
  Including Public Presentations
  
  

Biosafety

Our iGEM team is committed to reflect all aspects of the entire project, including biosafety. From the beginning on, the team thoroughly discussed safety issues that could potentially arise with the implementation of Cellock Holmes. The results of these discussions fundamentally influenced the design of Watson and the choice of potential application fields. Read more about our safety considerations on our Safety page.

Economical View

The economical considerations regarding our project were carried out according to the motto:

Make the world a better place - Open access to scientific improvement

In the center of every economic analysis are the customers and their needs and desires. Every commercial company is interested to satisfy and deal with all customer needs for better sales figures, and in order to maintain regular clientele. Both measures aim for higher financial profits. On the global seller’s market of technical laboratory equipment there is a permanent competition between the existing providers. First of all depending on the technical improvement followed by price wars. Always high price/performance ratios are catching customer and influence the buying decision.

Take a look at cost calculations for technical equipment including development, production, transport, warehousing and sale. Usually, what you will finde are low material costs but really high personnel, transport and warehousing costs. In general, these factors are making technical equipment for labs really expensive.

We follow a strategy to circumvent unnecessary costs for customers by realizing a social vision. In accordance with the principle of open hardware, information where to get the necessary components, quantities, a step-by-step technical construction manual and circuit diagrams could be published online for free. So our profit not of financial nature but is instead based on recognition and on motivating other iGEM teams and companies to spread the idea of open hardware, too.

Everyone interested in biological work should be able to use basic equipment such as photometers. On the one hand, commercially obtainable spectrophotometers like [http://www.opticsplanet.com/unico-model-s-1205-spectrophotometer-5-nm-bandpass.html UNICO S-1205], for example, costs 1.249 $ or more, and can measure optical density only. On the other hand, our OD/F Device can measure optical density as well as fluorescence for less than 100 $. Therefore, we present a solution for low budget institutions like schools, universities and community labs..

Possible application of our OD/F device. XXX some more explanation XXX.

The measurement device WatsOn for our 2D biosensor, too, has been designed accordingly. So far, no comparable devices could be found on the commercial market. Here, we definitely have a vanguard role. Everybody with a little manual dexterity can follow the given instructions and create their own WatsOn for less than 300 $. However, please always remind yourself of the respective safety aspectics when dealing with GMOs and human pathogens.

Blog

On our Blog we post entries about recent news concerning our team's work and activities. We also write about general news from the field of synthetic biology, biotechnology and medicine.